Do Spurs have enough squad to compete in the Europa League and Premier League?

Ange Postecoglou faces a new challenge with Tottenham Hotspur this season. By guiding them to a fifth-place finish in the Premier League during his first year in charge, they earned a place in the expanded version of the Europa League.

They will face eight different teams in their league phase from now until the end of January, with matches split evenly between home and away. The opening match will be on Thursday at home against the Azerbaijani champion Qarabag.

Tottenham have reached the quarter-finals only once in their last seven appearances in this competition, which they won in their old form as the UEFA Cup in 1972 and 1984, and were also finalists in 1974, with André Villas-Boas in 2012 .-13. They should have a real chance to win it again and live up to Postecoglou’s claim that he “always wins trophies” in his second year. It is one of the best-ranked teams, along with Roma, Porto, Ajax and Manchester United.

One of the other changes with the new format is that the third-placed teams in the Champions League no longer advance to the knockout phase of this competition. So if Atlético Madrid, Inter Milan or Borussia Dortmund exit the Champions League after their league phase, they won’t suddenly emerge, like an overpowered boss in a video game, to block Tottenham’s path to the trophy. In four of the last five seasons, a club that started in the group stage of the Champions League ended up playing in the Europa League final.

Postecoglou needs to find the right balance between giving minutes to players who will not play regularly for him in the Premier League and building teams capable of winning enough games to finish in the top eight of the revamped early stage of the Europa League. If Spurs finish between ninth and 24th, they will face a two-legged tie in February to try to qualify for the round of 16 that way. If it is lower, they will be eliminated from Europe for the rest of the season.

Tottenham were only able to pick a 23-player squad for the league phase (academy prospects such as Will Lankshear and Mikey Moore are not included in this number, but can still play in matches), while other clubs were allowed up to 25. because UEFA rules stipulate that each team must have eight locally trained senior players and Spurs have not reached that number in their current squad. That’s why they have named four goalkeepers, including academy graduates Alfie Whiteman and Brandon Austin.

A shortage of homegrown players since the likes of Harry Kane, Harry Winks and Oliver Skipp left the club last year meant Spurs had to name that reduced squad, leading Postecoglou to leave out Djed Spence and Sergio Reguilon. It is a particularly jarring scenario for Spence, who has already played twice for them in the Premier League this season and was instrumental in the comeback victory over Coventry City last week in the Carabao Cup.

“It was always going to be a difficult decision. With the current composition of our squad and the lack of trained players at the club, we were always going to have to leave someone out,” Postecoglou said after the squad was confirmed. “Djed was the unlucky one but, at the same time, Djed already played in the Premier League. If you ask him at the beginning of the season where he sees himself, the fact that he’s part of our team and obviously he’s going to play a big part of the year like he already has, I don’t think he should take too much. disappointment.

“Obviously he wants to play, but in the end for us it was about balancing the team. We just feel with the team we have, we have some coverage on the right, players who can cover on the left, and I always tend to look for more offensive players in those scenarios.”

Fraser Forster is the second goalkeeper behind Guglielmo Vicario. The 36-year-old’s discomfort with playing from the back was evident in that draw against Championship side Coventry. In the first minute of the game, he missed a pass to Lucas Bergvall on the edge of the area that almost led to Jack Rudoni scoring. Vicario will surely be needed against a stronger opponent, but he cannot be expected to play twice a week until February.

There are only seven defenders in the Europa League squad and they will need to be managed carefully to ensure no one has too heavy a workload. Archie Gray will cover Pedro Porro at right back, while Radu Dragusin can rotate with Cristian Romero. Ben Davies could replace Destiny Udogie or Micky van de Ven.

Postecoglou has a dilemma in attack, with Wilson Odobert and Richarlison currently recovering from their injuries. On Wednesday they were working in the gym while the rest of the squad trained outdoors. Richarlison’s absence will put added pressure on Dominic Solanke, the club’s record £65 million ($86.6 million) signing, but could offer an opportunity to fellow 19-year-old striker Lankshear.

Lankshear impressed during this summer’s pre-season tour of Japan and South Korea and has returned to training with the first team following a hamstring injury. Playing competitive football in the Europa League would be the perfect opportunity for him and 17-year-old winger Moore to develop. Let’s not forget that Kane’s first goal for the club came when he was 18 in a 4-0 win over Irish side Shamrock Rovers in the Europa League in December 2011.

The alternative option is to play Son Heung-min or Dejan Kulusevski up front, but they need as much rest as Solanke. Kulusevski has been Tottenham’s brightest player through the first month of the season, operating in a central attacking midfield role and it would be a shame to move him when he is gaining momentum. And Son could be too busy playing at flyside twice a week, alongside Brennan Johnson, due to Odobert’s hamstring injury and Timo Werner’s lack of form.

The only area of ​​the field that is not a cause for concern is the center of the field.

Even if Rodrigo Bentancur receives a lengthy national ban for his comments about Son, he will still be able to play in European matches. Postecoglou could select the Uruguayan international in all Europa League games, keeping Yves Bissouma fresh for the Premier League. Bergvall has shown flashes of creativity and brilliance in his cameos so far in his debut season and it will be exciting to see what he can offer early on as Pape Sarr rounds out a talented midfield.

Postecoglou noted before facing Qarabag that, during his first 12 months in charge, the team has evolved to contain more players “robust enough to play our type of football.” This will be put to the test over the next four months, when many of them will play twice a week.

The other factor that is important to consider is that this is a young team with limited experience in European competitions. Udogie, Van de Ven and Johnson lead a group of players who have never appeared at this level before. Postecoglou, who managed former club Celtic in all three UEFA competitions, believes facing teams with “eight different styles” will be an “interesting challenge.”

The overall message was that this tournament should be embraced, despite the grueling schedule and travel associated with a schedule that includes matches in Hungary (Ferencvaros), Turkey (Galatasaray), Scotland (Rangers) and Germany (Hoffenheim).

“Anytime you can expose individuals or the group to different environments, there are greater opportunities for growth,” Postecoglou said at his news conference Wednesday. “Whether it’s playing against an opponent you’ve never played before, or in a country or stadium with a different atmosphere. All of those things present opportunities for growth and that is what European competition allows us to do.

“I kept saying last year that if we had been in Europe we would have been able to evolve a little faster in terms of what we expose our players to, especially with a young group. For many of them it will be their first participation in a European competition. For us as a group, it will be the first time. The squad has changed a lot in the last 12 months. For all these reasons, I see it as a fantastic opportunity to evolve as a team in a football sense and I hope it brings us closer to our goal.”

(Top photo: Zac Goodwin/PA Images via Getty Images)