Ch..Ch..Ch..Ch..Changes? Who Will Face AZ?

Previous to Troy Parrott, who joined AZ in the summer, the last two players to represent both clubs were Vincent Janssen and Mousa Dembele. Much as we we all loved dear old Vincent, I reckon that every Spurs fan will be hoping the current AZ line up are closer in ability to him than to Mousa, surely one of the best players to represent Spurs in the Premier League era.

Any excuse for a picture of Mousa

Troy cost his current employers around £7m from Spurs after his loan season at Excelsior Rotterdam where despite his sides relegation via the Dutch play-off system, Parrott managed a very credible nineteen goals last season. By all reports there was interest in him from Germany, Italy and Spain in the summer. The fact he chose to stay in the Eredivisie would suggest that he's comfortable and settled in the league. 

At Spurs it would always be difficult to break through into the first team with not only Harry Kane playing in his position, but the constant changing of coaches most of whom didn't exactly have a reputation for indulging young players. His English based loans were up and down, doing well at MK Dons in League One but not having so much success in the Championship with Millwall, Ipswich and Preston.

As for AZ themselves, they sit fifth in the league table having lost their last four games in the league and defeat last time out in the Europa League. Only three goals scored in that run of fixtures, so I think we can all see where this is going. 

Spurs of course go into this match on a high after the weekends dominant home win over West Ham. Ange has said in his press conference today that Sonny will miss the game with 'soreness' although he added that he was always going to leave him out tomorrow anyway. 

Ange, enthralled by another question about set pieces.

Trying to predict the starting line up is nigh on impossible. My head says that we should be going strong but with Spence injured as well as not being in the Europa League Squad and really needing to make sure Porro is 100% for the weekend then I'd expect Gray to come in at right back. He could change the entire back five, which would be madness if you look at it from an historical point of view. I reckon Bentancur will come in and probably Richarlison though I'd be tempted to play him on the left and keep Johnson and Solanke in the starting line up to hopefully get us ahead in the game and then replace them after say seventy minutes. 

I suppose this is an excellent situation for Ange. Much better this than scraping around and having to put a defence out made up of four full backs like on a few occasions last season. For example, I wouldn't complain if Bergvall and Moore both start. The youngsters all showed in Hungary they can handle the pressure, I just don't like to see too many changes. It makes me nervous, but maybe its just me that needs to shake that off.

"Hey guys, don't worry we've got this."

On paper this looks like a great opportunity to keep the run going in this competition. The next two fixtures against Roma and Galatasaray certainly look a little more difficult so a win tomorrow and a win in one of those two matches should see Spurs qualify for the next round with games to spare. This has to be the aim so the team can be a little more experimental after that and the main players can concentrate on the league position and staying in the League Cup at least a little longer.


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