Can Plymouth do the unthinkable and knock Liverpool out of the FA Cup when they meet for their 3rd round replay at 7.45pm on BT Sport 2?

One can understand Jurgen Klopp’s decision to field the Reds’ youngest ever starting 11 when they hosted the Pilgrims a week and a half ago. The German manager had an EFL Cup semi-final against Southampton and a tough league tie against Manchester United in the 7 days following the match against Plymouth, and assumed Liverpool would be safe sending out a second tier side. Yet the Reds’ came a cropper against the visitors, who suffocated the game and made sure that, even with 77% by the end of the game, Liverpool couldn’t nab a winner.



To make matters worse, Klopp’s presumed aim – making sure his top players were fit for ostensibly tougher competition – failed to pan out as planned. Liverpool ended up losing their League Cup semi-final against the Saints 1-0, before giving up their slight lead over United in the 84th minute to end that game with just a point.

Yet despite all this Klopp seems set to keep his line-up young, with only a handful for first team regulars making the trip down south. That includes Daniel Sturridge and Divock Origi who, at huge Super Mega PGMs of 70-82 and 53-61 respectively, will be looking to make bit more of an impact than they did at Anfield.

As for Plymouth, in one sense they’ve already achieved far more than anyone would have thought possible; yet they won’t want to go into the replay settling for that hard-fought draw at Anfield and the money made from 2 televised games. Manager Derek Adams has already said he won’t be changing tactics for Wednesday’s game, meaning the most likely path to the 4th round will either be a fortunate 1-0 win or penalties. If the Pilgrims are to progress then the likes of Graham Carey (at 7-10) and Arnold Garita (at 10-14) will need to provide the side with a flash of attacking nous to match the brick wall at the back.

It comes as no surprise that the Reds head into the replay as favourites, at a Liverpool/Plymouth (h) Goal Supremacy spread of 1.65-1.85 alongside a Total Goals spread of 3.1-3.3. Yet as they showed in the first game League Two’s potential champions shouldn’t be underestimated, something Klopp would do well to remember.