Rafael Benitez could gamble on wholesale changes when Liverpool return to the Emirates Stadium tomorrow for the second of three clashes with Arsenal in seven days.
With Arsenal still in with a shout of the Premier League crown, the chances of Arsene Wenger making such dramatic changes for this league clash are less likely.
But Liverpool will have looked at the run-in that they and fifth-placed Everton have got and seen that the Toffees must also go to the Emirates and they also have to play Chelsea.
So with a five-point lead in the race for the final Champions League spot going into the weekend - and a far superior goal difference - Liverpool have more breathing space than Arsenal and therefore it is likely most of Liverpool's big guns will be left on the sidelines.
Fernando Torres, taken off in the final minutes of Wednesday's 1-1 Champions League draw, is highly unlikely to be risked again if only to make sure that he avoids injury ahead of Tuesday's semi-final second leg against the Gunners at Anfield.
And there is every chance that skipper Steven Gerrard, Sami Hyypia, Jamie Carragher, Dirk Kuyt and Ryan Babel could be rested for this one.
Benitez, who could play Peter Crouch and fit-again Andriy Voronin up front, said: 'I will need to think carefully about my team for the league match. Torres and Gerrard will need to be strong for the second leg, and Kuyt ran himself to a standstill on Wednesday.
'Some players recover in two or three days, others need four. Maybe we will need to change some players.
'The age may be the key. Fernando can recover in two days, but Sami could take five. We will have to wait and see.
'I am expecting to make changes, I cannot expect them to play three times like that in seven days, certainly with the very high tempo of the games.
'It is impossible to play these same players three times in a week. Impossible.'
Liverpool's fringe players could well find themselves thrown into this Emirates clash, with Alvaro Arbeloa, Steve Finnan, John Arne Riise, Crouch, Lucas, Voronin and Jermaine Pennant all in line for call-ups.
Suspended Javier Mascherano will obviously be out but it is debatable whether he would have played tomorrow even if the FA had not given him an extra two-game ban for the charge that followed the Argentinian's red card at Old Trafford.
Liverpool's priorities are also clear to Babel, who accepts he may be rested for the match.
'The boss will have to make decisions now on who to start and who to rest,' he said.
'It will be impossible to play with the same eleven in three games against Arsenal.
'I think, in this situation, rotation is maybe good.
'We flew back from London on Wednesday night after the match, and we will go back today. It's a hard few days, mentally difficult.
'On Thursday we had a light training session, and then we will rest and discuss tactics and how we will play in the league match.
'Rafa will have already seen the first game back a couple of times to tell us what we did good and bad. He will now tell us how we can do better.'
We have a term for this in the States. It's called TANKING THE SEASON.
I believe he is basically conceding the game. I understand the CL game is much more important of a fixture to Liverpool but he is talking about rotating SEVEN (including super stupid suspended Mascherano) of his starting 11. With a game that still has title implications, Arsenal could definitely build confidence from an easy win at the Emirates.
I could never see SAF do anything like this for a League game that has points for the title on the line and against one of the big four. Shows the difference in class between Rafa and SAF. That is maybe why SAF OWNS him.
I knew he would rotate it around as the CL has always been important to Rafa. Hopefully Arsenal can take advantage of this and smash up their convidence Sadly we lost Van Persie again (surprise surprise) and Wenger is thinking to rest players too so this can go anywhere!
rafa can afford to rest players .. Wenger cant , although he would with Song, Hoyte & Traore all given a chance .
Although a lot of people think liverpool are favorites now to go through , i think otherwise . Its weird , to me , a team which plays in an away game has a better advantage than the one playing on its home , and since liverpool only scored one at emirates , and arsenal are a team which can score goals from everywhere , i dont see how liverpool are going to shut out . So I think wenger would go along with my lines and go out and go for the 3 points against a liverpool team which wont have steve me or el sissy .
Would be fun , as we are playing on sunday after knowing how the rentboys and gunners have performed on saturday .
Fair points. I'm feeling quite confident about the 2nd leg, seeing Rafa stick 5 in the back and kuyt at right back shocked me. But obviously he wanted to make do's with the 1-1 and we just couldn't get passed it after creating a good amount of chances. Arsenal look hungry after scrammy results recently and i'm going for Arsenal to pull this one (hopefully). If not i'm gonna be heartbroken
It is a pity that there is this unfair advantage already ! Arsenal are gonna be difficult than liverpool , if we get to finals , and darned advantage of having the young guns with kuyt in your team , rafa must be trembling as he is facing a disaster )
This seems to be a trend in England these days... managers subtly taking the bite out of a fixture by "resting" players. I think it is nothing more than scared thinking, a bit cowardly. I was disappointed when we played the FA Cup match with Arsenal, because it seemed both teams were shying away a bit. Of course, who am I to question Sir Alex. I just hate managers downplaying games the fans are so pumped up for, especially big rivalry games.
This seems to be a trend in England these days... managers subtly taking the bite out of a fixture by "resting" players. I think it is nothing more than scared thinking, a bit cowardly. I was disappointed when we played the FA Cup match with Arsenal, because it seemed both teams were shying away a bit. Of course, who am I to question Sir Alex. I just hate managers downplaying games the fans are so pumped up for, especially big rivalry games.
We started with FLETCHER ! lol what is downplaying in there ? Get in !
Rafa Rotating AGAIN!
Rafa Rotating AGAIN! -
04-04-2008, 07:44 PM
Sadly we lost Van Persie again (surprise surprise) and Wenger is thinking to rest players too so this can go anywhere!
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