MK Dons in the League Cup “a Chance” for Liverpool’s Squad Players

If the player started for Liverpool against Chelsea on Sunday, don’t expect them to have much of a role to play against MK Dons on Wednesday evening in the League Cup.

That was assistant manager Pepijn Lijnders’ message to fans when he spoke to the media today as he took over for Jürgen Klopp with the manager still in Milan following FIFA’s The Best awards ceremony on Monday evening.

“We want to use our squad,” said Lijnders. “So it’s a chance for a few players who didn’t play the last week’s 90 minutes to start the game. They feel this responsibility anyway.”

Lijnders wouldn’t commit to who exactly would play, but it’s widely expected that Rhian Brewster and Caoimhín Kelleher will both be given starts, and a passed-fit Naby Keïta will be expected to at least make the bench.

Whoever does start, though, the approach to Wednesday’s cup match won’t be any different to if it was Roberto Firmino leading the line and Virgil van Dijk anchoring the defence.

“We prepare this game in the same way,” Lijnders added. “We prepared in the same way as we played Chelsea away. We don’t change the way we prepare, we don’t change the way we set up, we want to put our identity in the game, our passion in the game.

“We will play with the same hunger to win the game as we did in the last games.”