Key events
Half-time reading:
Half-time: Plymouth 0-0 Liverpool
The best team in the land have been woeful!
45+3 min: The half is petering out without note.
“Not convinced by Chiesa,” emails Stephen Rimmer (from Rio de Janeiro). “Just seen that Kenny [Dalglish] is at the match. I’d bring him on down the right for second half”.
45+1 min: More frustration for Chiesa, who just fails to latch onto a promising pass from Nyoni. The Italian flashes a wry smile in annoyance.
45 min: Three minutes added on here. Plymouth are comfortable. For now.
44 min: Yellow card for young Mabaya, the Liverpool right back cautioned for kicking the ball away after conceding a throw in. Both he and Nyoni on bookings, now.
42 min: Chance for Plymouth! From a long throw, the ball breaks kindly to Gyabi in Liverpool’s box, but the 20-year-old leans back and the ball flies high and wide. A good chance, all things considered!
40 min: Plymouth manager Miron Muslic is a very handsome man but I fear he struggles from a rare problem: almost too much hair. Too much volume.
38 min: This is a horrible, frenetic, scrappy game. Exactly the one that Plymouth would have been hoping for, but exactly the sort of match that Diogo Jota will eventually score two goals in. Let’s see.
36 min: A shot! A Liverpool shot! McConnell takes aim from range and his deflected strike is saved by Hazard, who tips the ball away.
34 min: “We are already approaching ‘never-to-be-forgotten tedium’”, emails Joe Pearson.
Yep, it’s not been a rip-roaring 34 minutes of football. I suspect Slot will be very unimpressed at half-time if this continues.
32 min: Penalty shout for Plymouth?! Bundu wins both his header and retrieves the loose ball before tangling with Tsimikas in Liverpool’s box. It’s all a bit clumsy and messy before the ball bounces through to Kelleher. There are home claims for a penalty, but replays show that there was nothing there. Tsimikas just did enough to ease away the big Plymouth striker.
30 min: Chiesa looks bereft of confidence and has his pocket picked by Puchacz. Eeeeeesh.
28 min: Should mention that Callum Wright, Plymouth’s attacking midfielder today, grew up on the same Merseyside estate as Steven Gerrard and even served as a Liverpool team mascot at the Champions League semi-final against Chelsea in 2008, although Wright’s youth career was at Tranmere Rovers and Everton.
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26 min: McConnell has been particularly wasteful since moving into Liverpool’s midfield. The Premier League side are really struggling for fluency.
24 min: Talovierov, Plymouth’s new 6ft4in centre back signed from Lask in January, snaps into a tackle with Diaz and wins a goal kick for his side, something he celebrates in front of the home fans like a goal.
22 min: Chiesa has barely had a kick so far, but the Italian is working hard, as per the pre-match wishes of his manager. Chiesa is harrying his full-back and Plymouth keeper Hazard whenever they have the ball.
20 min: Nyoni gets an early booking for steaming into Randell, who has been everywhere for Plymouth so far. That is a frustrating yellow card for Nyoni, who will now need to watch his step for the remaining 70 minutes. Katic has rejoined the pitch for Plymouth.
18 min: Plymouth are a man down while Katic receives treatment off the pitch. Batten down the hatches, lads!
16 min: Next player down is Plymouth’s back Katic, whose excellent form has been behind his side’s recent revival. I think he might have lost a front tooth after colliding with his captain, Randell. The camera pans to Plymouth manager Miron Muslic, who seems quite amused about his centre-back losing a tooth.
14 min: Liverpool haven’t settled since the reshuffle. Elliott, normally so composed, passes the ball out for a Plymouth throw before cursing to the heavens.
12 min: Plymouth win a corner off Tsimikas, which is whipped right under the Liverpool crossbar but Kelleher does well to punch the ball away.
10 min: In worse news for Slot, Gomez (Liverpool’s captain today) has gone down with an injury. Is that a recurrence of the hamstring problem that has plagued his season? Unclear. Gomez is going to have to go off! On comes Isaac Mabaya for his senior debut!
A big reshuffle for Liverpool: Mabaya will go to right back, McConnell into midfield and Endo to centre back.
8 min: Plymouth’s captain, Adam Randell, crunches into Quansah in what looks like a very sore tackle for the Liverpool defender. Late but very much a ‘let-them-know-you’re-there’ challenge. Ouch.
6 min: Liverpool settle into their possession-based footy, but another good counter-attack from Plymouth gives them cause for concern as Hardie strides forward on the right and whips a dangerous low cross towards Wright, well gathered by Kelleher.
4 min: Gomez has lined up at centre-back, partnering Quansah, rather than at right back. Instead, McConnell is at full-back, which means Endo is in his regular midfield role alongside teenager Nyoni.
2 min: Plymouth make an early in-road, winning a flick-on to release Hardie. The striker initially pulls clear of Liverpool’s defence but dawdles slightly and Gomez gets back to make an important block. A good start from the home side!
Peeeeeeeep!
We’re underway at Home Park. Plymouth in their famous green and white, Liverpool is their changed white and black kit.
“As a Liverpool fan, I’m thinking that starting eleven better get the job done, because that bench is about as thin as I’ve ever seen,” emails Joe Pearson.
Yes, I’m not sure Slot is going to turn to his young guns in the unlikely event that things do go south for Liverpool. Curtis Jones and Darwin Nunez will surely be called upon, but I would expect to see a few debuts if the away side pull away.
The teams are out! Joe Gomez is Liverpool captain today and leads the away team out. Home Park looks absolutely resplendent in the Devon sunshine.
We all know about half-and-half scarves. There’s a bloke in the home end with a half-and-half Plymouth/Liverpool shirt! The game has officially gone.
Elliott mentioned how young Liverpool’s substitutes are. It’s true – only Darwin Nunez and Curtis Jones are established names on the bench.
Liverpool manaager Arne Slot speaks!
It’s going to be difficult. They have changed managers, changed playing styles, a very direct playing style. There will be a lot of long balls, second balls, a lot of crosses to defend.
It’s going to be very difficult for Chiesa to play his best football today because of Plymouth’s playing style. But what I want to see from him today is work rate, fight. It’s going to be the same against Everton [the Merseyside derby is at Goodison Park on Wednesday], lots of long balls, lots of second balls. But I hope he can also show his quality.
This is an excellent Ben Fisher interview with Plymouth’s new-ish manager, Miron Muslic. Do give it a read.
Harvey Elliott, who became Liverpool’s youngest ever player when he played in the FA Cup five years go, speaks to the ITV cameras:
I feel like I’m getting old, when you remind me of that. Now there are 16-year-olds on our bench today. There are opportunities that youngsters can get.
We’re in a position where we can go for everything [in terms of the quadruple]. But there are dangers, it’s a really tough game today. Hostile stadium. We just need to stick to the plan and defend with our lives.
Speaking of Chiesa, do read Jonathan Liew on the Italian, who is popular with both Liverpool teammates and fans despite rarely featuring for the Reds this season since his summer move from Juventus.
Let’s unpack those teams.
Plymouth make two changes from the starting XI that beat West Brom last week: Hardie comes in for Baindoo, while Houghton is replaced by Gyabi – the latter is an eye-catching choice because this is his first appearance for Plymouth this season. The on-loan Leeds midfielder also joined Argyle last season but mostly failed to make an impression from the start.
There is some youth in Liverpool’s line-up, but this is still an experienced side peppered with internationals. The front three of Chiesa, Jota and Diaz is as good as any attack you will see in any side all weekend. Trey Nyoni, 17, makes just his second senior start and his sixth appearance overall in Liverpool’s midfield, alongside 20-year-old James McConnell, who is rated highly by Arne Slot.
The teams!
Plymouth: Hazard, Taloverov, Katic, Pleguezuelo, Sorinola, Randell, Gyabi, Puchacz, Bundu, Wright, Hardie.
Subs: Grimshaw, Mumba, Houghton, Obafemi, Boateng, Tijani, Al Hajj, Baidoo, Palsson.
Liverpool: Kelleher, Gomez, Endo, Quansah, Tsimikas, Nyoni, McConnell, Chiesa, Elliott, Diaz, Jota.
Subs: Jaros, Nunez, Jones, Kone-Doherty, Mabaya, Nallo, Ngumoha, Norris, Young.
Preamble
What a cup tie this is. One team bottom of the Championship, the other top of the Premier League and yet, there is the faintest whiff of an upset here. Plymouth have already despatched top-flight Brentford in the third round (under the interim duo of the first-team coach Kevin Nancekivell and the club captain Joe Edwards, the first game since the sacking of Wayne Rooney) and are on something on a hot-streak recently, drawing 2-2 at fourth-placed Sunderland and beating fifth-placed West Brom in their last two Championship matches.
All credit then to Miron Muslic, then, who endured a difficult start to life at Home Park, but seems to have galvanised the players and fans recently. It’s easy to see why: his initial address to the squad after their win at Brentford went viral. In impressive English for a man that has never previously worked in England, Muslic seems to know his way around a speech.
Of course, Liverpool are heavy favourites, not just for this match but for the competition in general, especially with Arsenal and Chelsea suffering early exits. This is their first match at Home Park since 2017, where Jürgen Klopp fielded Liverpool’s youngest-ever side – including an 18-year-old Trent Alexander-Arnold – who had to settle for a frustrating 0-0 draw (“a match of never-to-be-forgotten tedium” with Liverpool winning the replay 1-0). Argyle will surely take a draw at 90 minutes today, although the game will now go to extra-time and possibly penalties if that is the case. There is also no VAR today, remember.
Regardless of the odds and regardless of the result, Devon will be rocking. How often can you say that?
Kick-off: 3pm GMT.