Tonight’s Carabao Cup third-round fixture against West Ham is quickly becoming highly anticipated.
The reason has everything to do with seeing who ends up playing in the game and how they perform when they get the chance.
Liverpool’s squad runs deep and, with the seemingly set Premier League starting XI putting on some clinics early in the season, new head coach Arne Slot has taken to using cup games to rotate his players. Last week’s 3-1 Champions League victory over Milan saw a couple of swaps out.
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Liverpool team news vs West Ham
The Times is now reporting that Federico Chiesa is set to become the highest-profile change for tonight’s matchup with the Hammers. In his pre-match press conference yesterday, manager Slot said, “There are many options we have, but he is able to start in our opinion.”
Slot cast doubt over Chiesa’s ability to see out 90 minutes at his current fitness level, leading to the judgement that he’ll be on the pitch from the off tonight to see how he can perform in a live, scoreless scenario. The Italian made his Anfield debut at the weekend with a 19-minute cameo whilst the Reds were already 3-0 up against Bournemouth.
Reds of all ilks have been waiting to see what the Italian attacker can do since his £10m arrival from Juventus last month. With his preferred position being the locked-down right-hand side of Mo Salah, tonight could be a crucial chance to show Slot and his team that his services will be necessary on the pitch by hook or by crook.
The report also indicates that Conor Bradley, Jarell Quansah, Wataru Endō and Curtis Jones should all see roles in the starting lineup tonight.
Bradley and Jones to come back in
This is seemingly more important for some than others: Bradley has relieved Trent Alexander-Arnold four times already this season, whilst Curtis Jones saw a substitute appearance as soon as he was back from injury.
Quansah, meanwhile, hasn’t been seen in a first-team shirt since his controversial half-time substitution on the opening day and Wataru Endō has seen exactly 2 minutes of action so far this season.
With the majority of Liverpool’s influential youngsters either out on loan or injured, Slot will turn to some of his more established depth pieces to hold down the fort. Highly-rated 17-year-old talent Trey Nyoni isn’t even guaranteed a place in the squad tonight, and expectations are if he sees any action it will come from the bench.
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