Tottenham Hotspur face a tough away trip to Galatasaray in Turkey this week as they look to maintain their perfect record in the Europa League.
Galatasaray vs Tottenham Hotspur
So far, Tottenham are yet to drop a point or concede more than one goal in the League Phase of the competition, with wins over Qarabag, Ferencvaros, and AZ Alkmaar.
However, Galatasaray may prove to be a far sterner test for Ange Postecoglou and co, especially due to their rather daunting set-piece statistics this season.
Let’s take a look at our predicted Spurs XI to face Galatasaray away on Thursday evening.
Predicted Spurs XI vs Galatasaray
Goalkeeper: Fraser Forster is named between the sticks after his impressive performance last time out against AZ Alkmaar. This also gives Guglielmo Vicario the chance to have a rest.
Right-back: Archie Gray comes in to give Pedro Porro a rest. The former Leeds man has struggled a little defensively at right-back of late but always offers a lot on the ball.
Centre-back: Radu Dragusin has arguably enjoyed his two best-ever Tottenham games over the past week against Man City and Aston Villa. He will be looking to continue that form with Cristian Romero and Micky Van de Ven out injured.
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Centre-back: Ben Davies was Tottenham’s unsung hero against Aston Villa and always proves an able deputy when called upon. The only question is whether he has the pace to play 90 minutes in such a high line.
Left-back: Destiny Udogie continues his run of games at left-back with Djed Spence not included in Tottenham’s Europa League squad. There is a chance that Gray covers for him instead of Porro though.
Pivot midfielder: Yves Bissouma returns to the starting XI in the midfield pivot role after Pape Matar Sarr and Rodrigo Bentancur put in a shift against Aston Villa.
Central-midfield: Lucas Bergvall gets another chance to shine in Europe. He hasn’t hit the ground running in a Spurs shirt quite yet but he is still so young. Any minutes are valuable at that age.
Central-midfield: James Maddison will be captain for the day and he certainly has a point to prove after back-to-back games on the bench. That free-kick goal will have done his confidence some good though.
Right-wing: Mikey Moore starts on the right-hand side of attack. Spurs are having somewhat of an injury crisis on the wings and Brennan Johnson needs a rest at some point.
Striker: Will Lankshear starts with Richarlison out injured and Dominic Solanke playing so many minutes recently. A big chance for the young striker to impress.