Paul Lambert: Wolves youngsters shouldn't fear FA Cup occasion

The tickets – all 8,300 of them – were all sold in a little over 48 hours. It's Wolves' first match against one of English football big glamour teams since they faced Chelsea in a 2012 EFL Cup tie, writes Tim Spiers.

And it's an ideal opportunity for Paul Lambert's team to test themselves on the big stage – in front of a national TV audience – as they look to cause a Cup upset.

Wolves have made a nice habit of turning it on for the big games this season. Newcastle away (a 2-0 win), Blues away (a 3-1 win), Villa (1-1 away when they should have won and a 1-0 victory at home) and of course in the last round away at Premier League outfit Stoke City, whom they outplayed in a 2-0 win.

Can their big-game players turn it on again at Anfield, one of the most historic and atmospheric grounds in world football?

Lambert is feeling confident.

"I can't wait for the game," he told the Express & Star. "You'd rather play! But I'll have to watch.

"I'm lucky enough to have been to Anfield a few times and won, as a player and a manager.

"It's a brilliant stadium, historic, with the famous Kop end and the great players to have played there – Dalglish, Souness, Hansen, the guys I was watching when I was growing up. I'm delighted for the players to go up to play and for the supporters to have the excitement."

Lambert will come up against someone he knows very well, in Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp. They did their pro licence together and Lambert has spent time in Germany, including at Dortmund, studying coaching techniques.

They of course share that Dortmund link. It's the club Lambert won a Champions League with as a player, something Klopp fell agonisingly short of achieving as a manger.

"I know him pretty well," Lambert added. "We did the pro licence together in 2004 and I went over to Dortmund for nine days or so and watched them train. We've been at the same club, so the Dortmund connection and knowing him from when I did – it'll be nice to meet up."

The Wolves boss made a host of changes for the win at Stoke, bringing in the likes of Lee Evans, George Saville, Kortney Hause and Mike Williamson, while 16-year-old Morgan Gibbs-White was handed his debut from the bench.

His XI this time around, like Liverpool's, is almost anyone's guess. Klopp fielded Liverpool's youngest ever team in round three and with this game sandwiched in between Wednesday's EFL Cup defeat to Southampton and Tuesday's must-win Premier League clash with Chelsea at Anfield, the Wolves game may be last in the list of Klopp's priorities.

"I've got a rough idea who'll play," Lambert said. "There are one or two positions I need to look at but I've got a rough idea what it'll be.

"If it's the young ones going in, I've got great belief in them to handle the occasion, the stage and the crowd.

"Otherwise how do we know if they're ready? You never know unless you throw them in. Connor Ronan, Bright – if you saw him in training today, he was unbelievable. Morgan, Harry Burgoyne, they've all played in big games. And more importantly they can play. I've got incredible belief in them."