Good news, everyone! Tottenham Hotspur have brought their first team central defense pairing and their first choice striker to the Netherlands for tomorrow’s Europa League match vs. AZ Alkmaar in the Netherlands. According to Ange Postecoglu in his pre-match press conference (still going on at the time of this article publishing), the trio of Cuti Romero, Micky van de Ven, and Dominic Solanke have all made the plane and will assumedly be available for selection for the match.
The news isn’t so good for Ben Davies, Dejan Kulusevski, and Richarlison, all of whom have remained in London to train and continue their rehabilitation.
“In terms of haven’t traveled, Deki Kulusevski is the only one. He got a knock on the foot and he’s not sure when really. He’s been able to train and play over the last few weeks. We’ve done some further investigations and no real clarity. Unlikely to be back before the international break, but nothing serious and no surgery or anything. Ben Davies is also back [home] at the training ground with Richarlison.”
As far as injuries go, that wouldn’t be too bad, but keep in mind that this is just a guess from Postecoglou (and he’s been known to lie about injuries in press conferences too).
For Thursday I’d be surprised if any of Romero, Van de Ven, or Solanke start in this match. We really don’t know where they are in their rehabilitation and so all of this is guesswork, but if they are slowly worked into the lineup, it wouldn’t surprise me if one of them plays tomorrow in some capacity and the other against Bournemouth, if only so Spurs don’t have to make two CB substitutions in one match. Having a rotation of Romero, Van de Ven, Danso, and Archie Gray for three games seems pretty doable, even if it likely means Cuti and Mickey don’t initially start together. It’s about freshness and match minutes in the legs at this point, and there are plenty of games to play.
At any rate, Spurs should be able to put together a pretty strong lineup tomorrow in the Netherlands, and have the horses on the bench to make impact subs as well. Should be fun.