England FA Cup - 3rd Round Replays (17-18 January)

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Wolverhampton Wanderers vs. Liverpool Preview:

Possible starting lineups:

Wolverhampton Wanderers:
Sarkic; Semedo, Collins, Toti, Ait-Nouri; Lemina, Neves, Nunes; Traore, Jimenez, Hwang

Liverpool:
Alisson; Alexander-Arnold, Gomez, Konate, Tsimikas; Keita, Bajcetic, Elliott; Salah, Gakpo, Carvalho

The FA Cup holder Liverpool travel to Molineux to face Wolverhampton Wanderers in their third-round replay on Tuesday night. The initial match played at Anfield ended with a 2:2 draw. The Wolves led after Liverpool goalkeeper Alisson Becker horrifically gave the ball away and Goncalo Guedes tapped home. Darwin Nunez and Mohamed Salah scored and turned out the result in Liverpool favor. But Wolverhampton did not give up and substitute Hwang Hee-chan earned his team a replay, with the ball ricocheting in off his side. The Wanderers scored a third goal in the finish of the match, but the linesman flagged for offside against the initial corner taker, after he received the clearance. The VAR then had no camera angle available with any evidence to overturn the decision. Liverpool were lucky not to lose, but it is clear they are in big crisis, the biggest during Klopp's reign.

Wolverhampton have started the new season in poor way, but the last league results are promising. They are unbeaten on the last two matches in the Premier League and got out of the drop zone. The Wolves first played an 1:1 draw in West Midlands derby with Aston Villa. Daniel Podence was the scorer on that match. During the weekend they beat 1:0 West Ham. Once again Podence found the back of the net. New manager Lopetegui could be satisfied with the overall results. He has two victories, one draw and one defeat on the four league matches after the World Cup break. The Spaniard has some injury worries ahead of this match. He remains without long-term absentees Chiquinho, Sasa Kalajdzic, Pedro Neto and Boubacar Traore. Veteran striker Diego Costa, who missed the Saturday win over West Ham, is rated as doubtful due to a knock. Midfielder Joao Moutinho is also doubtful and could be replaced by new signing Mario Lemina, who made his debut off the bench against West Ham. Adama Traore and Raul Jimenez are also option if necessary.

As I wrote above, Liverpool are in big crisis. The Reds suffered a high 3:0 defeat to Brighton on Saturday. The humiliation at Amex was the Reds’ sixth defeat in the Premier League this campaign. That's four more than in the whole of last season. What is worse, It's not easy to figure out what’s going wrong. On several occasions Brighton broke the famous "gegen-pressing" far too easily and then found themselves attacking the confused defenders. Somehow getting to half time at 0-0, the floodgates opened soon after, as Solly March scored twice before Danny Welbeck completed the misery. A first away defeat to Brighton since 1961 leaves Liverpool 10 points behind fourth-placed Newcastle and huge 19 behind the leaders Arsenal. The injury situation is still difficult. Key defender Virgil van Dijk picked up a hamstring injury against Brentford, which was worse than initially feared. Van Dijk is likely to be out for more than a month. Roberto Firmino remain sidelined due to a calf injury picked up in training. Darwin Nunez has been out of training for most of the week with a minor injury, and Klopp believes that the Uruguayan could be back for this match. Arthur, Luis Diaz and Diogo Jota remain long-term victims.

Wolverhampton Wanderers vs. Liverpool Prediction:

Liverpool are out of form and Liverpool are without Virgil van Dijk. Only these reasons are enough for my pick. But there is more, Klopp's famous "gegen-pressing" is not working. The midfield trio of Fabinho, Thiago and Henderson lost the battle with Brighton's creatives. Klopp is unable to change something. He could change the midfielders, but the whole machine is broken and need repairing. Wolverhampton are improving with Lopetegui and I think they won't lose.

Wolverhampton Wanderers vs. Liverpool Pick: Wolverhampton Wanderers +0,5 AH @ 1.93 with Pinnacle