Your team v Arsenal (FA Cup, 3rd Round)

[Insidious]

Liverpool find themselves top of the League with two games left to play before the gap between January 10th and January 21st.

The first, an FA Cup tie against Arsenal, the second is the Home leg of a two-legged League Cup semi-final against Arsenal.

I suspect Klopp will go quite strong in both, but personally with us in a good position in the League, into the knockouts of the Europa and 3 games away from lifting a record 10th League Cup, I feel something has to "give" to some extent. We are relatively deep (half-way stage or close to it) in 3 of our endeavours and right now the FA Cup feels like the least important - though that is subjective.


.......................Kelleher

Bradley....Quansah....Gomez....Scanlon

.....................Mac Allister

................Chambers.......Gravenberch

.......Elliott...........Gakpo.......Núñez

I would go with something like the above. If we get through then great - if we don't then it is less fixtures - which would probably be welcome given that we have bigger fish to fry.

I'd also be making use of the subs bench as much as possible - I want as few of our best players as we can to put the full 90 minutes in.

I'd rest Szoboszlai in case that hamstring is tight and the above decisions for the Sunday match are made with a view to going full strength at Anfield against Fulham on the following Wednesday in the League Cup - I think the goal should be to do everything in our power to aim to have the tie pretty much won after the first leg in the hope we don't have to go full strength in the away fixture.

Hopefully we can just keep winning games. Odd how irrelevant a Cup match feels right now and I still back Man City to drop less points than us, but these are exciting times regardless.

[reddownunder]

I suspect it will be full strength minus Alisson though I'm really not sure what our best front 3 are now with Salah out

Kelleher
Trent Konate Van Dijk Gomez
Szoboszlai Mac Allister Jones
Nunez Jota Diaz

[Insidious]

I suspect it will be full strength minus Alisson though I'm really not sure what our best front 3 are now with Salah out

Kelleher
Trent Konate Van Dijk Gomez
Szoboszlai Mac Allister Jones
Nunez Jota Diaz

What Klopp will go with will, I suspect, be much closer to your line-up than to mine, yeah.

Personally I don't want to try to go full-strength on the Sunday (7th) AND the Wednesday (10th) as I am so keen to keep the number of injuries in the squad to a minimum and feel that if we try to go for all 4 trophies, we may fall short in the one that matters most - but we do get a bit of a breather after that Fulham fixture at least.

[redebreck]

BBC sport is showing our last, previous, FA cup game against the Arse in 2014.
Howard (man uniturd) Webb refereeing, I believe. We were robbed again, surprisingly.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/av/football/67867408

[Steveo]

BBC sport is showing our last, previous, FA cup game against the Arse in 2014.
Howard (man uniturd) Webb refereeing, I believe. We were robbed again, surprisingly.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/av/football/67867408

Was at that game.. Robbed and even my Arsenal mates admitted - best team lost.

[miller0863]

Very good chance in this one, depending on the number of players Jurgen wants to rest /protect.

We’re in a fantastic position in the title race, semi’s of the league cup and I think Jurgen would rather win the Europa than the FA cup, so we may not go strong.
We’ve a few injuries to key players and two starters away for 6 weeks

Wouldn’t blame Jurgen if there were half a dozen U16’s starting at the weekend

Remember what happened the season offer we went strongly for all 4?? This group are certainly not capable of that (even if it is Europa not Champions league)

[Steveo]

Yep. Hope Klopp doesn't get caught between miffing the media & fans who attend...and playing players we cannot afford to be without.

[JockStrap]

Rafa sacrificed th' FA Cup in 2005 'n' went oan tae win th' Champions League. We'd a' accept th' same strategy fae klopp tae hae a guid go at th' Premier League.

[teesred]

Said a couple of times now I'd take the hit on this. Not meaning to sound entitled but a title title and Europa run would be my priorities.
He'd get panned by some for fielding an under-strength side if we got a hiding ( I can see Arsenal going all in) so he'll want to get some balance right.

[miller0863]

There is a perfect clip for this sort of nonsense, of Alan talking to Michael when he first meets him in the Travel Tavern, if you have already posted it Steveo, I apologise I must have missed it.