StatsFA Cup: 12 facts to know ahead of Plymouth v Liverpool

The Reds will aim to progress to round five when they journey to the Championship team for a 3pm GMT kick-off at Home Park on Sunday.

Here are a dozen pre-match facts and figures to know, courtesy of club statistician Ged Rea…

In all competitions, Liverpool have won three of their six previous visits to Home Park.

The first 10 of the sides’ 12 previous encounters were in the Second Division, between 1954 and 1962.

The last meeting between the clubs, in 2017, saw Liverpool win a third-round replay 1-0 at Home Park. Lucas Leiva, captaining the Reds on the night, scored the goal.

The Reds have lost only two of their last 21 away games, both coming in cup competitions – 1-0 at Tottenham Hotspur in the League Cup and 3-2 at PSV Eindhoven in the Champions League, both last month.

Arne Slot’s men have won 25 of their 26 games this season in which they have scored the first goal.

Liverpool will be aiming to buck an unhappy trend. They have played three times before in the FA Cup on February 9 and lost them all. They were beaten 2-0 at Notts County in 1901 and at Leeds United in 1972, and lost 2-1 at West Ham United in 2016.

In round three, Plymouth won at Brentford thanks to a solitary goal from Morgan Whittaker on 82 minutes, a player they later sold to Middlesbrough.

The Pilgrims’ Victor Palsson was a youngster on the books at Anfield from 2009 to 2011.

Their head coach, Miron Muslic, was appointed to the role on January 10. He is their fourth permanent manager in the last 13 months.

This will be Liverpool’s 454th game in the competition. They have won 243 of those matches to date.

In each of the last five seasons that the Reds have been eliminated from the FA Cup, the defeat has come away from home.

Virgil van Dijk’s next start will be his 300th for the club.