THE DETAILS
Venue – Sincil Bank, Lincoln
Referee – Tony Harrington
Date & Time – Thursday, September 24th @ 19:45
Current Odds – Lincoln City 12/1, Draw 6/1, Liverpool 1/5
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On a night when Jürgen Klopp will most likely field a team of youth talent and fringe players, we’ll have an opportunity to cast an eye on squad members we don’t get to see feature too often for Liverpool.
It’s a huge draw for Lincoln City, having the Premier League champions visit the LNER Stadium. It’s such a pity they won’t be able to have a capacity crowd in place for the fixture.
FORM
Lincoln City Form
Michael Appleton’s Lincoln City side has not lost a competitive fixture since a 4-3 defeat at Accrington Stanley back in February. The Imps are currently on a six-game winning streak (including a penalty shootout victory in the Football League Trophy against Scunthorpe United).
Lincoln are second in League One with six points from six, having scored four and conceded just one. In the Carabao Cup second round, they had a hugely convincing 5-0 win away to Bradford City.
Liverpool Form
Liverpool made it two wins from two in the Premier League with a comfortable 2-0 victory at Chelsea on Sunday. Jürgen Klopp is likely to field a very different starting lineup at Lincoln but whoever is playing will be eager to impress the boss on the night.
TEAM NEWS
Lincoln City Team News
Lincoln City normally line up in a 4-3-3 formation and Thursday night should be no different for the home side. Without pretending to know too much about The Imps, it seems that defender Lewis Montsma and left-sided attacker Jorge Grant are two players who are enjoying a good spell of form.
Liverpool Team News
Liverpool will be without Joël Matip and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain for this game. Xherdan Shaqiri and Jordan Henderson are also expected to miss out. Henderson was taken off with a slight muscle issue at half-time against Chelsea on Sunday. Matip should be available in October – after the next international break, according to Klopp. Oxlade-Chamberlain could be missing for a little longer than that.
Klopp could give debuts to Kostas Tsimikas and Diogo Jota at Lincoln while Thiago may also start, even if he is to just play the first half or 60 minutes.
Joe Gomez should be fit and will probably get some gametime to knock off any rustiness since he has only played once this season so far – against Leeds. Billy Koumetio could be Gomez’s partner in central defence with Neco Williams coming in at right-back.
PREDICTED LINEUPS
Lincoln City XI (4-3-3) – Palmer; Eyoma, Montsma, Jackson, Roughan; Bridcutt, McGrandles, Jones; Anderson, Hopper, Grant
Liverpool XI (4-3-3) – Adrián; Williams, Gomez, Koumetio, Tsimikas; Thiago, Milner, Jones; Elliott, Minamino, Jota
WHEN THEY LAST MET
Liverpool and Lincoln have not met in a competitive fixture since their 1961 clash in the old Division Two – the equivalent of today’s Championship. Liverpool won 2-0 at Anfield that day.
The last time The Reds travelled to Lincoln was the year before, winning 2-1 in front of just over six-and-a-half thousand spectators. Roger Hunt scored both goals for Liverpool that day.
PREDICTION
LINCOLN CITY 1 – 4 LIVERPOOL
Liverpool, even with a back-up team out, should have more than enough talent on the pitch to see off Lincoln City. Players like Harvey Elliott, Takumi Minamino, Diogo Jota and Curtis Jones will be hugely motivated for this game, hoping to seal a win which would guarantee them more first-team opportunities in the fourth round against either Leicester City or Arsenal next week.
I think it will be a comfortable win for Liverpool with the hosts managing to grab a goal at some stage.
Michael Appleton has been a breath of fresh air at Lincoln city FC, with the players he has brought to the club is amazing, what a really talented bunch of young players, all credit to both he and David Kerslake, and Jez George. And also what he has done with the improvement to the former players he has retained, what a team the 3 of them are.
We are now playing true football style, and MA has instilled into them in such a really short period of time, I think we will be in for a truly great game, with full credit to both the players and the Management team.
And then we move on to the future, with great prospectives ahead.
Come on boys