Tottenham Faces Challenges Ahead of Carabao Cup Clash at Anfield
Tottenham’s week has unravelled before a ball has even been kicked.
Roberto De Zerbi heads to Anfield for a Carabao Cup tie without Sandro Tonali and Pedro Porro, two key pieces ripped out of his starting plan, and with the Richarlison saga now firmly shut from his side of the fence.
Injuries bite, Udogie returns
Porro, already missing from the goalless draw with Everton, has not shaken off the muscular problem that ruled him out at the weekend. His energy and delivery from the right flank will be absent again, a significant loss for a side still waiting to score their first Premier League goal of the season.
Tonali joined him on the treatment table after taking a knock in that same Everton stalemate. The Italian midfielder’s absence strips more control and personality from the heart of De Zerbi’s team at precisely the wrong moment.
There is at least one shaft of light. Destiny Udogie is back.
The Italy international left-back, missing from the squad against Everton, is set to return to the matchday group. His availability steadies a defence that will already be without Porro’s attacking outlet on the opposite side. It is not a full repair, but it is a badly needed patch.
Richarlison ruled out – and frozen out
The conversation quickly moved away from injuries in De Zerbi’s pre-match press conference. All roads led to Richarlison.
The Brazilian has been left out of Tottenham’s 25-man Premier League squad, yet he remained eligible for the Carabao Cup, which operates under different registration rules. On paper, Anfield could have been his route back.
De Zerbi shut that door immediately.
Asked directly if the former Everton forward might feature against Liverpool, the Italian did not dance around it. “You already know everything,” he told reporters. “Nothing changed for the Carabao Cup or Premier League. The situation is the same. I can’t say anything more because it’s not my job. I can answer about the results, the players in the squad, the offensive space, the defensive space, but not for the other things.”
The message was simple: as far as the head coach is concerned, Richarlison is out of the picture.
Contract offer, rejection, and a hard line
De Zerbi then lifted the curtain slightly on how the stand-off unfolded. This was not a sudden breakdown. It had been brewing since the start of the summer.
He revealed that he had tried to keep Richarlison at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, going as far as proposing fresh terms. The response was blunt.
“What I’ve done, at the beginning of this season, was to speak with him, and to propose an extension of the contract,” De Zerbi explained. “If he said no thank you, I have finished my job.”
From there, the split only deepened. Richarlison started the league opener at Brentford but was later told he could leave. A return to Everton did not materialise, links to Trabzonspor went nowhere, and the striker turned down a move to Vasco da Gama on Friday. The stalemate hardened into a separation.
Goals missing, and a proven scorer left out
On the pitch, the decision carries risk.
Tottenham have yet to find the net in the league this season. Richarlison, for all the noise around him, has hurt Liverpool before, scoring four goals in seven appearances against the Reds during his time with Spurs. That kind of history at Anfield is rare currency.
Now, De Zerbi goes into a knockout tie without him, without Tonali, and without Porro. A team short on rhythm will be missing three players who could have changed the tempo.
“I stay inside of the club”
De Zerbi was careful to frame the dispute as a matter between Richarlison and the hierarchy, not a personal feud.
“I said in the last press conference, I know what happened in the last 45 days. It’s not right if I explained,” he said. “It’s not my behaviour, it is the relationship and the problem is with [between] the player and the club. And I stay inside of the club. It’s coach and club together because at the start of this season, I spoke with him many times to convince him to stay and he didn’t want to.”
The line was drawn there. The coach on one side with the club, the player on the other with his own choices.
De Zerbi will not cross it.
“I can’t go every day to pray for him to stay,” he concluded.
Tottenham now head into Anfield with a patched-up defence, a midfield missing its new organiser, and a proven Liverpool tormentor left at home by design. For a team still hunting its first league goal of the campaign, the next 90 minutes will say plenty about who is truly committed to this project – and who gets left behind.
