Arne Slot has named his Liverpool starting XI to take on Newcastle United in the Carabao Cup final at Wembley — with Caoimhin Kelleher starting in goal over Alisson Becker.
This has generally been Kelleher’s competition and he is given the nod. Liverpool’s defense lines up with Jarell Quansah in for the injured Trent Alexander-Arnold, Ibrahima Konate and Virgil van Dijk at center-back, and Andy Robertson at left-back. Kostas Tsimikas is among the options to call upon from the bench.
In midfield, Slot has gone with his usual first-choice trio of Ryan Gravenberch, Dominik Szoboszlai and Alexis Mac Allister. Curtis Jones and Harvey Elliott are among the more attacking options left in reserve, with Wataru Endo primed for a late cameo.
Mohamed Salah has never scored in a Wembley cup final for Liverpool but the Egpytian will hope to do just that today. He is joined up front by Diogo Jota and Luis Diaz, with Cody Gakpo left out of the starting line-up. Darwin Nunez and Federico Chiesa are also among those who could make an appearance from the sidelines.
“We’ve tried to win every competition we were in,” Slot told the official Liverpool website ahead of the game. “Unfortunately we were already out of the FA Cup and unfortunately after Tuesday we are out of the Champions League as well so there are now only two trophies for us to win.
“I think in general the Premier League is the hardest one to win of all of them because it’s 38 games and you have to do so many things well. Cups — and even the Champions League, although those are played over two rounds [legs] — are ‘easier’ to win, but still very difficult! But now it’s nice that we are in the final and having a chance to win our first trophy.
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“Looking at Newcastle, we played them twice. In the last game [Alexander] Isak wasn’t involved, in the first game he was involved. He is such an important player for them, he’s an unbelievable threat and has the speed that, for example, the attackers of Paris Saint-Germain had on Tuesday as well.
“They were more than I would have liked in front of Ali [Alisson Becker] during the two games we have played them. So, we need to do even better than we did [on Tuesday] if you look at the way we have to defend the counter-attacks. But for large parts of the [PSG] game, over 90 minutes I couldn’t have asked for more.”
Liverpool starting XI: Kelleher; Quansah, Konate, Van Dijk, Robertson; Szoboszlai, Gravenberch, Mac Allister; Salah, Jota, Diaz. Subs: Alisson, Tsimikas, Jones, Elliott, Endo, McConnell, Chiesa, Nunez, Gakpo.
