With Liverpool having played in the Premier League on Saturday against Fulham and then only having two days off before they face Tottenham today in the League Cup, head coach Andoni Iraola is expected to make sweeping changes to his starting eleven with one of those already confirmed.
At his pre-match press conference, Iraola confirmed that backup goalkeeper Giorgi Mamardashvili will get the start between the sticks against Spurs. More than that, though, the manager highlighted the short turnaround
and acknowledged he will likely have to make changes to account for that.
“It’s the worst scenario,” the Liverpool boss noted ahead of kickoff. “In terms of the schedule we haven’t been lucky but it is what it is. I think after the international break also we have this period, playing in nine or ten days four games or something like this. So we have to get used to this.
“You can decide to use the same players every game, the problem is there is going to be a moment where they are going to be very tired and then there always is more risk of injury. There are players who play every three days, they can accept it, and their performances never change too much.
“And then there are other players where the risk is much bigger, the performances are different. I think that I have it in my mind quite clear what it is with some of them but with others it’s new maybe even for them because they haven’t played as many games and so we are all learning.”
Just who it is Iraola feels might need a little more downtime and perhaps which handful of players he might think will thrive playing maximum minutes is a question we won’t have to wait long for an answer to—though hopefully whatever it is, the performance will be better than against Fulham.
