Liverpool team news: Wieffer back, van Hecke available

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Albion beat Manchester United to reach this stage of the competition.

2026-02-12T16:15+00:00

Mats Wieffer and Jan Paul van Hecke are both available to play at Anfield. 📸 by James Boardman.

Albion will face Liverpool at Anfield on Saturday as they fight for a place in the fifth round of the Emirates FA Cup, kick-off 8pm.

Team news

Fabian Hurzeler confirmed that Jan Paul van Hecke will be available to face Liverpool from the start on Saturday, while we could also see the return of Mats Wieffer.

"There’s no new injury concerns," the German said in his press conference on Thursday at St. George's Park. "Mats Wieffer will be back, so that's a positive one. But today it was calm, so maybe now we’ll always come after the game to St. George’s Park because no injury concerns is quite positive and we haven't had it so much in this season.

"Mats is a big player who has a big impact on our game. He has a big personality as well. So we definitely missed him and we are all happy that he's back now.

"Jan Paul should be okay to start again. Yasin Ayari is still missing. He is doing rehab, but he's getting closer. We expect him to be back soon."

Their last line-up

The Reds to take on Barnsley ✊ #EmiratesFACup
— Liverpool FC (@LFC) January 12, 2026

Match facts

Liverpool have won four of their last five matches against Albion in all competitions (L1), beating them 2-0 at Anfield earlier this season in the Premier League.

This will be the seventh FA Cup between Liverpool and Brighton, with both sides progressing three times each – the Reds in 1907-08, 1990-91 and 2011-12 and the Seagulls in 1982-83, 1983-84 and 2022-23.

Liverpool have been eliminated from six of their last nine FA Cup fourth round ties and were eliminated at this stage last season by Plymouth. In the Premier League era (1992-93 onwards), the Reds have suffered 13 eliminations at this stage – two more than other Premier League side (Spurs, 11).

Brighton have won their last three FA Cup fourth round ties, beating a Premier League side in each season. Indeed, since they were promoted to the Premier League in 2017, they’ve reached the fifth round six times, with only Man City (8) and Man Utd (7) doing so more often since 2017-18.

Brighton have won seven of their last eight away matches in the FA Cup (L1) and since the start of the 2022-23 season have won more away games than any other side in the competition (first round onwards, 7).

Match officials