As Sean Coffey points out: Liverpool’s squad has seven more appearances in the Eredivisie than in the Premier League – centre-back Sepp Van den Berg has played 22 times for his previous club, Zwolle. He only turns 18 on Friday!
“Strange times indeed,” mourns Ian Copestake. “Man Utd were accused of killing the FA Cup by withdrawing from it in 1999 to do the Club Championship thing and boost an England World Cup bid (that Germany won, the bid that is). This time everyone involved is doing the killing in a spirit of agreement and understanding. It is really impressive to see.”
Richard Jolly
(@RichJolly)Liverpool’s matchday 18 have made 34 more appearances for Doncaster than for Liverpool. https://t.co/UhqA8Xoden
Rich’s latest work of genius alludes to the fact that Herbie Kane played 49 times on loan for Donny last season. You do the mathS.
Villa haven’t exactly gone full tilt, with the likes of McGinn, Grealish and Wesley all kept in reserve. But this is Liverpool’s youngest-ever team!
Teams
Aston Villa: Nyland; Elmohamady, Chester, Konsa, Taylor; Lansbury, Douglas Luiz; Jota, Hourihane, Trezeguet; Kodjia. Subs: Kalinic, Guilbert, Hause, McGinn, El Ghazi, Grealish, Wesley.
Liverpool: Kelleher; Hoever, Van den Berg, Boyes, Gallacher; Kane, Chirivella, Christie-Davies; Elliott, Longstaff, Hill. Subs: Winterbottom, Clayton, Norris, Clarkson, Dixon-Bonner, Bearne, Stewart.
Reaction to this in a few minutes …
Hello
Welcome to Aston Villa v A Liverpool XI, brought to you by Everything That Is Bad About Modern Football. Not that you shouldn’t stick around, though, as I do expect this should have some entertainment value. There’s nothing much to lose for Liverpool’s youngsters and fringe players, unless they particularly had their hearts set on a December mini-break benchwarming in Doha, so they’re bound to Play Without Fear; as well as that, you’ll almost certainly get to see a few stars of the future, because some of these kids are absolutely going places, whether at Liverpool or somewhere else.
So this could be fun, particularly as Villa aren’t on great form and have it in them to make this – as a minimum – unnecessarily complicated. It’d be a touch embarrassing to slip up here even if this is, given the quality that comes out of academies these days, probably equivalent in difficulty to playing … I dunno … a League One side? Banana skins have been skidded upon before.
Notwithstanding the fact that this bit of scheduling is a disgrace and makes a mockery of the competition, etcetera and so forth, strap in and let’s wade through this uncharted territory together. Very hard to imagine this being a drab 0-0 and, hey, we’ll learn something along the way!
