What Jurgen had to say about it today.
“On cup competitions being an opportunity to use the squad…
I don’t know exactly but I think we rotated a lot in the first part of the season. I don’t think we were particularly brave or whatever, we just did it because we thought the boys can do it. It was not one game where we thought, ‘Ah, forget it, who cares how we play there?’ That never happens. I think that’s the main reason why the impact from the bench is like it was so far, because it’s massive for the boys who come on what they contribute and it’s really important. That’s only because they all have rhythm. If you bring a boy who didn’t play for five or six weeks, it’s very rare he can play to his best. That’s why so far I think we did that quite well.
But actually, I am not sure if Arsenal is now a game to rotate. I sit here, I don’t know 100 per cent if we have the opportunity to do so, to be honest, whatever it means. It’s not that we have the biggest squad available. We have players available and we can line a team up, 100 per cent, a good team. And I think that’s what we will do. If that looks then afterwards like rotation, I don’t know yet. We have six days between the games, 1st and 7th, that’s long and there’s no need for rotation.
You can say, OK, three days later we have another game. Yes, that’s true, but we can think about that game when the other game is over. That’s what we do usually. And both have the same importance, there is nothing in between. We want to win these games, we want to go to the [League Cup] final but we want to go to the next round [of the FA Cup] as well. But it is probably the most tricky draw you can get and it will be a tough one. The game here was a good one and let’s hope we can show a good performance there as well.”
