Liverpool FC Forum

First leg on ITV 1 in HD on thursday night..

Markovic is suspended from this one (after nearly taking out a players eye in the final CL game )

Gerrard and Lucas still out through injury but Sterling should be back

Markovic just confirmed with a 4 match European ban

WTF??!!! for that ffs

At least gives Ibe a chance

4 matches?!?! What the f*ck there wasn't even any contact. Jesus are these people nuts?

Thankfully, we have players in his position at least, namely Ibe. As this is an alternative to get in the CL I'd like us to take this cup seriously and go with a strong team. I'd go with:


                                       Mignolet

                            Lovren   Skrtel   Sakho

                     Ibe         Hendo     Can        Moreno

                            Sterling       Coutinho/Lallana

                                     Sturridge


I think BR will go for the same, apart from Lovren in defense. Brendan will probably opt with Can in defense and Allen in midfield. I'm also not sure about whether to go with Coutinho or Lallana. In normal circumstances I'd go with Coutinho, but he looks very tired and he's ineffective because of it, so maybe Lallana would be the better option for this one.

Besiktas will be a right handful on their own patch so we want to be taking some sort of lead into the second leg.
As damjan has mentioned this is a route into the CL next year so we really need to be pulling out all the stops to get through to the next round.

"Besikas have suffered a blow ahead of Thursday’s Europa League clash with Liverpool at Anfield after goalkeeper Tolga Zengin was ruled out for a month"

Hold a few players back for what is effectively a six pointer against Southampton 3 days later. Sterling and Coutinho are both carrying knocks so I'd use them from the bench. Ibe might give us that element of surprise if played further forward.

                         Mignolet

           Lovren     Skrtel     Sakho

   Manquillo     Can     Allen     Moreno

             Lallana               Ibe
                         Balotelli


Subs: Sturridge, Sterling, Coutinho, Henderson, Johnson, Toure, Jones

Sterling wont play he still hasn't signed his contract

LFC1990 » Wed Feb 18, 2015 9:12 pm wrote:Sterling wont play he still hasn't signed his contract

Never read anywhere that he is or will be benched due to contract not being signed... And if BR really did that, it's a bad move...

maguskwt » Thu Feb 19, 2015 11:17 am wrote:

LFC1990 » Wed Feb 18, 2015 9:12 pm wrote:Sterling wont play he still hasn't signed his contract

Never read anywhere that he is or will be benched due to contract not being signed... And if BR really did that, it's a bad move...

I think it was jokey / sarcasm on LFC1990's part

From what i have read this morning he should be fit to play

last time out we beat them 8-0 with crouch, benayoun and voronin up front. this should be a piece of piss then.

andy_g » Thu Feb 19, 2015 4:13 am wrote:last time out we beat them 8-0 with crouch, benayoun and voronin up front. this should be a piece of piss then.

And Babel scored a wonder goal... with his hip.

andy_g » Thu Feb 19, 2015 12:13 pm wrote:last time out we beat them 8-0 with crouch, benayoun and voronin up front. this should be a piece of piss then.

But none of those guys play for us anymore!

Gerrard was world class back in 2008 as well which helped.

Official team for tonight's first leg match...

Mignolet, Can, Skrtel, Sakho, Allen, Henderson, Moreno, Ibe, Coutinho, Lallana, Sturridge.

Substitutes: Ward, Manquillo, Lovren, Lambert, Sterling, Borini, Balotelli.

How long is Gerrard out for? Any news on Lucas?