Jose Mourinho has admitted that fixture congestion has played a key role in his Tottenham Hotspur team selection against Newcastle United.
There is no start for Tanguy Ndombele or summer signing Sergio Reguilon, while Dele Alli hasn't even made the matchday squad as speculation regarding his future rumbles on.
But with Chelsea, Manchester United, and a Europa League qualifier on the horizon, Mourinho insists his decisions are solely down to giving his players a breather.
"Not just one (change). We play almost every day, we need to rotate players and we need to make changes," he told Sky Sports. "You are comparing our team to the team that played Southampton, but we had a match two days ago in the Europa League and another one after tomorrow and we need to change players.
"It’s impossible for the players to play every match and Tanguy played very well for 90 minutes - the first 90 minutes he did for quite a while - and of course, today, he cannot do it.
"(On Reguilon) I’d say so-so (ready). He played 90 minutes with the national team and then he had an injury and he had to stop his pre-season process.
"Does he have to play during the week? Of course, he does, because Ben Davies cannot play 90 minutes of every match, so yes, he’s on the bench and let’s see if the game needs him or not.
"But we have Chelsea, Maccabi and Manchester United, so he’ll have to play.
"Bit of both (rotation and another reason being the reason Alli isn’t playing). We start with Harry Kane, Son and Lucas and we have on the bench, Lamela and Bergwijn.
"It's a little bit of rotation and when the players are on the pitch, they have to try and earn more minutes for the next match.
"We didn’t play well against Everton but we were also unlucky - I think we deserved more than what we got, but we were punished by a not very good performance.
"Against Southampton, especially in the second-half, the team was very strong and we also got what we deserved, so when you get from the game what you deserve then you can’t complain."
