The Reds travel to Macedonia (F.Y.R.O.M.) on Thursday for the first leg of the Europa League third qualifying round, we face FK Robotnicki (no relation to the evil Doctor Ivo Robotnik from Sonic Hedgehog).
Failure to qualify for the Europa League proper would result in no European football for Liverpool this upcoming season so the fixture is very important.
Roy faces a dilemma as most of the starting eleven have just returned from their holidays are not yet match fit while others such as Fernando Torres, Dirk Kuyt, Ryan Babel & Pepe Reina haven’t returned to Melwood yet. Playing some of these players on Thursday can be very risky when you consider that the pitch will probably not be up to par as well.
Of the players who played in the World Cup only Soto, Agger, Jova & Skrtel are in the squad so Roy will have to rely on the youngsters. If we can keep a clean sheet and maybe sneak in an away goal then we it should be smooth sailing when Robotnicki visit Anfield next week.
My Predicted Starting Line Up:
Cavalieri, Kelly, Soto, Skrtel, Agger, Spearing, Lucas, Aquilani, Jovanovic, N’Gog, Eccleston
In the UK the game is to be shown live on pay per view channel Primetime (Sky 480)