Carlo on Spartak, Malouda, Bosingwa and Lampard

Carlo Ancelotti gave his pre-match press conference yesterday and confirmed that Florent Malouda, Jose Bosingwa and Frank Lampard will miss the game. He said:

'Malouda and Bosingwa are not available for tomorrow. Malouda has a problem on his ankle after a tackle in the last game, It's not a big problem but he won't be available for tomorrow. I hope he is ready for the game against Liverpool.

Also Lampard is out, as is Benayoun, as we know, and Bosingwa is not ready for tomorrow. There is more than a 50 per cent possibility Lampard will be involved in the game against Liverpool.

The other players are good, they've had a good recovery from the game against Blackburn but I want to look at all the players before I make a decision about the team tomorrow.

Maybe I can change something compared to the line-up against Blackburn because I want to make sure all the players have recovered well. We have a lot of important games, tomorrow, against Liverpool, against Fulham and I want everyone in good condition with no injuries. I don't want to take a risk.

We are in a good position in both the Champions League and the Premier League, but we have to continue to do our best because when you are at the top everybody wants to beat you.

Spartak played very well in the last game and we had a problem in the second half. We had a lot of difficulty and we want to avoid this kind of difficulty tomorrow. We had a problem in the second half, we played too defensively and we want to play a different game tomorrow."

Its a blow to lose Malouda for tonight, but being honest I would prefer to lose him for tonight and to then have him ready (fingers crossed) for Liverpool on Sunday. Bosingwa is not a problem as we have Ivanovic there or Ferreria, how ever Carlo wants to tackle the right back position. Finally we have had to get used to Lampard being absent in these last weeks. Let's hope he has a better than 50/50 chance Carlo has spoken of to face Liverpool.

It's no secret Carlo has one eye on the Premier League so expect to see a strong side start the game with a view to making changes as early as possible tomorrow as long as we win the game.

Spartak are a dangerous side and my match preview will follow this afternoon.

KTBFFH