Xabi Alonso believes Florian Wirtz is one of the main reasons he will be in the opposing dugout against Liverpool on Wednesday evening. The Chelsea head coach worked with the Liverpool attacking midfielder during his time at Bayer Leverkusen, where Wirtz was influential as the Spaniard guided the German side to the first Bundesliga title in their history.
The 23-year-old attacking midfielder moved to Liverpool for £116million in the summer of 2025, during which Alonso also sought pastures new by becoming Real Madrid head coach. With Alonso having subsequently taken over at Chelsea earlier in the year, the ex-Reds midfielder will come up against his old club and former player at Anfield in their Carabao Cup fourth round showdown.
Alonso's praise for Wirtz
After an inconsistent start to his Liverpool career, Wirtz has hit a good vein of form in recent weeks and is expected to shrug off an ankle knock to be available to potentially face his old boss.
And Alonso said: "I can only speak about my time with Flo in Bayer Leverkusen and for sure one of the main reasons for me being here is the time that I spent with him in Leverkusen.
"He was a special player, he helped me so much, I learned so much from him and now that he's in Liverpool I'm following him and we know that the next step is always an interesting one and he's getting there."
Chelsea injury update
Chelsea will be without Joao Pedro on Wednesday with the striker expected to be out for a short period after sustaining an injury during training last week.
"Yes, he has an injury on his thigh and he is going to be out for a few weeks," said Alonso. "Let's see how many. We don't want to predict on that, but he's not ready for the next games."
