On the amount of games played recently: "We had four players on the bench who haven't played any minutes in the Premier League and these players just keep going with so many games to go. "With all the games coming up, it was too much of a risk if you don't have so many players available with Premier League experience and, of course, Cody [Gakpo] is a good replacement to bring him in. "These are all the things we have to take into account, players available with at least some Premier League experience for the schedule we are going in. "We have already had two months of non-stop playing football and most of them, six or seven months non-stop playing football. If I have to take something positive, it's those two and Ibou [Konate] didn't get a yellow, so is not suspended."

Source: BBC January 02, 2026 14:44 UTC