May Meyer is set to be given an opportunity to stake a claim for a regular place in the Crystal Palace team after struggling to establish himself since joining from Schalke in the summer.
Jason Puncheon, Jairo Riedewald, Martin Kelly, Alexander Sorloth and Jordan Ayew will all come into the team against Middlesbrough, who are third in the Championship.
Roy Hodgson has made it clear the League Cup is not a priority this season and Palace could have done without a long trip to Middlesbrough, where they will face former manager Tony Pulis, who is trying to guide the club back into the Premier League.
The Eagles play Chelsea on Sunday and Wilfried Zaha, Mamadou Sakho, James Tomkins and Luka Milivojevic will all be rested ahead of the trip to Stamford Bridge.
Palace would have hoped for more from Meyer at this stage, following his free transfer move from the Bundesliga. The midfielder was one of the hottest prospects in German football when he broke into the Schalke team at the start of the decade but he was unable to build on that promising beginning.
With his team struggling in the League, Hodgson cannot afford to place too much emphasis on this competition and Pulis is treating it in the same way.
Pulis was in charge of Palace from 2013 until 2014 before an acrimonious departure but he made it clear that Boro’s Championship campaign remains his focus.
He said: “I’ll make a lot of changes for the Palace game. I have to do that.
“The players have had so many games and people forget about the international break, some players have played for their countries in the heart of Europe.
“I’ll be looking at the team carefully although we want to do well and want to win the game.”
Palace forward Ayew added: “We know we have confidence in ourselves. This Premier League is not easy but, we had a good performance [against Arsenal] and we will build on that. We will see what will happen next. We have to stay positive because we played very well [in the 2-2 draw with Arsenal].”
