Football
Dan Kilpatrick, Tottenham Correspondent 7y

Tottenham boss Mauricio Pochettino to rotate for Liverpool EFL Cup clash

LONDON -- Tottenham Hotspur manager Mauricio Pochettino says he will rotate his team for Tuesday's EFL Cup fourth-round match at Liverpool.

Moussa Sissoko will serve the first of a three-match ban at Anfield after Pochettino confirmed the club had accepted a Football Association charge of violent conduct following the midfielder's elbow on Bournemouth's Harry Arter on Saturday.

Harry Kane and Toby Alderweireld are also sidelined with ankle and leg injuries respectively, while 17-year-old Marcus Edwards, who made his debut in the last round, is out for around two months with an ankle injury.

Pochettino revealed that Michel Vorm will start in goal and said he was planning to give 21-year-old winger Georges-Kevin Nkoudou his first start for the club.

On Alderweireld, who missed the 0-0 draws at Bayer Leverkusen and Bournemouth after being stretchered off with a leg injury against West Bromwich Albion, Pochettino said: "We'll see this week. We hope that maybe next week he'll be available.

"Tomorrow, he is still out but maybe he will be available for next week -- could be Leicester, Leverkusen or Arsenal. It depends every day how he is -- he's improving a lot and he's much better but it's still difficult to know."

Ben Davies, Kieran Trippier, Cameron Carter-Vickers, Kevin Wimmer, Joshua Onomah, Harry Winks and Tom Carroll are also expected to be involved for Tottenham.

Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp has revealed he will play Simon Mignolet in goal against Spurs and says he expects a "few changes."

Pochettino, however, believes it will make little difference but said the Reds' lack of European football was a major advantage for them.

"They have a very strong squad," he said. "If they play [Simon] Mignolet, he's an international goalkeeper. Only the last few games he has been on the bench. If not [Roberto] Firmino, they play [Daniel] Sturridge. If not [Philippe] Coutinho, they play [Georginio] Wijnaldum. If not [Jordan] Henderson, they play [Lucas] Leiva.

"For me, it's Liverpool against Tottenham. Football is a collective sport. It's true that when you are involved in many competitions like we are, you can see that I rotate the squad in different games.

"Now it's to assess the team and take a different solution with freshness and compete in a different way. We have Liverpool and then key games like Leicester and Leverkusen. It's important to be clever.

"Our idea is win the game, our idea is that we have a strong squad that deserve to play, all deserve to play. It's a different competition and, like against Gillingham [in the third round], sometimes we rest players that play a lot and avoid the risk of injury, and players who don't feel so good --- it's about balance.

"We know too that Liverpool are more fresh because they're not in a European competition. Always it's difficult -- Leverkusen [lost] at home to Hoffenheim 3-0. Dortmund difficult, [Manchester] City difficult, Arsenal difficult.

"For all the teams that played in the Champions League, it was very difficult to compete because opponents are fresh. In our case, Bournemouth had time to prepare for the game [on Saturday]."

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