let's keep it rolling folks !
GL

RB Salzburg -1.75 [-120] Champions League (Europe)

Doubt this line moves in favor of the home side so I'm just grabbing this now. 7 Maccabi Tel Aviv players out due to COVID including def mid Dan Glazer (38 app last season) and star attacker Yonatan Cohen (39 app, 13 G 12 A)and I don't think they'll have the same resilience at the back under current manager Donis. I'm sure they will try to defend and keep this competitive, may even sneak a goal with the way Salzburg play, but the Austrians should be far too good here.

Probably also worth noting that this season's top scorer, Nick Blackman, is also one of the players out due to COVID. So these are not just periphery squad members or youth players that don't really affect much who are missing, these are key players out.

With opening league losses to Arsenal and Leeds, life back in the top-flight hasn’t started particularly well for Fulham and a midweek loss to Sheffield Wednesday in the EFL Cup 3rd round will certainly ramp up the pressure on Scott Parker. Sheffield Wednesday booked their spot in the 3rd round courtesy of a 2-0 win over Rochdale, however their form in the Championship sees them bottom of the table, albeit after the opening two games.

Sheffield Wednesday endured a poor time of things as they went just W3-D5-L11 across their final 19 games in all competitions last season, including eight defeats from the final 12 of these.

They have however started the new campaign in much better form, beating Walsall (on penalties) and Rochdale in this tournament, as well as taking all three points on the road at Cardiff (who finished fifth last term) and a point hosting newly relegated Watford in their last fixture.

Garry Monk is only missing two senior players, defensive duo Chey Dunkley and Osaze Urhoghide, though neither have featured this term so far and it shouldn’t make the world of difference here.

Neither Julian Borner nor Moses Odubajo were involved against Watford and could come back into the matchday squad, along with Ciaran Brennan and Conor Grant, and we wouldn’t expect Monk to put out his best team.

The Owls were hit with a 12-point deduction this season and despite a positive start, remain on minus eight and will need to focus resources on the league.

Fulham are already looking in trouble after just two games in the top flight, getting thoroughly outclassed 3-0 at home to Arsenal, before ultimately coming off second best in a 4-3 thriller when travelling to Marcelo Bielsa’s exciting Leeds.

They did manage a 1-0 win away at Ipswich in their other appearance, but a narrow triumph over the League One outfit doesn’t inspire total confidence in their chances here.

However, the Cottagers do possess the superior squad and having missed their last outing, the likes of Bobby Reid, Antonee Robinson, Tim Ream and Tom Cairney should all come into the team, while Mario Lemina will get more than the 20 minutes he had against Leeds.

Those players will certainly help Fulham find the target, something they don’t particularly struggle with on home turf in any case as they’d failed to score in just two of their last 17 at this venue prior to hosting the Gunners.

Sheffield Wednesday are yet to concede this term after four games, but they went down 5-3 when they last faced Fulham, with that game taking place here at Craven Cottage as recently as July.

Both teams found the net in each of the head to heads last term and given Fulham have looked very leaky at the back in the new campaign, we wouldn’t be at all surprised to see the visitors register on the board. Indeed, they’ve done so in 24 of 29 away matches since the start of last season.

Lincoln vs Liverpool | Thursday 24th September 2020, 2:45

Premier League champions Liverpool get their Carabao Cup campaign started on Thursday evening with a visit to Sincil Bank to play Lincoln.

Liverpool have made a strong start to their defence of the Premier League with two wins whilst the Imps have also won all five of their opening fixtures and have made an impressive start to their League One campaign, where they hope to be pushing for promotion.

Liverpool fringe players to be given a chance
Despite what is undoubtedly going to be a much-changed XI from the team that beat 10-man Chelsea at the weekend, the Reds still go off as massive favourites, as short as 1/6 in places.

Jurgen Klopp has a settled side and the cup competitions offer a huge opportunity for the young players coming through and the more senior fringe players to prove they are good enough for the Premier League.

Curtis Jones and Neco Williams are two academy graduates who may consider themselves in the first team now, with many minutes of Premier League football under their belts, but games such as this trip to Lincoln will certainly test their mentality. If they were to slack off, then Klopp would read this and could be detrimental to their chances of minutes in the Premier League.

There is a narrative that Klopp doesn’t care about the cup competitions, especially after sending the academy players and staff to Villa Park last season, where they were beat 5-0. That was more circumstance than a choice however, due to other first team commitments. He has always tended to field the experienced fringe players alongside the youth, and I’d expect him to do the same here.

This year’s route to the final is quicker than previous years, if Liverpool were to progress here and then a week later in the fourth round, they would have three months to prepare for the quarter-finals, before a potential one leg semi-final. I believe Klopp will see this as a massive advantage and go for a cup competitions.

The German was brought to the club to deliver the Premier League and the Champions League and he has since done that. From now on, competing for all four competitions is something Liverpool will be focusing on, similarly to Pep Guardiola’s Man City in recent years. This could see the likes of Diogo Jota handed his debut, alongside Kostas Tsimikas.

The betting angles
In this round last season, Liverpool faced MK Dons and were victorious 2-0. I could see the same scoreline here, with Klopp’s side keeping a clean sheet at Chelsea last time out whilst scoring twice.

Despite the aforementioned changes, the club have been prolific at winning smartly and by the odd goal in recent years. The 2-0 result is best priced 5/1 with the majority of major bookmakers. I will have a small dabble on this but only a half point play.

My main bet for this contest, however, will be Liverpool to win and Under 4 Goals in, priced at 11/10 with bet365. This way, we have the 0-1, 0-2 and 1-2 and 0-3 Liverpool win onside.

This bet would have landed in Liverpool’s cup wins over Everton, MK Dons and Shrewsbury last season and even if they go with Jota, Takumi Minamino and Harvey Elliott as there front three, I think they may lay off if they go ahead and see out a professional performance, not risking too much.