Middlesbrough at Anfield: Will Suso start? Will Ayala score? Or will Jones get the clean sheet against his former club?

Liverpool has met Middlesbrough six times in League Cup history splitting those meetings 3-0-3.  Four of those matches were at Anfield with the home side winning three, the only loss being their first cup meeting in November 1974, a 4th round 1-0 defeat.  The last date at Anfield in what was then known as the Carling Cup was November 10th, 2004, with LFC winning 2-0 behind a late match brace from Neil Mellor.  They were his first goals in front of the Kop.  Liverpool is 42-17-14 all-time versus Middlesbrough on Merseyside, outscoring the River Tees club 157 to 70.  The last time the Reds lost at home to Boro was March 6th, 1976, a 1st division affair 38 years ago.

Middlesbrough currently sit 5th on the Championship table with 15 points from 8 matches.  They are lead by former Real Madrid and Tottenham defender, Jonathan Woodgate, though he is injured once again and will miss the match tomorrow.  Their leading goal scorer so far this season is former Sunderland midfielder, Grant Leadbitter, who has six, while 24-year-old striker, Kike, signed from Real Murcia during the summer transfer window, is second with four.

They also feature former Liverpool centre back, Danny Ayala, who signed from Norwich City last January after completing an emergency loan spell at the Boro.  Ayala only played five matches for LFC and after spending loan spells at Hull and Derby, was sold to Norwich in the summer of 2011. Middlesbrough are managed by Spaniard Aitor Karanka, who oddly enough was on three Champions League winning sides at Real Madrid, though never a major contributor. The useless fact of the day is no player on the current Middlesbrough roster has ever scored against Liverpool, hopefully that trend continues.

There's a good chance that Brad Jones will get the start over Mignolet, who clearly needs a rest.  We actually signed the Aussie keeper from Middlesbrough in August 2010 for £2.3m.  He has never faced his former club and has a 1-1-1 record for Liverpool in League Cup matches, including a 3-1 loss at Anfield in 2012 to Swansea.  The starting line-up for that match was Jones, Coates, Carragher, Jack Robinson, Joe Cole, Assaidi, Henderson, Downing, Allen, Shelvey, and Samed Yesil.  With Henderson and Allen seemingly unavailable for the match due to injury, Jones is the only player from that side who could be chosen.

As for the potential line-up, I am pretty confident that among available players, Gerrard, Balotelli, Lovren, Moreno, Sterling, and probably Skrtel will be sat.  I wouldn't be surprised to see any of those save Gerrard and Lovren on the bench though.  I'm hoping Rodgers tinkers, especially with the lunch time match versus Everton on Saturday.  Would love to see a line-up of Jones, Enrique, Sakho, Toure, Johnson (Manquillo if not injured), Lucas, Rossiter, Markovic, Suso, Lallana, and Lambert.  Maybe Rodgers will go a little bonkers and include some of the teenagers like Sinclair and Ojo, Stewart is a good possibility for the bench as well.

Does this match really matter?  Though I'd hate to lose to Boro at home, with how thin our squad is at the moment, another fixture is more trouble than it's worth.  If only we could sell the fixture to United since they clearly need more matches.  I just want to see an entertaining match with free flowing football and no thuggery.

Liverpool Reserves 1, Middlesborough Reserves 1: the highlights

Here are the video highlights from Tuesdays Reserves 1-1 draw with the Middlesborough Reserves. The 'Hand of God' goal from 'Boro is about 1:30 into the video and the penalty incident for Liverpool is about 6:30 into the highlights. Cheers.