Jurgen Klopp shows faith in youngsters for FA Cup date with Shrewsbury Town
Jürgen Klopp will trust the youngsters who humiliated Everton in the FA Cup third round to keep alive Liverpool’s honours push on three fronts at Shrewsbury on Sunday.
Klopp will rest his first-choice team for the fourth-round tie at the New Meadow and give Curtis Jones – who scored the superb winner against Everton – Harvey Elliott, Neco Williams, Pedro Chirivella and Yasser Larouchi another chance to showcase their talents.
They will be backed by more experienced players who need game time after recovering from injury, such as Fabinho, Joel Matip and Dejan Lovren.
But Klopp is confident his second string will avoid a giant-killing.
As he waited for the results of a scan on the hamstring injury that forced Sadio Mané to limp off in the 2-1 win at Wolves on Thursday night, Klopp said: “We will have a team with fresh legs. And we have players coming back from injury. It makes sense to play them because they are pretty good and we want to go through. It’s a chance for a lot of players. It’s a tough place to go, as it always is in cup competitions.
“It’s clear, without a winning mentality it’s difficult to win football games, but I don’t think the players have left any doubt this season that they want to win, whoever it is.”
Klopp knows the League One club will be fired up and described it as a “proper cup tie.”
“Of course it is tough, that’s the really good thing about a cup competition,” he added. “Shrewsbury qualified in a difficult game, having to play Bristol City twice, and have been looking forward to this game since they qualified and they knew before that we would be the opponent.
“The lower league team playing at their home ground is an advantage, hopefully the pitch will be OK – I have no idea so far about any circumstances. But it is proper cup tie and I like that.
“Is it a test? Yes but it is not like I test the players, it is a test in general as you play against a team who fights the fight of their life and we have to show how important the next round is to us.”
