LIVERPOOL VS. BRIGHTON & HOVE ALBION
| Saturday, February 14th |
FA Cup | Anfield
8PM BST/3PM EST
Brighton come into this one in worse form than even Liverpool, having lost three of their last five and drawn the other two. Two of three recent losses came away from home, against Aston Villa and Fulham, and they also lost to Crystal Palace at home. Given recent sackings in the English top flight, Seagulls manager Fabian Hürzeler is arguably under the most pressure. While Liverpool may approach this one as a pathway to a trophy this season,
Brighton need to stem the tide of poor results (though the manager has said that he feels no pressure from the club higher ups).
To prepare for this match they limited their travel, staying at the national football center at St George’s Park to prepare for this match rather than traveling south before coming so quickly back up north following their mid-week trip to Birmingham.
Their 1-0 loss to Aston Villa was a heartbreaking one: the Seagulls fell to an 86th minute own goal, which makes the argument that the form table might look a bit worse than performances suggest (certainly something Arne Slot has felt at Liverpool).
In terms of personnel, Mats Wieffer has returned to the side following a toe injury, giving Hürzeler options at midfield or defense, depending on where the flexible player is deployed.
Though Brighton are out of form, they are nonetheless one of the tougher options in the draw, and Liverpool will have to play with their wits about them. All too often a team struggling in the league needs only a change of context to play to their strengths, and the Reds will need to be prepared for a challenge.
Predicted Liverpool Lineup (4-3-3)
Mamardashvili; Gomez, Konaté, Van Dijk, Robertson; Gravenberch, Szoboszlai, Jones; Salah, Wirtz, Ngumoha
It’s hard to anticipate Liverpool’s line-up, both because the issues at right back tie Slot’s hands somewhat and because the Liverpool boss will be balancing the chance of a trophy against the importance of the league. It is three games in a week, and the fight for top four make the other two more important than we’d like them to be. While nothing has been confirmed around Wataru Endō, all signs point to a serious injury, and the Japanese captain thus joins the injury list of specifically players asked to play right back.
Should Joe Gomez be fit enough for at least 60 minutes we might see him at right back, and if not Dominik Szoboszlai is back from his suspension-forced absence (perhaps the only way he’ll get a rest this season). Slot might well look to limit his changes, perhaps maintaining much of the spine in order to rest some attackers — Hugo Ekitiké, in particular, looked like he needed a rest. Rio Ngumoha and especially Curtis Jones will want to start this one; should the latter miss out, real questions must be asked about his future, given the quality of his performances should really have earned him more minutes this season.
Alisson did not have his best game against Manchester City, and may be rested here to give Georgian keeper Georgi Mamardashvili some playing time, and Andy Robertson may be asked to go again ahead of seeming first-choice left back Miloš Kerkez. This could also spell a rare start for Federico Chiesa, though that might be a bridge too far for Slot.
The Reds will look to make it past the FA Cup Fourth Round after going out at this stage in last year’s competition.
The Managers Have Their Say
Arne Slot: “It depends what draw you have too and we play a strong Brighton side. They don’t deserve the position they are in; they play so much better than the table shows and they deserve more than they get, so it is another challenge.“
Fabian Hürzeler: “We try to commit to this and we are all convinced that if we keep doing the things we did, if we keep having these performances we had, then we are all convinced that we will get the results we all need and deserve, especially our fans deserve it because their support [at Villa] was incredible.”
The Officials
Referee: Stuart Attwell Assistant Referees: Constantine Hatzidakis & Lee Betts Fourth Official: Adam Herczeg
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