EFL Cup SF 1st Leg | Arsenal vs Liverpool | Thu, 19:45 - The Arsenal discussion community: One More in the Tolly

EFL Cup SF 1st Leg | Arsenal vs Liverpool | Thu, 19:45

goon

Let's start with some very important, potentially game changing team news: Micheal Oliver will be the referee for this game! He's not too bad actually, remember him refereeing a match at OT where he booked Di Maria and Junujaz for diving when they went down in the box. Truly marked the end of Fergie's reign.

Not that we have much choice but I think we need to put out a strong team here, if we can probably rest a few more against Forest. It will be a great team building exercise for these kids to win a trophy together at such an early stage.

We are without Gabriel (sus), Partey, Pepe, Elneny and Auba (AFCON).

I'd go with this:

Leno

Tomiyasu - White - Holding - Tavares

Lokonga - Xhaka

ESR - Odegaard - Martinelli

Laca

Toss up between Saka and Martinelli as to who gets rested, but the former has played a lot more football in 2021 plus Martinelli will have a field day against Liverpool's high line.

Hopefully Liverpool field a weak side, they'll already be without Salah, Mane and Keita. It's unclear if Allison, Firmono, Thiago and Matip will return from COVID, Origi and Minamino are doubts so I'm not sure who they'll field in attack aside from Jota...

jones

goon wrote:
he's not too bad actually, remember him refereeing a match at OT where he booked Di Maria and Junujaz for diving when they went down in the box. Truly marked the end of Fergie's reign.

😆 his name was Januzaj and di Maria didn't sign for United until after Fungus retired. Also Olivers been as bad as the rest of the bunch in recent years

Other than that good OP. I'd play Nketiah ahead of Lacazette and maybe Mari instead of Holding

goon

Whatever, who can be bothered to remember that no marks name. And yeah that's what I meant, you knew the Fergie era was well and truly over at that point.

QuincyAbeyie

Was at that game, dat guy Welbz scored against them as well. I agree that Michael Oliver has been shit in recent years, but I think I've always given him more leeway than the other refs due to that match.

Big Willie

Little early for a match day thread, no? We've not been used to this for a while.

Ricky1985

Great job with the OP, Goon.

With Forest to come at the weekend, I think we should be very strong here and resting in that game. Let's try and establish a decent lead to take to Anfield (even if we could be winning 4-0 with 10 minutes to go up there and they'll still somehow get an equaliser!).

Sicario

Really important to gain some momentum back and NOT go on a slippery downward spiral following the loss v City. That’s what Wenger teams used to do, let’s learn from that.

I agree, play a relatively strong team, this game prioritises the Forrest game.

Ideally go and win with a healthy margin because the following week we got Spurs soon after second leg and we will need to manage the squad accordingly.

KingslandBarge

Leno; Chambers, Holding, Mari, Tavares; Lokonga, Maitland-Niles, Ødegaard; Smith-Rowe ,Nketiah, Martinelli
Is what I would go with. Shame about the depleted squad otherwise would have been good to balance it a different way and find a spot for one of Balogun, Patino, Taylor-Hart to see some match time.

Ricky1985

Ramsdale starts this for me. Leno can have Forest. It's a semi-final, let's take it seriously and win a trophy we haven't won in 29 years.

The rest would be: Tomiyasu, White, Holding, Tavares, Lokonga/AMN, Xhaka, Smith Rowe, Ødegaard, Saka/Martinelli, Nketiah.

I'd only rotate in the positions where there's not a huge drop off between the players. The like of Leno, Pablo Mari, Cedric, Patino etc., can come in for Forest.

Don Pacifico

I feel like people are expecting Forest to be a walkover, when they're pushing for promotion at the moment. Personally, given the CC gets us into the ECL, I'd rather we prioritise the FA Cup as that would get us into Europa. Plus, the CC is a two-legged affair so we can always put a stronger side out in the second leg if needs be.

Burnwinter

I think the main thing is we'll need to rotate anyone that's leggy in the middle of next week—which might mean risking exit from the League Cup, but so be it.

Fortunately we've got a young squad, but it looks like Saka can only really play an hour each time out if we've got two matches a week.

The NLD is the priority overall.

Jed

We should win this as long as the ref doesn’t decide to win it for them.

banduan

Absolutely agree that NLD is priority.

...............Leno..............
Cedric...White......Bob.....Nuno
.......Elneny.......Lokonga......
Pepe..........ESR..........Balogun
.............Eddie.............

Sicario

Don Pacifico wrote:
I feel like people are expecting Forest to be a walkover, when they're pushing for promotion at the moment. Personally, given the CC gets us into the ECL, I'd rather we prioritise the FA Cup as that would get us into Europa. Plus, the CC is a two-legged affair so we can always put a stronger side out in the second leg if needs be.

Forget ECL. We should be getting EL through the league as a minimum anyway.

It’s about winning a trophy. A tournament where we are 3 games away from a trophy always takes priority over a tournament where we are 7 games away.

However, having said all that and as others have mentioned, the real priority is NLD, if this Thur is 0-0 or we lose I would sacrifice the 2nd leg (ie play a weakened side) for the Spurs game. The latter is almost a play off game for CL, that’s how important it is.

Therefore, in terms of next 10 days the priorities for me are:

1) top 4
2) league cup
3) fa cup

Qwiss

Burnwinter wrote:
The NLD is the priority overall.

Thats not till the 16th though. I'd still want to field a relatively strong team against Forrest though, it'd be nice to win the league cup but the FA Cup is far more important.

I think if you look at the 4 games I'd be tempted to play Laca and Tierney here then rest him till Spurs. Saka and Martinelli I'd play vs Forrest and leave out of the LC starting XIs. I'd probably play White and Holding in both LC games and Holding and Gabriel in the FA cup. Cedric for the LC games too. I think with numbers down due to AFCON Patino should probably start at least one of these games too and maybe Balogun.

Clrnc

I don't get it. We are in the semi final. We should be doing all we can to get to the final.

Forest can easily be dealt with by our fringe players. NLD is ages away.

goon

We can't really rotate too much against Forest either thanks to the depleted nature of the squad. That being said the fixture list isn't even that congested anyway, and thanks to the Wolves postponement our Xmas period wasn't that bad.

Plus a lot of our guys haven't actually started that many games this season. Laca, ESR, Odegaard, Martinelli, Xhaka, Lokonga and Tierney have all had spells outside where they haven't been starting plus no Europe.

HomeSteak

Lets see tomorrow morning if they call the game off or not, Liverpool have a covid outbreak

Sicario

They should forfeit the game Leyton Orient style or play their youth like Aston Villa had to against them last season in the FA Cup.

goon

I can't imagine Liverpool want to postpone it anyway to be honest - would cause chaos to their fixture list. They'll probably just end up fielding an U23 side.