Whenever Liverpool takes on Southampton, it’s easy to make the “parent club vs farm club” jokes, but we’ve done those plenty enough already. To quote George Harrison (another Liverpool reference here!) during his appearance on The Simpsons, 30 years ago: “it’s been done.”
Besides this match has all kinds of other story lines to cover,
EFL Cup Quarterfinal FYIs
Liverpool FC at Crystal Palace
Kick: Wed. December 18, 8pm, Emirates Stadium, London, UK
How They Got Here:
Liverpool – Beat Brighton 3-2 (round of 16), Beat West Ham 5-1 (third round)
Southampton – Beat Stoke City 3-2 (round of 16), Beat Everton on pens 6-5 (third round)
After all, Southampton just sacked manager Russell Martin yesterday, and Wednesday will mark the first match in charge, on an interim basis, for Simon Rusk. That’s the true headline here.
LFC Team News
Left back #1 Andy Robertson is now suspended, for having been sent off over the weekend. While he is now unavailable, there is a plus to that minus, with Alexis Mac Allister now having finished serving his suspension. So you have one defender now suspended, while one midfielder is now eligible again.
Other than that, there is no change in the team news situation.
Liverpool FC Starting XI Prediction at Southampton (EFL Cup Quarterfinal)
Caoimhin Kelleher; Trent Alexander-Arnold, Jarrell Quansah, Virgil van Dijk, Joe Gomez; Alexis Mac Allister, Wataru Endo, Curtis Jones; Harvey Elliott, Diogo Jota, Darwin Nunez
Paul M. Banks is the Founding Editor of The Sports Bank. He’s also the author of “Transatlantic Passage: How the English Premier League Redefined Soccer in America,” and “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry.”
He currently contributes to USA Today’s NFL Wires Network, the Internet Baseball Writers Association of America and RG. His past bylines include the New York Daily News, Sports Illustrated and the Chicago Tribune. His work has been featured in numerous outlets, including the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, the Washington Post and ESPN. You can follow him on Linked In and Twitter.