There’ll be 11 Premier League teams in EFL Cup action over the next three days.
We’re expecting most of these top-flight clubs to rotate after Gameweek 1, but the midweek cup ties, and the press conferences that fall on either side of these games, could tell us a bit more on the team news front.
We start with the six clubs that are in action on Tuesday.
The managers of Leeds United, Nottingham Forest and Brentford faced the media on Monday, as did the assistant coach of Hull City. We’ve also got some fresh quotes from Ipswich Town‘s Gary O’Neil to bring you.
Coventry City‘s Frank Lampard is the only boss we’ve had nothing new from.
KEY INJURY UPDATES
- Nottingham Forest: Gibbs-White ruled out
- Hull City: Boost for four £4.0m defenders, Morita to get debut
- Leeds United: Gudmundsson, Gnonto + Gruev close but match comes too soon
- Brentford: No fresh concerns, Wilson to feature
- Ipswich Town: Philogene + Florentino still sidelined
NOTTINGHAM FOREST
Ryan Yates (minor issue) and Nicolo Savona (knee) have been joined on the sidelines by Morgan Gibbs-White (ankle), although Oliver Glasner didn’t seem too concerned about his talismanic midfielder and was even smiling when delivering the following quote.
“It’s still Savona and Yates out, and Morgan Gibbs-White will miss tomorrow’s game. I think everybody could see he got a ball on the top of the toe, he twisted the ankle, and then it’s always this mechanism that leads to the MCL [getting] a little bit overstretched. He has quite heavy pain in his knee; there’s no structural damage but this just doesn’t make sense playing him tomorrow. So, we are working very hard to get him fit for the Liverpool game on Saturday but he can’t make tomorrow’s game.
“All other players look good, look fresh.” – Oliver Glasner
Glasner will make a few changes on Tuesday but may not rotate as much as some of his peers.
“There will be, I think, a moderate rotation but I never rotate for just rotating. It just makes sense, a few players at the beginning of the season. It’s also very, very short. It’s just three days in between Saturday and Tuesday. It would also make a difference if we play Wednesday. But now, a few players who arrived late, for example, we had a few players having two or three weeks pre-season and then having two competitive games within three days, it’s just too risky. We want and we will have fresh legs, fresh minds tomorrow, because this is what we need to win the game. That’s why there will be, I would say, a moderate rotation to expect.” – Oliver Glasner
HULL CITY
There’s a big boost for Hull as the four £4.0m defenders who came off on Saturday look to be okay.
Assistant boss Dean Holden attributed the withdrawals of Nobel Mendy, Semi Ajayi and Ryan Giles to cramp, while Lewie Coyle has ongoing ankle niggles rather than a fresh injury.
“As you’ll see tomorrow night, we’ll make some changes. It’s a game we want to win tomorrow, but equally, we do need to get players up to speed. We’ve signed a few of the players that have come in who were not quite ready yet for the first game, so we’ll try and get some minutes into them.
“Hopefully, the lads that came off will be okay. First sort of signs were that it was mainly fatigue, a little bit of cramp, certainly in the two centre-backs and Gilo as well. Louis Coyle’s got a bit of a niggling ankle issue, which has been sort of ongoing throughout pre-season, but as he always, he puts himself up there for selection and we’ll just have to see how he is this morning. Other than that, we think we’re okay.” – Dean Holden
Jack Butland (shoulder), Elliot Matazo (knee), Charlie Hughes (groin), Darko Gyabi (thigh), Joe Gelhardt (ankle), Oscar Zambrano(hamstring) and Matty Jacob (hip) remain out.
“We’re hoping Joffrey will be training this time next week. So, another week with the fitness guys and then we’re hoping Monday, leading up to Villa, that he’ll join the group.
“Charlie’s just ongoing, really. He’s been out to see someone at the back end of last week, a specialist who works in that sort of area.
“It’s obviously frustrating for him as much as it is for us but important that we get to the bottom of it and make sure that once we sort this issue out, it’s hopefully not going to come back as well.” – Dean Holden on Joe Gelhardt and Charlie Hughes
Summer signing Hidemasa Morita (calf) looks set to make his Hull debut, however.
“He’s got himself into a position now where he’s going to train with a group and he’ll get some minutes tomorrow.” – Dean Holden on Morita
LEEDS UNITED
Gabriel Gudmundsson (hamstring), Wilfried Gnonto (hamstring) and long-term absentee Ilia Gruev (knee) are closing in on returns but the swift rematch with Nottingham Forest comes too soon.
“Ilia was part integrated [into team training] in the last week. This is more or less in the last days. He was then fully back in team training, which is definitely good news. This game comes a bit too soon for him because he was out for a month and we want him to be at least two weeks back in team training before he’s then also ready for selection.
“Gabby and Willie are not [ready] but rehab is also in a good way. We expect them also not too long to be back in team training, perhaps even at some point during this week. We will see but this game comes too soon because they have not joined us in team training yet.” – Daniel Farke
Leeds at least came out of Gameweek 1 unscathed.
“Yes, as far as I’m aware, no new injuries. Nowadays, Our doctors and physios and sport scientists, they do lots of tests and recovery tests. No one has told me that one player who was involve on Saturday is not available for tomorrow. So, for that, I expect more or less to have the same players available like it was also for the last game.
“If someone is struggling a bit with recovering quickly enough in order to start, perhaps a game again or for many minutes, we will see. But so far, it seems like no new injuries.” – Daniel Farke
BRENTFORD
There doesn’t seem to be any fresh injury concerns for the Bees, with Keith Andrews saying that his side has “come through the game on Saturday pretty well”.
Sepp van den Berg (groin) and Antoni Milambo (knee) remain on the sidelines.
As most of his peers will do this week, Andrews plans to rotate.
“I think the squad will be used over the course of these games this week and the weeks right up until the international break. We have that depth, we have that quality. So many of the decisions on who starts are very, very marginal. Will there be changes tomorrow? Yes. How many? I’m not telling you, obviously!” – Keith Andrews, via the Brentford website
The Brentford boss confirmed that Callum Wilson will be among those featuring.
IPSWICH TOWN
Jack Taylor (knee), Florentino Luis (calf) and Jaden Philogene (ankle) look set to miss out again.
“[Philogene] hurt his ankle in the Berlin game, so we’ll review him again this week. We don’t know how long he’s going to take. He had a little nick on the ligament from the Berlin game, so he was unavailable.
“Hopefully, [Florentino is] back with the group this week. He felt his calf after the game he played here against Vallecano. We thought it was not too much, but it’s taken a little while to clear up. We were hoping he’d make today, but he just misses it. We definitely won’t risk him on Tuesday but we’re hoping he’ll be around for Manchester United.” – Gary O’Neil, via EADT
Midfielder Azor Mutisawa (muscle) is “close”, according to his manager.
