Liverpool did not defy the predictions by winning easily against Accrington, a D4, in the FA Cup.
Liverpool launched its journey in the FA Cup with a controlled victory against Accrington Stanley (4-0), a 4th division team, on Saturday at Anfield, where Arne Slot launched a young 16-year-old winger. The Dutch coach took advantage of the arrival of the nineteenth in League Two (D4) to offer playing time to usual replacements, such as Wataru Endo, Harvey Elliott and Tyler Morton, 22-year-old midfielder.
He also rested Mohamed Salah and Cody Gakpo to spare them for the sequence of matches in the Premier League and Champions League, two competitions where the “Reds” occupy the top of the standings. This allowed promising left winger Rio Ngumoha to make his debut for Liverpool, as a starter, at the age of 16 years and 135 days. The young dribbler, who arrived from Chelsea in September to play with the U18s, sparked on his side, despite a sometimes guilty individualism.
-The “Reds” could also count on more experienced elements like Diogo Jota, scorer after a perfectly executed counter-attack (29th, 1-0), or even Trent Alexander-Arnold who showed his quality of strike before half-time (45th, 2-0). Slot continued the rotation in the second half with the arrivals, in particular, of attackers Jayden Danns (18 years old) and Federico Chiesa.
The Italian has hardly played since his arrival last summer from Juventus, between injuries and poor form. But he showed off on Saturday after being started at halftime. He forced the opposing goalkeeper to make a difficult save, on which Danns projected himself (76th, 3-0), he shot off a post (87th) and scored his first goal with Liverpool with a long shot (90th, 4-0).
