It must be hard work being a Liverpool fan. Losses to Leeds United and Nottingham Forest have truncated victories over Man City and Tottenham. When you throw in the insipid performances against the likes of Crystal Palace and Fulham, it’s a wonder any of you Kopites have any hair left at all.
Well, all aboard the Liverpool rollercoaster again. The next stop – 7th place League One outfit Derby County.
Derby comes into this match on the back of a 2-2 draw in the FA Cup round one fixture against Torquay United. Things were traveling smoothly for The Rams until a red card for center back Elrand Cashin, with the score at 2-0, turned the tie on its head. Torquay scored the resulting penalty and then sent the match to a replay by equalizing five minutes into time added on.
The Reds enter this one with a bit of a tailwind after defeating both Napoli and Tottenham Hotspur in their last two fixtures. Jurgen Klopp’s men showed they haven’t totally lost it with a spectacular first-half performance against Spurs. And they defended their 2-0 lead admirably as they secured a desperately needed three points.
Liverpool vs Derby County EFL Cup FYIs
Competition: EFL Cup, 3rd Round
Kickoff: Wed Nov 9, 8 pm, Anfield
After Extra Time Pod: Apple Spotify
Liverpool Starting XI Prediction: Go here
TV: UK-Sky Sports Main Event and Sky Sports Football
Team News
For the first time in a long while, Liverpool came through a fixture relatively unscathed in the injury department. Diogo Jota, Luis Diaz and Arthur Melo are unlikely to see any action until after the World Cup. So nothing has changed there.
Elsewhere, Joel Matip and James Milner might return for this fixture. The latter seems more likely than the former.
Naby Keita remains a mystery as far as his selection status goes. He has apparently been back in training for a week now, but he still seems some way short of first-team selection. We think we might have seen the last of the Guinean in a Liverpool shirt.
Stuey’s Two Cents
Despite the 42-place gap the respective sides have in terms of ladder position in the English football pyramid, this one could go either way. Liverpool is not the sure things they have been for the past four or five years, and The Rams might fancy an upset here. The term ‘cup classic’ is bandied about a little too freely for our liking, but this match has all the ingredients to be just that.
Stuart Kavanagh is a journalist currently residing in Broken Hill, Australia. He writes for the Barrier Truth newspaper, along with being the owner of the sports and entertainment website thepyrrhic.com, He co-hosts the ‘After Extra Time’ podcast and contributes at edgeofthecrowd.com when time permits. He is also the Media & Communications Director at the Newosis Mental Health Foundation. You can find more about the work Newosis Mental Health Foundation does here.
Football mad, he is always down for debate and discussion at @stueyissickofit on Twitter.