Plymouth Argyle head coach Miron Muslic is realistic about his side’s chances against Premier League leaders Liverpool when they to teams meet in the FA Cup fourth round this weekend.
The 42-year-old was named as Wayne Rooney’s permanent successor earlier this month. He arrived with the mammoth task of keeping the Pilgrims in the Championship, with the club sitting bottom of the division.
The early signs have been promising. The Austrian has lost two of his five games in charge thus far and picked up five points. They caused a huge shock last weekend by beating West Bromwich Albion 2-1 to move within four points of safety.
FA Cup Provides Welcome Relief
Muslic was appointed as head coach the day before Plymouth’s FA Cup third round trip to Premier League outfit Brentford. He watched his new team record a 1-0 victory from the stands, setting up a showdown with 19-time English champions Liverpool.
Arne Slot’s team have been dominant all season. They are six points clear at the top of the table having lost just one league game. They also possess a game in hand over second-placed Arsenal.
Unsurprisingly, the Reds are heavy favourites to book a place in the fifth round at Home Park. Although Plymouth are unbeaten in two, they have shipped a staggering 63 goals in 30 league outings, whilst Liverpool have scored 56 in 23.
As such, Muslic is realistic about his team’s chances, although insists it is a game they can learn a lot from. Via the BBC, he said:
“We believe that we can be uncomfortable, that we can be very hard to beat and very hard to play.
“We showed it against Sunderland away and also against West Brom, two teams trying to reach the Premier League level.
“Liverpool is another step, Liverpool is another category. Liverpool can find another gear very, very quickly and that’s OK, we won’t stop this, but we have also some things that we can show, and we can also learn from this game.”
Writer’s View
Publicly, Muslic knows his side will enter the game as huge underdogs. Privately though, he will be thinking they can cause an upset, especially in front of their own supporters. Liverpool also face a huge Carabao Cup semi final tonight against Tottenham Hotspur, meaning it is very likely Arne Slot will heavily rotate his team on Sunday. It’s very, very unlikely, but the FA Cup has been built on massive upsets. There’s no reason why this can’t be the next one.
