Ange Postecoglou is expected to start increasing the minutes of his senior Tottenham players as they take on Vissel Kobe in Japan on Saturday.
Spurs will face the J League side in Tokyo's National Stadium (11am kick-off UK time) and after three friendlies with players getting 45 minutes each, with different starting XIs in each half, it could well be the time for Postecoglou to start stretching some players' minutes to the hour mark. That theory would seem to be supported by another match played on Thursday night.
For Tottenham played a behind-closed-doors friendly on Thursday night with their youngers U21 players - with a couple of slightly older players sprinkled in - against Japan U20s. Tottenham won 5-2 on the night in a game that was only an hour long due to the incredible heat and humidity of 35 degrees Celsius at the 5pm kick-off.
The thinking behind the extra encounter was to give some players minutes this week who might not get as much game time in the match against Vissel Kobe as Postecoglou starts to increase the load on the senior players.
Guglielmo Vicario could make his first start in goal of this pre-season, while Pedro Porro is likely to start as the senior right-back and Emerson Royal potentially could come in at centre-back alongside either Ashley Phillips or Oliver Skipp.
Left-back is an interesting one because Jamie Donley has been playing there during pre-season so far. However, the 19-year-old is believed to be one of the many youngsters playing a big part in Thursday night's tough game in the heat and it's worth noting that Archie Gray was alternating with Ben Davies on the left during the open training session on Friday night in an overloaded 11 vs 8 mini-game.
Davies is yet to play any minutes due to injury so that might mean midfielder and right-back Gray further showing his versatility on the left, after a few weeks spent at centre-back. In the midfield there are plenty of senior options with the likes of Yves Bissouma, James Maddison and Pape Matar Sarr as well as Lucas Bergvall back from the injury he suffered at QPR. Postecoglou will have to decide whether he's ready to start after those few days off before returning to training after landing in Tokyo.
Among the attacking options, Timo Werner was unwell on Friday and the German will need to be assessed on matchday ahead of the match in the humidity. Richarlison, Destiny Udogie and Alfie Whiteman were all unable to take part in training as well on Friday, with the former two still recovering from their long-term injuries.
Here's the Tottenham team that we reckon could start against Vissel Kobe: Vicario; Porro, Emerson, Skipp, Gray; Sarr, Bissouma, Maddison; Kulusevski, Son, Johnson.
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