Liverpool's League Cup Final Four will be staged at home to Anfield on Thursday, last week Liverpool applied for an extension due to the outbreak of the epidemic in the team, this week Anfield home from the second leg to the first leg, last weekend's FA Cup competition Liverpool faced the low-level Shrewsbury first trailed 4:1 to win the opponent, while Arsenal returned from a 0-1 defeat to the Championship Nottingham Forest, the League Cup became Arsenal's only cup game this season, and Liverpool is still a fourth-tier development despite the league 11 points behind Manchester City. Take stock of the five major highlights of this game:
1) Who will hit the right gate? Neico Williams or Joe Gomez?
Klopp said earlier that many people in the team have been diagnosed but most of them are false positives, and the only new confirmed player is Arnold, so who will be used to hit the right gate tonight? If Arnold is absent, if the other players are not confirmed, Liverpool have four players to choose from, Neico Williams Williams, Joe Gomez, Milner's 23 Connor Bradley can play in the right gate, if all four can wait, it should be Neko Williams as a priority, this season he has also been arranged by Klopp in the League Cup and champions League group stage (after winning the first place in the group), he should be the second pick in the right gate of the team.
However, this time he faces the opportunity to be Arsenal's recent excellent Martinelli, although Neko Williams has improved this season, but his defensive ability against Martinelli is inevitably worrying. Klopp can use Joe Gomez as the right gate, but unfortunately he has been in a flat state this season, his crossing ability may be worse than Thatko Williams, and it seems that it is not a good choice for assists not to be defensive and unstable, and if Neko Williams can play Klopp, he should be the first choice.
2) Takumi Minamino has come to the opportunity
With Salah, Mane and Keita playing in the Coppa Nations Cup, coupled with the shortage of personnel in liverpool's midfield due to the impact of the epidemic, Takumi Minamino's return from injury is great news, he can play both as a striker and serve as the No. 8 midfielder, plus the League Cup he is Liverpool's top scorer to score a total of 4 goals, the last round with his stoppage time goal to tie Leicester City, there is a chance to shoot each other out of the game. It is expected that there will be Jota and Firmino in the forward line, Takumi Minamino should be able to get the starting position, he can play as a left and right winger like Jota, Jota is more threatening as a left attacker or let Minamino play on the right, but the league against Arsenal Nanye came on as a substitute for 2 minutes to score, it is to play the left winger. Many Liverpool fans are very fond of Minano and hope that he can play a price in the League Cup to win more league opportunities for himself.
3) Kelleher is still the goalkeeper of choice
Originally thought that Alisson had a chance to return to the FA Cup, but he did not even come off the bench, Liverpool fans were a little worried, last week Liverpool's first leg postponement of Arsenal was rumored to be the goalkeeper position all failed to play, so Liverpool fans also thought that Kelleher and Adrian were confirmed players, the result was that the two had no problem, which is also a key point of Arsenal's complaint about Liverpool's misreporting of the diagnosis of the application for extension.
In fact, even if the Kelleher Liverpool fans are used in this game, they will not worry, and they should give the young goalkeeper more opportunities to increase their experience, but the Liverpool fans are worried about Alisson's health and condition. Kelleher, together with the League Cup and FA Cup, has conceded six goals for Liverpool in the last three games, most of which have nothing to do with him, most of them are caused by the lack of concentration in defence, and I hope that he can have a better performance in this game to help Liverpool keep the goal.
4) Fermino and Jota cooperate with sparks
Firmino and Jota have only started together in the league away win over Manchester United this season, and liverpool fans are certainly happy to see this game, Firmino has occasionally diverted opponents from defenders, and Jota has been more successful in misleading Maguire and Luke Shaw, and the focus of Liverpool's big win is on the confusion of the Manchester United defence, believing that the communication between Maguire and Luke Shaw is the cause of the defeat. If Firmino and Jota start together in the forward line, being able to break the Arsenal defence once again will prove that the power of the two in the front is not small. With Salah and Mane in the squad, Klopp really rarely let Jota and Firmino play at the same time, and the next month both are important figures in Liverpool's attacking line, let Liverpool fans see how big the spark of their cooperation is!
5) Klopp refers to two local cup competitions
It is a fact that Klopp has not paid much attention to the League Cup and the FA Cup since he became liverpool manager, and he has mostly used these two cups as a training ground for cultivating new signings, and the FA Cup has used better personnel but the team's performance is very average. Liverpool are already 11 points behind Manchester City in the mid-season, and although there are still 18 Premier League games for Liverpool to come back, it is really not a big chance for Manchester City to lose points in the second half of the season. Now that the League Cup is just three games away from winning a title, will Klopp see him as one of his goals for the season? Just look at Liverpool's performance in this game to understand Klopp's intentions.