Plymouth v Liverpool: Take a chance on Argyle making it awkward for the Reds

AFTER a bold draw at Anfield, Plymouth welcome Liverpool to Home Park on Wednesday for an FA Cup Third Round replay.

Plymouth v Liverpool | Wednesday 19:45 | BT Sport 2

It was a frustrating day at Anfield a week past Sunday as Liverpool huffed and puffed but couldn’t put Plymouth to bed in the FA Cup Third Round.

It was arguably the worst possible result for Jurgen Klopp’s side; a defeat would have been embarrassing but with a vibrant League campaign ongoing alongside a Last 4 place in the League Cup there would have been reason to shrug the shoulders and kick on.

Instead they have to cater for this replay in the West Country on the back of a match against Manchester United and forthcoming vital games against Swansea and Southampton.

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Personnel

So with that in mind, one has to ponder the personnel Klopp will put out on Wednesday night. To help us along we have a little bit of precedent to chew on.

Last season Liverpool played a similar youthful line up against Exeter in the Third Round as Klopp desperately tried to exit the competition at the earliest convenience. To his dismay they drew and had to take them back to Anfield.

Perhaps buoyed by playing on home turf, Klopp put out another weak line up. He made minimal changes to the side and brought in Joe Allen, Jordan Ibe, and umm Simon Mignolet, to give it more of a sheen. So in essence, he turned the volume up a bit on Exeter but they were still playing below 50% strength.

Can we expect the same here? Why not? Liverpool, like last year, are in the League Cup semi-finals, and unlike last year are (sort of) in a title race.

Defensive Plymouth

Plymouth boss Derek Adams drooled over his side’s defensive display in the opening match as they sucked up 28 shots at Anfield and a similar approach looks likely here.

Argyle were as tight as a vicar’s daughter in December with five clean sheets out of six, but they’ve conceded three in three games in January. At Home Park it’s three clean sheets out of five.

Liverpool are chalked up at hugely prohibitive odds of 3/10 but you know that the match will mean much more to the Argyle collective than most of Liverpool’s players.

With those odds in mind, plus another likely second-string Liverpool line up and defence at the heart of Aryle’s approach it might be worth having a small suck on Plymouth making it awkward for them. At 17/5 I’ll back Draw/Liverpool in the Double Result market.