Roberto De Zerbi plans to rotate his Tottenham squad against Liverpool in the Carabao Cup.
Tottenham Hotspur face an uphill task to qualify for the fourth round of the Carabao Cup. This is because Liverpool are standing in front of Roberto De Zerbi’s side, who smashed Charlton Athletic in the previous round of the competition.
After a disappointing 0-0 draw with Everton in the Premier League, Roberto De Zerbi is set to rotate his squad against Liverpool. The Italian tactician will be without a couple of his key players for this cup fixture. He confirmed on Monday afternoon that Sandro Tonali will miss out due to a knock and Pedro Porro hasn’t yet recovered from a muscle issue. One positive news on the injury front is that Destiny Udogie has shaken off his minor muscular concern and is available for the trip to Anfield.
Roberto De Zerbi hints at using one player from the off vs. Liverpool
With rotation on the cards on Tuesday, there could well be first starts for a few Spurs stars yet to feature from the onset this season. James Maddison returned against Everton after missing the last three games with a slight shoulder fracture. This has limited his appearances to cameos off the bench.
The same applies to Mohammed Kudus, who hasn’t started a game for the Lilywhites since mid-January. The 26-year-old has been eased back to fitness after missing the second half of last season with a serious quad injury. He returned to training in April, only to suffer a relapse of his quad injury. The Ghanaian playmaker has come off the bench in the last three Premier League games, including getting 27 minutes in the 0-0 draw with Everton.
Ahead of the trip to Liverpool, Roberto De Zerbi has hinted Mohammed Kudus could start on Tuesday evening.
“Kudus can start, because in terms of physical condition he’s better,” De Zerbi said in his press conference (h/t The Standard).
Kudus’ importance to the Tottenham side
Tottenham have suffered for creativity and incisiveness since the start of the 2025/26 season. This campaign, in particular, the North London outfit have yet to score a goal despite having played six hours of Premier League football.
No doubt Kudus can be a key player in solving the creativity issue. The Ghana international was Spurs’ creator-in-chief last season in the injury absence of James Maddison and Dejan Kulusevski. After a certain point, though, the creative winger’s form dipped, and he got injured in the second half of the campaign.
Given he has got valuable minutes off the bench in recent games and is now back up to speed and rhythm, the cup fixture vs. Liverpool is the perfect opportunity for De Zerbi to throw Kudus right into the mix.