Spursvs.Liverpool

Slot has made wholesale changes in all three previous rounds of this competition, and those fringe players have played their part, securing wins over three fellow Premier League clubs.

However, with Accrington Stanley coming up in the FA Cup on Saturday, Slot may hold back on heavy rotation until that game, especially with the chance of reaching a major cup final on the line this midweek.

For the likes of Ibrahima Konate, this could be an opportunity for him to build his fitness up after being thrown in at the deep end against Manchester United on Sunday, following over six weeks out.

Three players still set for a rest though, are Virgil van Dijk, Mohamed Salah and Ryan Gravenberch, arguably the most important players in their title charge so far.

For the likes of Diogo Jota and Kostas Tsimikas, they will hope to use this fixture as a springboard to return to the starting XI in the Premier League, chiefly for the Greek left-back, with Andy Robertson performing below his usual standard this season.

Most of the headlines on Sunday surrounded Trent Alexander-Arnold's performance though, so Slot will be glad to have Conor Bradley back from injury in order to take the Real Madrid-linked man out of the line of fire, especially with Joe Gomez currently out injured.

Gomez is Liverpool's only injury absentee at present, because Dominik Szoboszlai will return shortly after being struck down with a virus over the weekend, and could be brought in if he is able to recover.

A fifth booking of the season for Darwin Nunez at the weekend has triggered a Premier League suspension, so with the Uruguayan set to miss the clash with Nottingham Forest next week, he is likely to start here, after also doing so, and scoring, in the previous round against Southampton.

Liverpool possible starting lineup:

Kelleher; Bradley, Quansah, Konate, Tsimikas; Morton, Endo, Szoboszlai; Elliott, Jota, Nunez

Written by

Andrew Delaney