Postecoglou must name 12 substitutes in Europa League – here’s who he could use
Tottenham’s Europa League campaign kicks off this week with a home tie against Azerbaijan side Qarabag. It’s a game Spurs are expected to win comfortably, which means Ange Postecoglou may be prepared to rest some players.
Rules demand 12 substitutes for Europa League
The idea of fielding some fringe players for the first game of this Europa League journey makes sense. Qarabag have done well to qualify for the competition, but are certainly one of the weaker outfits in the league phase.
It figures then that Postecoglou will likely give some of his key players a rest. But, according to Europa League rules, clubs must name 12 substitutes for games in the tournament, and Spurs simply cannot do that based on their first-team squad right now.
Postecoglou has 23 players in his Europa League squad, but Richarlison and Wilson Odobert are currently injured, meaning he would have just ten substitutes to call upon. It is also highly unlikely he would name all four goalkeepers in the matchday squad, so Alfie Whiteman will probably be left out.
That could leave space for at least three young prospects to take up their place on the bench (or in the starting lineup) for Spurs on Thursday night, and we have a good idea of who they will be.
Three youngsters should get their chance
The three youth players who are closest to the first-team squad right now are Mikey Moore, Will Lankshear, and Alfie Dorrington. We would be very surprised if they weren’t the ones called upon to fill the squad this week.
Moore got some minutes under his belt late on against Brentford at the weekend, and may even be in line for a start against Qarabag. It all depends on how willing Postecoglou is to risk mixing up his lineup and resting more experienced players.
Meanwhile, Will Lankshear spent pre-season with the senior squad and, with Richarlison struggling with injury, there’s every chance the youngster will be named on the bench and will get some minutes if the game goes Tottenham’s way. He has just returned from injury himself, though, so it will all depend on his fitness levels.
Finally, with the squad looking pretty short on defenders for continental competition, Postecoglou will need to draft in a youngster to fill the squad and add some cover. We don’t expect Dorrington to start the game, but he is first in line from the Under-21 squad when the first-team needs defensive additions.
The likely 23-man squad
So, with all this considered, this is what we expect the 23-man squad to look like on Thursday night.
Goalkeepers: Guglielmo Vicario, Fraser Forster, Brandon Austin
Defenders: Pedro Porro, Archie Gray, Micky van de Ven, Radu Dragusin, Alfie Dorrington, Destiny Udogie, Ben Davies
Midfielders: Pape Sarr, Yves Bissouma, Rodrigo Bentancur, Dante Cassanova, Lucas Bergvall, James Maddison, Dejan Kulusevski
Attackers: Timo Werner, Heung-min Son, Brennan Johnson, Mikey Moore, Dominic Solanke, Will Lankshear
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