LONDON -- Mauricio Pochettino has told his fringe players that they are just as important as the first-team in Tottenham's pursuit of trophies.
Pochettino seemed unimpressed by his second string in last month's FA Cup match against Wycombe Wanderers of League Two, warning them after the 4-3 win: "If you cannot play in this type of game, we will have a problem."
But the Spurs manager, who will be without Jan Vertonghen, Danny Rose and Erik Lamela for Saturday's big league game at Liverpool, has targeted winning a trophy this season, and knows his whole squad must play a part.
After Anfield, Spurs have three consecutive cup matches -- an FA Cup fifth-round game at Fulham in between the two-legged Europa League round-of-32 tie against AA Gent -- and Pochettino is expected to make wholesale changes to his starting XI.
"We believe when you sign a player, and then when you play in four competitions plus the international games, [that] sometimes it's not the No. 1 that will be decisive in achieving big things," Pochettino said.
"Maybe it's the player that is waiting for his moment that -- in a key game or in a key period of the season -- you need to put in and they perform well and help the team to achieve big things.
"You know, it's teamwork. Football is a collective thing, but it's not [about] only 11 players. It's 25 players, and the 25 players need to be always ready to fight and be available to give the best every time that you need them."
Pochettino has always rotated for the domestic cups and Europa League and he even rested Vertonghen and Kyle Walker for the crucial Champions League match at AS Monaco -- a 2-1 defeat -- in November.
His approach has led to accusations that he is only focussed on the Premier League but the former Southampton manager insisted he cares about the cups.
"Sometimes it's too tough and it's too hard for every single manager to explain why we rotate, why we give the possibility to players in different competitions.
"When we started the season, always in our mind is to try to give the possibility for all to play and show that they can be important.
"The big problem is to understand why the manager sometimes doesn't [appear to] care about some competitions. It's not like this. We need to stop thinking like this, because it's very easy to [apportion] blame when some players don't play [in the league] and play in the FA Cup and it's not a good performance.
"I think we need to talk about that with more respect to the people that are waiting for the possibility [to play]. Because you cannot only have 11 players. All of them are human. For me, they are not a number, they are people that feel, that have emotions, and it's very, very tough when you cannot give the possibility to them to play, and then Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, they are training hard, hard, hard.
"Because the people that do not play, they train harder than the players that are involved on the weekend! That is the value and you can appreciate that."
In the absence of Rose, Ben Davies is expected to continue at left-back at Anfield but Pochettino's assistant Jesus Perez confirmed that the England international has not sustained serious ligament damage.
Meanwhile, Pochettino believes that Dele Alli could one day be captain of Tottenham. Hugo Lloris is Spurs' club captain, while Harry Kane told ESPN FC this week that he wants to captain the club, and England, in the future.
"It is good. For me every player has the quality and the capacity to be a leader. Then of course, the hierarchy is very important," Pochettino said.
"We have Lloris, who is captain of France, an experienced player who can maybe can give better advice than a young player. But Dele Alli, his personality and character, means he can become leader in a few years. For me, every player in our squad has leadership qualities, just need time to develop that quality
"It's important to have good character and always work to win. And not say 'I want to win' -- to show you want it with your performance, your behaviour, your attitude. Enthusiasm is important, your own motivation.
"If you have character and good personality and you are a leader, it's natural quality. I am happy with the personality and the way they move in the changing room. Our performance is good. We can win or lose but I am very happy."