Norwich City have handed Bali Mumba a place in their starting line-up for Tuesday’s League Cup fixture against Liverpool.
The English youth international of Congolese origin made his Canaries bow in the club’s 5-0 defeat to Manchester City on August 21 at the Etihad Stadium, before making his second appearance as Norwich silenced AFC Bournemouth 6-0 three days later.
Against Jurgen Klopp’s men, the defender would be hoping to stop the Reds – who are without Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mane - from progressing to the next round of the competition.
In a 5-3-2 formation, the 19-year-old will partner Andrew Omobamidele, Grant Hanley, Ben Gibson and Dimitris Giannoulis in a bid to provide cover for goalkeeper Angus Gunn.
Christoph Zimmermann is still out with an ankle issue while Prezmysław Płacheta will not return to first-team training until next week as he fights back from a Covid-19 illness. Todd Cantwell is missing due to personal reasons.
“Once you have to play against the best teams in the world and we do this on league level and now we do this against Liverpool in the cup, we have to do this with full intensity,” manager Daniel Farke told Norwich City website.
“For that, I trust my whole squad. We have three games in seven days, and it is important to bring some recovered players on the pitch, but not to rest other players.
“It is more like to have players who can go with this intensity against the ball in order to be competitive."
For Liverpool, Ibrahima Konate and Kostas Tsimikas are the only players who retained their places in the starting XI from Saturday’s Premier League win over Crystal Palace.
Kaide Gordon and Conor Bradley make their senior debuts while Joe Gomez is named as captain.
Regardless of Tuesday’s outcome, Norwich City – who have lost their last three matches – will return to the top-flight where they take on Everton on Saturday.