This is the time of the season where it gets busy. The congested fixture pileup will consume the respective managers to their skin. Hence, some tactical changes are quite rightly expected ahead of the upcoming third round of the Carabao Cup.
Tottenham, on their part, will be welcoming Barnsley who are struggling at 20th spot of the Championship table. For Mauricio Pochettino, the League Cup ties are important fixtures and like every other manager, he has confirmed that he will be rotating his squad this Tuesday.
A couple of days after the League Cup encounter, a trip to West Ham has been scheduled, followed by an away Champions League tie against APOEL Nicosia, which makes it verty important for Pochettino to keep his roster fresh.
Pochettino, however, has insisted that he remains focused on the next game.
“I think every single competition is important for us for different reasons,” the Argentine was quoted as saying by the Evening Standard.
“When you have the possibility to play four competitions, it’s important to play every single game. For us it’s a priority too. Tomorrow we want to win and we are going to play to win. We want to go as far as possible in this competition.”
Confirming his scheme for the fixture, the Argentine added that he will be rotating the squad ‘for different reasons’ and confirmed that some of the youngsters will be given the nod.
“For different reasons I will rotate the team. But in the end it’s Tottenham that is going to play, like in different competitions.
“Maybe to give the possibility to play for a player that doesn’t play too much I think it’s a good possibility to see them and try to give the possibility to maybe fight to be in the starting XI more regularly.”
Pochettino further confirmed that 18-year-old Marcus Edwards, who is arguably one of Tottenham’s brightest talents, will not be in the squad against Barnsley as he still needs to develop his confidence and improve himself physically. On the 18-year-old, Pochettino said:
“We’re so happy because he played very well against Man United and then, in the Youth Cup, he was very good.
“But I think we need to wait a little bit for him to build more his physical condition and his confidence. He’s better playing in the Under-23s or the Youth Cup than staying with us, maybe on the bench.”
Besides all of it, we might finally see Harry Winks and deadline day signing Fernando Llorente start their first game of the season this Tuesday. We are yet to register a single win in domestic competitions at home this season, and hopefully, Tuesday night could bring an end to the ‘Wembley hoodoo.’
