Tonight’s League Cup tie against Norwich City comes at an interesting point in the season for both sides. Marco Silva has spoken in the build-up to the Canaries’ visit to Craven Cottage of his desire to respect the competition and Fulham’s opponents but offer opportunities to some players not regularly starting as well as getting through to round four. Those objectives might appear contradictory but the Whites have a bigger squad than in August when Silva made seven changes and Fulham stunned Spurs on penalties ending Ange Postecoglou’s unbeaten start to life in England.

Norwich City, who the Cottagers barely meet in the league anymore as a result of Fulham’s promotion/relegation cycle in recent years, have a slightly different predicament that will be familiar to Cottage regulars. The Canaries finished thirteenth last term and David Wagner, who previously guided Huddersfield to promotion, has his sights set on better things this term. His side began brightly, winning three of their first fixtures – the exception was an incredible 4-4 draw at Southampton – but you suspect the German will be glad to see the back of September. City’s first defeat of the season at Rotherham was followed by a narrow home win over Stoke but Wagner’s side were well beaten by Leicester at Carrow Road before being thrashed at Plymouth Argyle last weekend.

The Norwich coach might have masterminded previous away successes at Championship opposition in Queens Park Rangers and Bristol City in this competition but he has clearly prioritised Saturday’s visit of Birmingham City, currently only a point off the play-off places themselves, by revealing that he will field a much-changed side in SW6 this evening. Wagner’s room for manoeuvre is also limited by a significant injury crisis with Ashley Barnes and Josh Sargeant sidelined by long-term injuries, Grant Hanley still on the long road back after rupturing his achilles at his old club Blackburn in April and Danny Baath cup-tied after featuring for Sunderland in the League Cup already this season.

Wagner might be in a position to hand a debut to summer signing Borja Sainz, who has been out with an ankle injury since arriving from Giresunspor, but Fulham will clearly face a second-string City eleven this evening. Whether that rules out a Craven Cottage playing return for Shane Duffy, who played the full ninety minutes of Norwich’s Home Park drubbing at the weekend, remains to be seen. City certainly can’t regard Craven Cottage as a happy hunting ground – they’ve not won at Fulham since New Year’s Day 1986 – but a few fringe players will hope to use the League Cup as a platform to force their way into Wagner’s plans.

As I mentioned on the Green Pole earlier this week, just reaching the third round must qualify as a League Cup run given Fulham’s atrocious recent record in this competition. Silva has signalled that he will ring the changes, although he conceded his need is not as pressing given that the SW6 derby has been put back to Monday night for television coverage. You’d expect to see several of the starters from the previous round’s penalty shoot-out success against Spurs return but the Portuguese coach has a bit more strength in depth to utilise this evening. Alex Iwobi could get a first start after a couple of impressive cameos of the bench, whilst AC Milan loanee Fode Ballo-Toure might make his debut at left back and Calvin Bassey looks likely to slot in at centre back.

Tom Cairney could come into central midfield with Welsh duo of Harry Wilson and Luke Harris also in line to feature. The interesting element of Silva’s selection will be what he does up front. The Fulham boss insists that there’s no pressure on Raul Jimenez, despite the Mexican failing to score in his first seven games for his new club, but Silva may offer either Carlos Vinicius, a second-half substitute at Selhurst Park on Saturday, or even Rodrigo Muniz an opportunity to show what they can do against the Canaries.

MY FULHAM XI (4-2-3-1): Rodak; Castagne, Ballo-Toure, Bassey, Ream; Reed, Cairney; Wilson, Decordova-Reid, Iwobi; Jimenez. Subs: Leno, A. Robinson, de Fougerolles, Palhinha, Dibley-Dias, Harris, Willian, Vinicius, Muniz.