With pressure on Liverpool as favourites, the Reds host Fulham in the League Cup semi-finals. We have everything you need to know before the first leg.
Liverpool vs Fulham
League Cup (first leg of semi-finals) | AnfieldJanuary 10, 2024 | 20:00 hours (GMT)
Visions of a quadruple are beginning to dance in the dreams of Liverpool fans.
For these thoughts to grow, Liverpool need to follow up their impressive FA Cup victory with a convincing performance at home against Fulham.
With either Chelsea or Middlesbrough playing in the final and Fulham having never won a major domestic trophy, the visitors will be hugely prepared for the tie.
Record breakers in the League Cup
This will be Liverpool’s 19th appearance in the semi-final phase of the competition, out of 58 entries. This means that the Reds have reached the semi-finals almost once in three attempts.
Of their 18 semi-final appearances before 2024, Liverpool have progressed 13 times and have won the trophy a record nine times, one more than Manchester City.
The last time Jurgen Klopp’s team reached this stage, Diogo Jota sank Arsenal at the Emirates and Liverpool beat Chelsea in the final.
With Chelsea facing Middlesbrough in the other semi-final, could history be destined to repeat itself?
Not Alexander-Arnold
Unfortunately, Pep Lijnders had to reveal that Trent Alexander-Arnold will “probably” be out for three weeks with a knee injury.
Fortunately, Liverpool have their ‘winter break’ during that period, but are still likely to miss five games (see which ones here).
With Joe Gomez at left back, covering for injured duo Kostas Tsimikas and Andy Robertson, Conor Bradley will likely start the biggest game of his young career on the right side of defence.
Lijnders insisted that Bradley and Bobby Clark “are not substitute players, they are part of our team.”
On the positive side…
Virgil van Dijk is “ready to go,” according to the assistant manager, and we think he will likely start alongside Ibrahima Konate or Jarell Quansah.
However, Dominik Szoboszlai “will not be available” for the first leg. The midfield will therefore likely consist of Alexis Mac Allister, Curtis Jones and Ryan Gravenberch.
That leaves Harvey Elliott, Luis Díaz, Cody Gakpo, Diogo Jota and Darwin Núñez competing for three attacking positions.
Liverpool predicted XI: Kelleher; Bradley, Konate, Van Dijk, Gomez; Mac Allister, Gravenberch, Jones; Elliott, Jota, Diaz
• READ HERE: Liverpool lineup vs. Fulham – 1 guaranteed starter and Elliott or Díaz?
old meetings
Something that came a little out of nowhere at Lijnders’ press conference was that he revealed that he worked with Andreas Pereira as a child.
Since arriving from Man United, the Belgian has been one of Fulham’s brightest attacking players.
The Liverpool assistant manager explained: “He was my player when I was nine years old at PSV Eindhoven. It’s incredible that we play against him now, there is so much creativity.”
Former Liverpool prospect Harry Wilson is also doing well for the Cottagers. Lijnders commented: “Harry, of course, we know very well who has a goal threat, he can shoot from anywhere and has a great personality. We like it a lot”.
Fulham are inconsistent but dangerous
To reach this stage of the competition, Fulham have had to rely on penalties. They beat Tottenham on penalties in the second round, before eliminating Norwich and Ipswich.
The quarter-finals were also decisive, beating Everton 7-6 on penalties at Goodison Park. Meanwhile, in the Premier League, Fulham are enjoying a relatively successful campaign.
Marco Silva’s side are 13th in the table, but have produced notable results with back-to-back 5-0 wins over West Ham and Nottingham Forest.
However, inconsistency has been a problem, following those brilliant victories with three defeats in a row before beating Arsenal.
Gaps between games
Liverpool’s victory over Arsenal will have pleased Klopp in more ways than one. As well as advancing to the fourth round of the FA Cup, they will now avoid a repeat next week.
This means they will have a slightly longer “winter break”, although the first leg will affect them. After Wednesday’s game, Liverpool will not play for 11 days.
Fulham, however, face a quicker turnaround when they take on rivals Chelsea at 12.30pm on Saturday. It’s only fair that we highlight it when other teams are also assigned that game after Wednesday’s game.
Kelleher confirmed
While we can only predict the rest of the team, albeit with some certainty, we can confirm that Caoimhin Kelleher will play in goal.
He has played in each of this season’s three League Cup games to date, and Lijnders told Liverpoolfc.com on Tuesday: “Caoimh is our number one for this competition, so he will start tomorrow.
“We’re coming off a crazy schedule in December, so we really have to see who’s ready, who can go and who’s fit to go. We are very happy to be able to play a semi-final in January, we wanted it. So let’s go full on.”
Nowhere
There will be no video assistant referee for any of the League Cup semi-finals.
This was not originally intended to be the case, but with Middlesbrough reaching this stage and not having the technology installed at Riverside, that has changed things.
To keep things fair in the EFL’s view, none of the semi-final matches will use VAR, although it will be at Wembley for the final.
Another referee that Liverpool doesn’t exactly like!
David Coote has been appointed referee for the Anfield clash, with Timothy Wood and Wade Smith serving as assistants.
Coote’s name will be familiar to Liverpool fans as he was the VAR who failed to award a penalty following Martin Odegaard’s flagrant handball during the Reds’ match against Arsenal on December 23.
The fourth official at Anfield will be Tim Robinson.
Follow the game with TIA
Liverpool vs. Fulham is live on Sky Sports Football and kicks off at 8pm (GMT).
The TIA live blog of the day will be live from 7:15 pm, and Henry Jackson will be tasked with keeping you entertained and up to date.
Come on, reds!
