After the Reds reserves advance to the fourth round of the EFL Cup, we want you to rate your man of the match.

Despite making ten changes and handing out a couple of debuts, Jürgen Klopp got a phenomenal performance from his team, as the Reds reserves ran riot against the Imps, dispatching their League One opponents in ruthless fashion.

Now tell us how you saw it! With our favoured polling tool out of service, we’re instead giving you a choice between a few of the players we thought looked best today for the Reds, so make your choice below and vote for who you think should be the man of the match—or take to the comments to let us know that we got it wrong by leaving the real man of the match off the list entirely.

As always, anyone visiting on Apple News or Google AMP who wish to vote and can’t see the poll can make it visible by navigating to the front page of The Liverpool Offside and re-entering the story.

Liverpool’s reserves impress from start to finish against Lincoln City.

Lincoln City 2 – 7 Liverpool

Imps: Edun 60’, Montsma 67’Reds: Shaqiri 9’, Minamino 18’ 46’, Jones 32’ 36’, Grujic 65’, Origi 89’

Pre-Match

Although assistant coach Pep Lijnders promised a strong lineup, it’s quite the mixed bag. We have Virgil van Dijk—making a rare domestic cup appearance—leading out the team. The big man will be paired with youth team player Rhys Williams, who is getting his senior team debut. He’s one of two Williams’ in the backline, alongside Neco. Newboy Kostas Tsimikas gets the start, and other new signing Diogo Jota is on the bench.

Further up the pitch, Xherdan Shaqiri appears out of nowhere to get the start. Curtis Jones, Marko Grujic get the nods in midfield. And Harvey Elliott and Takumi Minimino will hope to impress tonight. Divock is going to Divock. And Adrian is going to Adrian.

It’s a bit of a mad lineup and this could end up being any score. Should be fun.

First Half

GOAL! Shaqiri will not be denied! Curtis Jones won a free kick just outside the penalty area after beating his defender with a cleaver turn. The Swiss journeyman lined up the ensuing free kick. Shaq probably struggles to score that one against most Premier League keepers, but this is a League 1 team with a League 1 keeper. Shaq bends it up and over the wall, and easily beat the keeper to the near post.

This makeshift Liverpool side is quite entertaining to…wait a minute…

GOAL!! Harvey Elliott either does brilliantly to close off the passing lane, or gets lucky with a terrible pass. Either way, he cuts out Lincoln City’s attempt to play out of the back, and immediately tries to play Origi in. His initial pass is cut out, but the ball falls to Minamino just outside the box, and he fires home a screamer.

As I was saying: this makeshift side is quite entertaining and surprisingly composed in the early stages. Sure, it’s just a League 1 side, but how many weakened Liverpool sides have we watched struggle against lower league opposition over the years?

GOAL!!! Brilliant play all around. Rhys Williams picks out Divock Origi with a long pass into the box. The Belgian cushions a header into the path of Curtis Jones, who takes a touch, works some space, and fires past the keeper.

GOAL! Another for Jones! Elliott picks him out at the edge of the box, and the Scouser turns his defender and fires off a shot. It takes a cruel deflection to wrong-foot the keeper, but that might be doing the keeper a favor at this point.

Adrian is finally called into action as halftime looms. The Spanish backup goalkeeper does well to be alive to the danger, and pushed the effort from a tight angle around the outside of the post.

Second Half

Fabinho comes on for Van Dijk and..

GOAL! Liverpool make it 5. The Reds win the ball up high, almost immediately from the kickoff. Elliott is played through, but a last ditch tackle denies the young attacker his goal. However, Minamino picks up the scraps, to score on an empty net.

Other than the goal, Lincoln city have come out with much more attacking intent, and have already tested Adrian a few times in the opening 10 minutes of the half. Props to them for continuing to play (even if it could hit double-digits at this rate).

In other news: CAPTAIN DIVOCK ORIGI.

This is exciting, not that we need another attacker to come on, but Diogo Jota makes his Liverpool debut. Harvey Elliott—who was brilliant tonight—makes way.

Goal. Lincoln get their goal, and it is deserved. The Williams’ conspire to make a mess of things defensively, and Lincoln City create a good chance which they convert.

GOAL! Grujic makes it 6 with his first—possibly last—Liverpool goal. It’s a short from outside the box. It wasn’t particularly well struck, but a slight deflection just takes it away from the Lincoln goalkeeper.

Goal. Lincoln score off a corner. This game is crackers.

Klopp makes his last sub. Naby Keita comes on for Shaqiri. It was nice seeing Shaq again. We’ll probably see him again sometime in March, probably.

GOAL! Captain Divock Origi makes it 7 with a hard-struck ball from just inside the area.

The ref adds 3 minutes for some reason.

Final Thoughts

That was fun! Even with a weaker lineup the gulf in class was massive. On to the next round!

Liverpool head to Sincil Bank Stadium to take on League One’s Lincoln City FC in the Third Round of the League Cup with Diogo Jota expected to make his debut for the Reds. Stick with The Liverpool Offside for full coverage of Thursday evening’s match.

All three clubs are said to have bids accepted for Motherwell’s Sam Campbell.

With the signings of Thiago Alcantara and Diogo Jota, Liverpool look fairly sorted when it comes to the immediate future, but even if the present looks quite bright there’s always the future to worry about.

And on that front, widespread reports in England today have Liverpool having made a bid for Scottish Premiership side Motherwell’s 16-year old defender Sam Campbell. They aren’t alone, either, with Leeds and Brighton also chasing him.

In fact, all three are said to have had bids for the player accepted, while his current club have also put a three-year contract on the table and will now leave it up to Campbell to decide on his future.

Campbell joined Motherwell two years ago and as an 14-year-old went straight into their U18 team, and the club—currently eighth after eight games—are said to believe he could have a first team role for them this season despite his young age.

The path to first team football would obviously be most congested at Liverpool of his four options, but the club have shown in recent years that despite their standing they’re willing to give youth a chance.

Lineups, television and streaming options, and live League Cup coverage as Liverpool face off against Team.

LINCOLN CITY VS LIVERPOOL

| Thursday, September 24th |EFL League Cup | Sincil Bank Stadium7:45PM BST/2:45PM EDT

Ordinarily we’d all be expecting the kids (they’re alright!) to take on League 1 side Lincoln City, but Pep Lijnders suggested otherwise! Or at least he suggested that it’ll be a strong side, which definitely wouldn’t exclude the likes of Harvey Elliott, Curtis Jones, Takumi Minamino, and new signing Diogo Jota. Either way, it might suggest that Klopp & Co. will be taking the domestic cups a little more seriously.

Even with a weaker side, these Reds would expect to see off Lincoln City. If Klopp runs out something closer to the first XI? It could be a long night for the Imps.

PREVIEW & VIEWING OPTIONS

Full Preview: Lincoln City vs. Liverpool

Television: Sky Sports Main Event (UK); No Coverage (USA); beIN Sports 2(Australia); DAZN* (Canada); No Coverage (India); No Coverage (Malaysia); SuperSport Premier League (Nigeria); No Coverage (Singapore); SuperSport Premier League (South Africa); other listings at LiveSoccerTV

Online Streaming: ESPN+* (USA) | Online Radio: LFCTV GO

LINCOLN CITY

LIVERPOOL

Starting XI Adrian; N Williams, R Williams, Van Dijk, Tsimikas; Grujic, Jones; Elliott, Shaqiri, Minamino; Origi

Bench Kelleher, Fabinho, Keita, Jota, Wilson, Alexander-Arnold, Van Den Berg

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