Jose Mourinho will not risk leaving any of his big guns behind when Tottenham visit Wycombe in the FA Cup fourth round on Monday night.
Spurs were able to leave the likes of Harry Kane, Hugo Lloris and Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg at home for the third-round win at non-league Marine a fortnight ago, but that will not be the case this time even though they play Liverpool in the Premier League three days later.
Mourinho’s men travel to the Championship’s bottom club aiming to book a fifth-round tie with either Everton or Sheffield Wednesday and the Portuguese does not want to take any chances.
“It is a very difficult game,” he said.
“It is not easy. We of course want to make a few changes but because it is natural and as you say we have match after match and others deserve a chance to play and the opportunity to show why they are not happy when they don’t play.
“Yes we are going to make some changes and yes we go with the whole group. We know we have a difficult match and we don’t want to throw away any competition.
“If we are knocked out it has to be because we are not good enough, not because we didn’t face the game with enough respect.”
Spurs might not take Wycombe as lightly given they were nearly dumped out by them at the same stage four years ago.
The Chairboys, then a League Two side, came within two minutes of sending Mauricio Pochettino’s side out before goals in the final two minutes from Dele Alli and Son Heung-min spared their blushes.
Mourinho hopes that experience can help avert any danger on Monday.
“Five or six of us were playing in that game,” Mourinho said. “They also have five or six that were playing and of course they also had that great experience for them.
“Yes I believe that the players can share feelings and emotions with the others.
“It is also our responsibility to analyse the opponent and to analyse the opponent is to show what they are capable of doing against us.
“So yes, I think that game is a good game to analyse and be discussed because Tottenham was really, really close to being knocked out that time.”
REUTERS