ROTATING A STATIONARY TEAM
Liverpool 5 West Ham 1
There is a shock before a ball is kicked in tonight’s Carabao Cup Quarter Final. And that shock is the team. Six changes from the side that beat Wolves 3-0 three days ago. Six changes. West Ham are starting with Saïd Benrahma and Pablo Fornals. No Paquetá or Ward-Prowse. Oh, ouch.
Liverpool are also starting with a less than full strength side, so why is it still looking, on paper at least, as a fait accompli. I have over half a century of experience of following this side from East London, and I know, with virtual certainty, that this is going to be neither pretty nor effective.
The most frustrating thing about a team selection that does not seem to represent the best players available, is that you may never discover exactly why player A or Player Y was not selected, and then there is always the knowledge that the information, even if you had it, actually proves nothing. The bottom line is that, if most of the players in your team play well, you will most likely win the game. When you have only won once at a ground in over fifty years, it doesn’t start to get in your head a bit. The fact that West Ham have already lost at Anfield this season, in the league, in a game where they might have won it but for the rub of the green on the day, does not help.
23 Alphonse Areola, 2 Ben Johnson, 5 Vladimir Coufal, 21 Angelo Ogbonna (captain), 15 Konstantinos Mavropanos, 8 Pablo Fornals, 14 Mohammed Kudus, 19 Edson Alvarez, 20 Jarrod Bowen, 22 Saïd Benrahma, 28 Tomas Souček
Substitutes: 11 Lucas Paquetá, 7 James Ward-Prowse, 18 Danny Ings,24 Thilo Kehrer
Goalscorer: Jarrod Bowen
