The Game
Argyle v Liverpool. Home Park. Sunday, 9 February. 3pm. Emirates FA Cup fourth round.
The Opposition
Liverpool, 19-time top-flight winners, eight-time winners of the FA Cup, and a club that has been European Champions six times, are top of the current Premier League table.
The Reds have played 23 league games, winning 17, drawing five and losing just once, to Nottingham Forest, in their fourth game of the season. In 37 games in all competitions, Liverpool have lost three times only – one was to Tottenham Hotspur in the first leg of the Carabao Cup semi-final (Liverpool won the second leg 4-0 on Thursday) and the other to PSV Eindhoven in the Champions League, but only after Liverpool had already secured safe passage to the competition’s next stage.
In fact, Liverpool ended the group stage of the Champions League on top of the table, too.
The Gaffer
Arne Slot played most of his career in the top two tiers of football in his native Netherlands, playing for FC Zwolle, NAC Breda, Sparta Rotterdam and PEC Zwolle.
He began coaching at his final club, then moved to Cambuur to be assistant manager. He later took over as joint boss, with Sipke Hulshoff, but after just under a year, he moved to AZ Alkmaar to be their assistant.

A similar pattern occurred. He took over as head coach for the 2019/20 season, which was curtailed with AZ in second place, behind Ajax. He left AZ midway through the following season, having already agreed to move to Feyenoord the following season.
At Feyenoord, his time included a league title, a domestic cup and a UEFA Conference League final. He moved to Liverpool in the summer of 2024.
The Squad
Caoimhin Kelleher feels likely to start in goal for Liverpool. He has often been Liverpool’s cup goalkeeper. In fact, of his 64 games for his only club, just 23 have been league games. The Cork-born 26-year-old has been a patient number two at Liverpool, but he is first choice goalkeeper for the Ireland national team.
Sunday’s game feels like an opportunity for Federico Chiesa (below) to get just his third Liverpool start. The Italian international, part of the team that won the 2021 European Championship, signed in the summer, after a long road back from injury. Son of Italian International Enrico, Chiesa played with distinction for Fiorentina and Juventus in his native country before trying his luck in England.

Japanese international midfielder Wataru Endo has been on the fringes of the Liverpool first team of late, appearing typically from the bench. He started Liverpool’s last FA Cup tie, against Accrington Stanley, and played at centre-back. He may do so again should the Reds choose to rest Virgil van Dijk and Ibrahima Konate. Endo left Urawa Red Diamonds in his home country to join Saint-Truden in Belgium, and then German side Stuttgart. He moved to Liverpool in the summer of 2023.
Most Recent Meetings
Argyle played Liverpool in the FA Cup in 2017, as a League Two team. They produced a remarkable 0-0 draw at Anfield, then lost 1-0 in a replay ten days later, with Lucas Leiva scoring the game’s only goal.
Prior to that, Argyle’s other ten appearances against the Reds came in the second tier, between 1954 and 1962.
Argyle TV
Due to competition rules, no match passes will be made available for this match.
However, existing Argyle TV subscribers can listen to live audio commentary provided by Charlie Price and Aaron Cusack.
The pre-match show starts at 2pm, with Erin Black, Ian Stonebridge and Katie Middleton. Tommy Tynan and David Norris will appear on the show as live guests.
TV
The game will be broadcast live on ITV1.