Tottenham Hotspur are in Europa League action on Thursday night as they play host to AZ Alkmaar in their last-16 second leg.
Spurs are trailing 1-0 in the tie due to Lucas Bergvall’s unfortunate own goal at the AFAS Stadium a week ago.
Ange Postecoglou has seldom been able to call upon his strongest XI, but the injury crisis at Tottenham is showing signs of easing.
The Spurs boss has now spoken about the players he wants to see step up against AZ, including one who was “enormous” in the first leg.
Cristian Romero, James Maddison, Son Heung-min and Guglielmo Vicario are the ‘four leaders’ at Tottenham
At his pre-match press conference, Postecoglou was asked how much he would be relying on experience against AZ.
Alasdair Gold mentioned Cristian Romero, James Maddison and Son Heung-min, and Postecoglou said he’d also include Guglielmo Vicario.
“Yeah I think so, but we haven’t had them a lot,” he told football.london about the outfield trio, before mentioning the £17million keeper.
“I would include Vicario in that as well. I think Vic was enormous for us in the first leg and he was big for us on the weekend as well.
“You want your big, experienced players to perform in these games, for sure.
“We have relied a lot on our younger players who have really progressed really well.
“But I guess a night like tomorrow night, having the likes of Romero, Maddison, Vicario and Sonny out there, they are our four leaders.
“I don’t think we’ve had them on the park at all this year or very little anyway.
“Having all four of them, the whole leadership group out there, will definitely be beneficial.”
Tottenham team news v AZ
Tottenham remain without Dejan Kulusevski due to a foot injury.
Meanwhile, Kevin Danso missed training on Wednesday and is expected to be out of action until after the international break.
Radu Dragusin is out for the remainder of the season, while Richarlison will not feature until at least the start of April despite returning to training.
Rodrigo Bentancur is suspended following a booking in last week’s first leg in the Netherlands.
In terms of positive news, Ben Davies is back after a recent knock, while Micky van de Ven and Cristian Romero are both available to start for Spurs against Alkmaar.
