Mark Lawrenson: Nuisance FA Cup Tie Is Last Thing Everton Or Liverpool Would Want

MY first reaction when I heard the first tie out of the bag in the FA Cup fourth round draw was “Oh no – surely not!” And I bet that was how Liverpool and Everton reacted to it as well.

It’s a nuisance tie and the last one either side needed.

The sort that make you want to turn the clock back a few seconds and start the whole draw again.

For Liverpool, when they heard their name come out of the bag first and they knew had a home tie they must have been hoping for Kettering or Hartlepool to be next out.

Okay so they lost at home to Barnsley last year, but the odds of something like that happening again are remote and getting a similar draw is far more preferable than being paired with Everton, or anyone else from the top 10 of the Premier League for that matter.

You’d take awkward over tough any day.

As for David Moyes, well he has had some shockers but he’s also had some stinkers in his time in terms of draws.

Yes, you do have to knock out the best to win a cup but you also need luck as well so getting the top of the league away from home, whoever that might be, suggests that’s not on your side this year.

While the managers and players won’t like the draw, I’m not convinced the supporters will be too keen on it either.

I do think it is great that some of them have recognised the significance of a repeat of the 1989 final and are making the most of this opportunity to commemorate the 20th anniversary Hillsborough disaster.

But that is the closest I think anyone will come to creating any kind of a sense of occasion.

After all, the game will come just a few days after they have met in the league at Anfield.

These games are rarely spectacles anyway and I don’t see that changing just because they happen to be playing in the FA Cup.

It’s still a Merseyside derby and nobody wants to lose. Expect it to be cagey. In fact, expect a draw.

Which is the last thing Liverpool need when you’ve got a title to go for and a Champions League campaign ready to start up again.

Everton? Well, that won’t concern them. But it does all make me think that they could actually do quite well out of this draw.

Moyes is more than capable, as he has proved in the past, of going to Anfield and coming away with a draw.

On this occasion, he could still be suffering a severe shortage of players but when his tactics have been dictated to him because of availability, its usually worked out quite well.

There’s no reason to think he won’t go there with a 4-5-1 and maybe hedge his bets on giving his rivals that pesky extra fixture on their list.

There’s no doubt that, considering how many teams were still left in that bag when Liverpool came out first, that Moyes will be cursing his luck at being handed such a tough trip.

But aside from that, there are no problems with fixture pile-ups for them so they have no reason to be fearful of the tie.

They need to turn it in their favour and make the best of what at first seemed a bad situation. And it’s their ability to do that over and over again that has got them into such a strong position at this stage of the season.

Whatever happens, there is no denying that this is the tie of the round.

But a derby is a derby and the players will all be treating the tie the same way. In fact it’s the same way I treated the Cup final of 1986.

Just get through it and make sure you win it.