You don’t hear much about the magic of the cup anymore, still less about the magic of the League Cup, but there was no mistaking how much this shot at glory meant to a club for whom survival is the height of their ambition. Instead, Liverpool’s U23 manager Neil Critchley will take charge of a youthful side, as he did for the League Cup quarter-final against Aston Villa in December when the seniors were away on Club World Cup duty in Qatar. Certainly, the Liverpool manager has been keen to present this as a principled stand, albeit a slow-burning one. It’s probably inevitable that cup replays and maybe even the League Cup itself will soon be consigned to the scrap heap, as the zero-tolerance, members-only policy of the world’s most powerful clubs extends its zone of influence. All the more reason, then, to cherish the minnows’ cup exploits while we can.

Source: Irish Examiner January 31, 2020 21:22 UTC