Jones' rabona, Milner's pep talk and 'Critch's creche' - Remembering Liverpool's last FA Cup tie with Shrewsbury

James Milner stood at the entrance to the Liverpool dressing room, smile as wide as the Mersey Tunnel and as bright as the Anfield floodlights.

“F***ing brilliant! Absolutely f***ing brilliant!” came the greeting as each of his red-shirted colleagues walked past. 

“I’ve never seen him so happy,” joked one member of the Reds’ media team. 

It was February 2020, and Liverpool had just beaten Shrewsbury 1-0 in an FA Cup fourth-round replay. Nothing spectacular about that, you might say, but context is important. 

And there was plenty of it that night.

The Reds’ victory came with a starting XI whose average age was just 19, and which was led by the youngest captain in the club’s history.

It was managed by Neil Critchley, then the coach of the U23s, and of the 14 players used on the night, five were making their professional debut and only two had ever scored a goal in senior football. 

Jurgen Klopp and his first-team squad were absent, the club having decided to take a public, and controversial, stand against the game’s governing bodies and their ever more taxing fixture schedule. 

"You cannot deal with us like nobody cares about it,” explained Klopp after the initial tie, a 2-2 draw at the New Meadow in which Liverpool had used the likes of Mohamed Salah, Roberto Firmino, Fabinho and Joel Matip. “I know that it's not very popular but that's the way I see it.

"In April 2019, we got a letter from the Premier League, where they asked us to respect the winter break and not to organise international friendlies or competitive games. We respect that.

"So, I said to the boys already two weeks ago that we will have a winter break which means we will not be there. It will be the kids who play that game.”

Despite a hefty backlash – Shrewsbury chairman Roland Wycherley was one of the more vociferous critics of Liverpool’s decision – a crowd of 52,399 arrived at Anfield to watch the replay (the game was not selected for live TV coverage in the UK, much to Shrewsbury’s anger), with Critchley stepping up to manage a side which featured the club’s youngest ever starting XI.

‘Critch’s Creche', they called it.

Curtis Jones, just five days past his 19th birthday, wore the armband, while there were debuts for left-back Adam Lewis, midfielder Jake Cain and forward Liam Millar.

Joe Hardy, a striker signed a month previously from Brentford, and former Arsenal trainee Elijah Dixon-Bonner would also make their senior bows that night off the bench.

Milner was the only first-teamer present, though he was not included in the squad.

The vice-captain did, however, train with the team the day before the game, and on matchday provided valuable support and experience to Critchley, having asked for permission to attend.

“I can’t thank him enough for being here tonight,” Critchley, now the manager of Championship side Blackpool, would say afterwards.

“He was getting right behind the players. He was vocal in the dressing room, he was animated behind me, I could hear him. And he was genuinely delighted with how the boys performed.”

Why wouldn’t he be? Liverpool went into the game as underdogs – a rarity for an Anfield fixture – but played with a maturity and an assuredness that delighted those in attendance, as well as Klopp, who was watching remotely.

Pedro Chirivella, the oldest member of the starting XI at 22, controlled midfield, Dutch youth internationals Ki-Jana Hoever and Sepp van den Berg formed a fine central-defensive pairing, while Neco Williams was a ball of energy from right-back.

Further forward, the class came from captain Jones, who had the crowd purring with an audacious ‘rabona’ in the first half, and Harvey Elliott, who was still two months shy of his 17th birthday.

Liverpool had 70 per cent possession, forced 14 corners and managed 14 shots to their opponents’ three. Shrewsbury had a goal ruled out for offside following a VAR review, but failed to manage a single effort on target otherwise. 

The only goal came 15 minutes from time, Williams’ diagonal cross from the right headed into his own net by Ro-Shaun Williams, one of three former Manchester United youngsters in the Shrewsbury side, in front of the Kop.

Elliott, the nearest player to Williams, celebrated as if he had scored it himself. Jones ran to the Kop, while Milner leapt from his seat behind the dugout. Liverpool held on comfortably for the win, securing the first-team a fifth-round tie at Chelsea. 

Getty/GOAL

Two years on, of course, Liverpool and Shrewsbury meet again in the FA Cup at Anfield, and given the events of the past few days, it would be no surprise to see a few more rookies pressed into action.

A look back at the February 2020 team suggests that would be no bad thing. 

Four of that side – Kelleher, Williams, Jones and Elliott – are part of the Reds’ first-team squad, with 114 appearances between them now. Another, Hoever, is playing Premier League football with Wolves, while Chirivella is a regular in Ligue 1 with Nantes.

Millar has been shining since joining Swiss side Basel in the summer, Van den Berg has racked up 40 Championship appearances on loan at Preston, while Lewis, Cain and Clarkson have all played senior football, even if their respective loan spells have not necessarily gone according to plan.

Clarkson, for example, was recalled from his stint at Blackburn earlier this month, while Lewis has been hampered by injury since moving to Scottish outfit Livingston in August. 

It remains to be seen what kind of side Liverpool will field in Sunday’s game.

The likes of Conor Bradley, Owen Beck, James Norris, Billy Koumetio, Jarell Quansah, Max Woltman, Mateusz Musialowski, Marcelo Pitaluga and Kaide Gordon will all hope for chances.

Of that bunch, Gordon, the 17-year-old winger, looks the brightest prospect, though Klopp has been particularly taken by Beck, a young Welsh left-back whose great uncle is Ian Rush, Liverpool’s all-time record goalscorer.

Whoever plays, Shrewsbury will certainly be wary. Once bitten, twice shy and all that. They won’t forget their last visit to Merseyside in a hurry.

Nobody who was there will.