On Wednesday we welcome Northampton Town to Anfield, Bill Shankly was the manager the last time we played the Cobblers. Yes, it has been 45 years, not even a dinosaur like me remembers it :-). The League 2 outfit have had a league start similar to ours, they have 7 points from 7 games and are currently in 17th place in the table.
Following our heartache at Manchester United we need a good win to bring back smiles to our faces and for the sake of our young and fringe players we really need a good cup run this year. These cup competitions are a great opportunity for many of the reserve players to get some first team play-time so yes the game is very important. Some might poo-poo the Carling cup but I strongly believe it is important for the development of our young players and based on our lack of transfer budget we really need these players to get up to first-team level quick.
Roy will most probably rest most (if not all) the players that started against Manchester United on Sunday.
Dirk Kuyt and Fabio Aurelio are still injured. Lucas Leiva who didn’t feature on Sunday will probably wear the captain’s arm band as he did during some of the pre-season games.
Predicted lineup:
Brad Jones, Martin Kelly, Danny Wilson, Sotiris Kyrgiakos, Daniel Agger, Milan Jovanovic, Jay Spearing, Lucas Leiva, Dani Pacheco, Ryan Babel, David Amoo
Kick off is at 8PM BST
Live match update on Twitter @empireofthekop