Everton draw Salford City in the Carabao Cup

Wow, Salford City... Isn't Phil Neville joint owner there?

So it's Salford in the League Cup.

Phil and Gary Neville, Nicky Butt, Ryan Giggs and Paul Scholes all co-owners of Salford, and I'm sure Beckham is involved as well. The 3rd Round draw is also being made in a few minutes.

The type of game where Calvert-Lewin or Kean will look like world beaters lol

Should be a straightforward passage through... if we don't fuck about in typical Everton fashion.

Every year I say the same thing.

I want to win this Cup. It's a very realistic opportunity for silverware. Please, Carlo, take this seriously.

So Fleetwood Town or Port Vale away in the 3rd round.

Guess Lewis Gibson will not celebrate if he scores in Round 3 eh!!!

Rob (3), when do these games take place, I'm assuming we'll be playing in the 3rd round.

2nd round is week commencing 14th September, Dave, and the 3rd round is week commencing 21st September. I'm pretty sure the 4th round is week commencing 28th September.

That's it then, we're out.

I can only see fringe players taking part in this cup this season mainly due to it not having a place in Europa League for the winners, although there is a pathway to earn a place in some sort of European competition (Europa Two) or something like that.

Anyway, the League Cup schedule is as follows:

Round One: 5 September 2020
Round Two: 15/16 September 2020
Round Three: 22/23 September 2020
Round Four: 29/30 September 2020
Round Five: 22/23 December 2020
Semi-Finals: 5/6 January 2021
Final: 28 February 2021

Rob, That's potentially 6 games in 17 days from next Sunday. There will be a bit of rotating going on for the cup games. Looking forward to the season starting now, waiting impatiently for Doucouré to sign though.

Patrick, there'll be a game every night the way it's going! 50-man squads...

@James 5

I agree. Winning this cup last season has got Arsenal into Europe this season, even though they finished 8th in the Premier League. Everton need European football and every route to it needs to be taken seriously.

Wonder what the 10% cost; if they do a Bournemouth and continue to rise...

How the other half live.

Frank, you're right about Arsenal getting into Europe by winning a cup, but they won the FA Cup. Man City won the League Cup last season.

In my lifetime, I've witnessed us win the league. I've witnessed us win the FA Cup. I've witnessed us win a European trophy.

It may be the lesser cup, but to see us lift silverware again and win a trophy that has eluded us would be a great first step in getting back on the footballing map. It would also settle a personal score in being continuously frustrated in our performance in this competition regardless of how little significance many place on it.

Unless we do an Everton, a fantastic opportunity to progress to round 4. There, ive said it!!

Nice to play a new team, pity we're not going to be able to be there to see it.

Danny, we'll beat Salford then go out against Joey Barton's Fleetwood side. It's written in the stars mate.

Colin, we'll "batter" Fleetwood. Cue all the fish puns!!

Please no more fish puns, Rob Hallibut.

Sadly we have form Colin. The English champions going out against Grimsby early doors in 85 still pains and fits Rob's fish theme!

The nothing cup. No good getting excited no matter who they are drawn against. Maybe Kean will play and score. Who really cares.

Tom, Man City don't think it's a nothing cup so why should we?

Scale back your optimism, Rob.

Colin, I think we'll fin-nish the fish puns!

Agreed Rob, this is no plaice for codswallop!

I was at Wembley in 1984 and didn't think of it as a nothing cup. Give me a day at Wembley and a chance to win a trophy any day over "battling" for 7th or 8th. It makes a statement, gives you the platform to go onto better things (as we did).

Sorry, I didn't realise that we are that good or picky that we look down on silverware that Pep Guardiola held above his head last season.

Danny 22! Thanks for the reminder. Forgot about that. I'm actually from Grimsby so, if we have to lose, please let it be to them again ha ha. Although they were far better then... now in League 2 and complete shite so, if we did lose to them... questions should be asked!

Our problems in this competition have usually been when we come up against Premier League opposition. With a few obvious exceptions, such as York and Grimsby, we have usually beaten lower league opposition.

I saw Salford lose at their place in January. They looked a mid-table League Two outfit and one we should beat comfortably.

Kenwright will love this. He will probably unveil a statue of Everton “legend” Phil Neville before the game.

I hope we win 20-0 and it's so embarrassing that their creditors call in their loans and they go bankrupt. Then, the Nevilles can go back to boo-hooing about their mum being unemployed after no-one invested in Bury while they sunk their cash into a soulless team from a dreary suburb of Manchester.

Might be a few games early doors, but surely that can only be good, to bed the players in, rather than a game, then international break, then another game.

Get the team blended in and settled.

Since the lockdown we have been playing two games a week anyway. Granted, if the same squad as last season, it would be asking a lot of the lazy bastards. But now, with competition for places, with no hiding place like the previous season, where players had no competition for their places... A whole new ball game this season, bring it on.

Thank Cod the fish puns have fin-ished.

If Liverpool's (mainly) academy team can beat an Everton 1st team, I'd like to think any Everton line-up can beat Salford City, Fleetwood Town or Port Vale.

That said, who can forget us being knocked out of the FA Cup by Shrewsbury the season they were relegated to the Conference?

Tony, weever way to go yet.

Like some have said, could get battered by Fleetwood, or the school of erm science returns, either way had enough trawlers on here looking for a bite.

Let's put the fish puns to bed, and not seabed.

A bit harsh, Kieran. I worked in Salford for a number of years. It is certainly not a suburb of Manchester but a city in its own right.

Holy mackerel, Fleetwood Mac? Who next, Carpiff City?

Often overlooked that, Alan. But that's where Manchester has done a better job than Liverpool in the "one city, one region" concept. The Greater Manchester area associates with the City of Manchester and this has seen them evolve to becoming the nations second city, regardless of what Birmingham thinks.

We meanwhile dispute Kirkby's right to be included in the Liverpool psyche because of a council boundary and debate whether Halewood or Huyton are scouse because they have different coloured wheely bins!!

We'll have a reunion of sorts with Darron Gibson then. Still active at 37 or whatever he is now.

We'll win this one but cup is cup and it can't be taken lightly.

Some say it's a silly cup but we have never won it, and I want us to. This is the year!

Danny, spot-on, mate.

I know European football is now gained from winning this cup but, in all honesty, I've never taken to it.

Little money, little prestige but silverware and European football next season. Sounds good but I just want to use it as a 'play the kids' Cup.

I think avoiding embarrassment early on in the season is always a concern too. But it's good for the lower league teams and will boost Salford's bank balance.

Although their owners probably put Moshiri's billions in the shade.

Alan,

I'm just bitter from when I lived in Manchester. I had a mate who'd always lure us out to Salford for “amazing” house parties or new clubs that were more a gathering in Last of the Summer Wine. I could never get anyone to go out in Liverpool.

Rob @20,

Awe come on, mate – there's no plaice for that sort of comment! :-)

Apologies there but I have had a couple of sherbets in a pub run by a committed Blue (manager)!

Being serious though, and agreeing with many other previous comments, we do need to take this competition seriously for once, none of this fielding the kids as if it doesn't have any significance.

As has been well documented, this is an easy path into Europe, foot on the ladder etc. So come on, boys, let's get our hands on this Cup of many guises, whatever it's called now. Carrot-by you? :-)

Looking forward to seeing our new turbot charged midfield in action. (Shame we don't still wear the salmon pink shirts).

If we lose either of these games I'll have haddock with EFC, but won't carp on about it. At least Whales won again last night (not strictly a fish, I know).

Being Everton, it is probably written in the stars that this is the season we will win it for the first time – when, as a ticket on the route into Europe, it has been down-graded so that it only provides entry into a mini-league from which you then progress to the Europa League, ie, another layer of competition, requiring more travelling to obscure places and an even greater squad depth.

I have always maintained that Everton needs good Cup runs on top of a Premier League top-six finish. Playing at the top level, which if achieved, consists in playing in more than one competition over a season. That's the objective of getting there and the only preparation for being able as a team of staying at that level.

Being only in the Premier League competition after Xmas has been the standard for so long, making a joke out of achieving being a top four club, with highly paid players taking the piss, with inevitable unproductive breaks, and poor levels of fitness, till the end of the season.

The inevitable tripe we have to listen too at the closing matches of the season regarding the long season demands on players makes me sick.

Kieran... ha ha... and some of the pubs were, say, interesting to say the least. Especially Patricroft!

Maybe one day we'll treat this cup with the respect it deserves.

Without this trophy we just become the Crystal Palace of the North.

It's our only way back to greatness my fellow Blues!

Let's win it.

Everton's Carabao Cup second round clash with Salford City will take place on Wednesday 16 September at 8.15pm and be screened live by Sky Sports.

Patrick #54 I wonder will Gary Neville be on commentary??

If Everton beat Salford there is the potential for a rematch against Port Vale if they beat Fleetwood. I remember Port Vale beating Everton in the FA Cup Fourth Round replay in 1996 and have wanted the two teams to meet again but with Everton winning. It is not certain they would as they are inconsistent.

There is no plaice for all these fish comments.

Per, I think Darron Gibson is still only 33.

Should have checked first, he is 32.