Pep Guardiola likely to heavily rotate his Manchester City squad vs Tottenham in the Carabao Cup fourth round
Tottenham Hotspur are gearing up for the Carabao Cup fourth-round tie against Manchester City at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Wednesday.
Ange Postecoglou will be desperate for a response from his boys to the Premier League defeat at Crystal Palace on Sunday. The Lilywhites were flat, devoid of energy and invention, failing to carve open a rigid Palace defence at Selhurst Park and dropping three points.
There has been a lot of scrutiny over that Spurs performance from fans and pundits. Now, it will be up to Ange Postecoglou and his men to put things right in midweek when they square up against Pep Guardiola’s Man City.
Man City edged Southampton 1-0 at the Etihad Stadium on Saturday in the Premier League thanks to an early Erling Haaland strike. After the game, Guardiola reaffirmed that he will not take the forthcoming cup tie as seriously as the other competitions.
The Spaniard admitted that his players ran a lot against Southampton and will not risk anyone not fully fit. Instead, he will use the academy stars for the stern challenge at White Hart Lane.
“We are few, few people. I don’t know if I’m going to think against Spurs maybe some players from the academy. We will see,” Guardiola said in his press conference (h/t The Standard).
“If the players are fine they are going to play against Spurs but if they have doubts I’m not going to take a risk, that’s for sure.”
Kevin de Bruyne is expected to be out for a few weeks and Rodri has been ruled out for the rest of the campaign with an ACL injury. In addition, Guardiola also ruled out Kyle Walker, Jeremy Doku and Jack Grealish ahead of the Carabao Cup fourth-round tie.
It will be intriguing to see what line up Guardiola puts out in midweek. Despite injuries to some of their key players, the Sky Blues still have a lot of quality in their squad. Ange Postecoglou will likely field as strong a side as possible to give Spurs the best chance to come out on top as we are aiming to win a trophy.
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If Tottenham manage to defeat City, we will also end up eliminating one of the main contenders to win the competition. Big Ange’s lads would also gain a massive confidence boost by beating the best team in England, which could help to spur Tottenham on in our quest for the Carabao Cup and a spot in the Champions League this season.
