Tottenham’s European adventure resumes against LASK on Thursday evening.
Jose Mourinho’s side were required to win three one-leg qualifiers to progress – with the last of those a 7-2 win over Maccabi Haifa in the play-offs earlier this month.
With games coming thick and fast, the Spurs boss is expected to make a numbers of changes, but won’t be able to call upon defender’s Eric Dier and Japhet Tanganga, who both missed the West Ham game and remain unavailable for selection.
Joe Hart should be handed his first start since the the previous round – with both Ben Davies and Matt Doherty coming into the side, whilst Davinson Sanchez and Toby Alderweireld, Tottenham’s only fit senior centre-backs, will keep their places from Sunday.
Giovani Lo Celso and Erik Lamela both trained and we think they will be recalled, as will Harry Winks – giving the likes of Moussa Sissoko, Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg and the influential Tanguy Ndombele a much-needed rest.
As will Heung Min Son and Harry Kane, which means a Spurs debut for Carlos Vinicius, whilst Gareth Bale is likely to appear from the start for the first time since re-joining.
Here’s the side that we think Mourinho will go with at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
Starting XI: Hart, Doherty, Alderweireld, Sanchez, Davies, Winks, Lo Celso, Lucas, Lamela, Bale, Vinicius.
Drop Lucas to bench start with dele in the number 10 role. Bale at 7 lamela at 11 Lo Celso influential 8 with Vinicius T 9 outstanding front arrow
Mourinho as stated that the worst player on the park V West Ham starts tonight which is typical bloody Jose.
We haven’t kept a clean sheet in the last 10no games with 29no goals scored and 15no against…we must go to a 5-3-2 formation with the defensive frailties we show EVERY game.