Fulham’s first League Cup semi-final looms large. A two-legged affair was the focus of a confident Marco Silva’s press conference yesterday afternoon, with the Portuguese head coach asking his players to strike the right balance as they seek to build a platform from which to reach Wembley from Craven Cottage in a fortnight’s time. Silva certainly doesn’t believe in taking a backward step, as evidenced by the Whites’ pulsating visit to Anfield at the start of last month, and won’t be cowed by the enormity of the task at hand.
Just how gung-ho Fulham will be remains to be seen. Fulham’s fabulous victory over Arsenal on New Year’s Eve was achieved with the classy Tom Cairney alongside Joao Palhinha in midfield, but an attempt to quieten Jurgen Klopp’s engine room might require a more defensively-minded partner for Europe’s leading tackler. Harrison Reed hasn’t played much this season – first owing to the signing of Alex Iwobi from Everton and then the reintroduction of Cairney into the centre of the park from the start – but the former Southampton schemer’s skillset could easily have been designed for a night when the Whites will have to draw the sting out of the Anfield faithful, something which Silva referenced in the aftermath of last month’s seven-goal thriller.
The Cottagers will already be without two key players who have departed with Nigeria for the Ivory Coast on African Nations Cup duty. Calvin Bassey has shown impressive signs of stepping up to Premier League level despite not having played an English top flight minute since before he moved from Ajax in the summer – and deserves great credit for not becoming bedraggled after a tough start. Iwobi’s absence might be keenly felt: the versatile midfielder has injected pace, power and guile into the side since being brought in by Silva and has become most effective on the right wing, where his energy will be missed on a big night.
Silva will hope that the two returnees who made a decisive difference as he side signed off 2023 in style can flourish again against illustrious opposition tomorrow night. Plenty of us scoffed at the idea of Willian making a telling contribution to Fulham’s top flight campaign when he arrived in SW6 last September, but the Brazilian’s enduring quality, intelligence and ability to make the right decision in the final third have helped a sometimes toothless outlet back a real punch in the final third. Fulham’s attacking arsenal has been boosted by Raul Jimenez’s remarkable revival as a Premier League poacher: the Mexican international appeared a misfit after Aleksandar Mitrovic’s departure, but has sparkled superbly in recent months and gave Arsenal the run around last week.
Long-suffering Fulham fans will have bad memories of visits to Liverpool in this competition. The morale of Ray Lewington’s young side never really recovered from their 10-0 League Cup thrashing in 1986 and there is also the memory of Robbie Fowler’s red-hot debut against the Whites in the early nineties. This side is somewhat different to those lower-league outfits and even the one that Anfield hero Kevin Keegan brought back to his old stomping ground in October 1998, when the Whites might have deserved more than Paul Peschisolido’s peach of an equaliser in a 3-1 defeat. Fulham might never have a better chance of reaching a domestic Cup final than facing a Liverpool side in the midst of an injury crisis and with defensive deficiencies they have exposed just a matter of weeks ago, but as Silva suggested it will be a matter of seizing the moment appropriately.
The Reds are the most successful League Cup outfit in history and are revving up for a title challenge having had something of a sticky start to the season. They have seen off serious competition already having dispatched Championship leaders Leicester City impressively in round three before beating in-form Bournemouth and hammering West Ham United at home to make it to the last four. All of that has been woven alongside excellent recent results, with Liverpool winning four of their last six fixtures – with two draws against the Gunners and Manchester United putting them right in the firing line to wrestle away Manchester City’s title.
Klopp has a talented enough squad, with plenty of gifted academy graduates, to withstand the injury absences of Thiago Alcantara, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Stefan Bajcetic, Joel Matip, Andrew Roberton, Dominik Szoboszlai and Kostas Tsimikas and the fact that cult hero Mohamed Salah will be with Egypt preparing for international duty, whilst Wataru Endo – who scored a stunning equaliser against Fulham in December – getting ready for the Asia Cup. The challenge is a steep one, but this is where Silva’s side have thrived in the past. We’ll find out plenty about their aptitude and ability tomorrow night.
MY FULHAM XI (4-2-3-1): Leno; Tete, A. Robinson, Diop, Adarabioyo; Palhinha, Reed; Wilson, Willian, Pereira; Jimenez. Subs: Rodak, Castagne, de Fougerolles, Lukic, Cairney, De Cordova-Reid, Vinicius, Muniz.
