Curtis Jones, Harvey Elliott and the former Man City striker who could play for Liverpool in their FA Cup replay

Neil Critchley will be in charge of an under-23 team as the Reds look to beat Shrewsbury and set up a fifth round trip to Chelsea
“I wish the game was starting in five minutes’ time!”

Neil Critchley could barely hide his excitement at his Monday press conference, and no wonder.

Tonight the Liverpool under-23s boss will, for the second time this season, step into Jurgen Klopp’s shoes, taking charge for a first-team fixture as the Reds take on Shrewsbury in an FA Cup fourth-round replay.

Klopp’s decision to afford his senior players – and himself - a week off courted plenty of controversy, but for Critchley and his youngsters, it is a dream opportunity. A full house is expected at Anfield, where ticket prices have been drastically reduced for the night.
 

Critchley will hope for more luck than in his last outing as manager, when his young side were beaten 5-0 at Aston Villa in the Carabao Cup quarter-final. The Reds earned a lot of praise for their performance that night but, in their manager’s words, “didn’t do well enough in both penalty boxes.”

That experience, Critchley says, was worth “a million training sessions”, and it will be interesting to see how his team perform against a League One side which caused enough problems for senior professionals such as Dejan Lovren, Joel Matip and Fabinho in the initial tie.

Here, Goal runs you through the ones to watch in the Liverpool side…

Curtis Jones
Age 19
Midfielder/Forward
Critchley says he is yet to decide on his captain for the night, but Jones was named under-23s skipper back in August and will be expecting to wear the armband against Shrewsbury.

If he does, he will become Liverpool’s youngest ever captain – a huge honour for the boyhood Red who grew up on the outskirts of the city centre.

Jones only turned 19 last week, but he has already been able to squeeze plenty in to his fledgling career. Having made his senior debut at Wolves in the FA Cup last January, he was man of the match in his second appearance at MK Dons back in September. In October, he netted the winning spot-kick in front of the Kop as Liverpool beat Arsenal in a penalty shootout, and followed that up by making his Premier League debut at Bournemouth off the bench in December.

The best was yet to come, though, as in the FA Cup third round the teenager scored the winning goal against Everton at Anfield with a stunning 25-yard strike. He netted at Shrewsbury in the initial tie, too.

“Self-belief is probably not one of his weaknesses!” remarked Critchley on Monday. Jones, whether in midfield or as part of the front three, will believe he is the best player on the pitch tonight. The early evidence suggests he has a point.





GOAL