📣 Postecoglou on squad rotation, UEL test and Son's Bentancur fall-out | OneFootball

Ange Postecoglu has admitted that he isn’t a big fan of squad rotation ahead of their Europa League opener with Qarabağ on Thursday evening.

“We’ve got a squad, a squad of players that we went into the season hoping to play 50+ games in a year,” the boss told reporters. “You’re not going to expect players to play all of them. You’re hoping for around 35 games.

“We don’t really want to rotate hugely for each game.”

Just like the with the Champions League, the Europa League has switched format for this season, with a league table deployed in favour of the former group stage.

“I think I said before that in the old format there were some dead rubber games because teams knew who was going through,” Postecoglu continued.  “This way there could be more in games and eight different teams with eight different styles. The main things is that we’re in it.

As part of the press conference, Son Heung-min also addressed the FA charge for Rodrigo Bentancur for comments made on Uruguayan television about South Korean people.

“I love Rodrigo. I love him,” declared the forward. “We’ve had a lot of good memories. He knew and he apologised straight afterwards.

“I was on holiday and didn’t even know what happened. He sent me a long text and you could tell it was from his heart.

“He then saw me at training and he was almost crying. He felt really sorry.

“We’re all human and we make mistakes. I love Rodrigo and we move on together as a brother.

“We just have to wait for the FA’s process and that’s all I can say.”

The FA have confirmed that the charges for Bentancur relate to an alleged breach of FA rule E3 for misconduct in relation to a media interview.