Mauricio Pochettino insists he has picked a strong enough Tottenham Hotspur squad to secure qualification for the Europa League knockout stages on Thursday night.
Spurs have made the 5,000-mile round trip to Baku to take on the Azerbaijani side Qarabag knowing that victory will see them through to the last 32 with a match to spare. However, the manager has left three key players in London – Kyle Walker, Danny Rose and Mousa Dembélé – with one eye on Sunday’s Premier League game against Chelsea.
“For us it is a very important game,” Pochettino said of the Group J match. “Some players who can play have again stayed in London but all the important players available, who we believe can win the game tomorrow, are here. But it is not our right to win.”
The manager has brought the in-form striker Harry Kane to Baku, although the England international may start on the bench having played almost every minute of every game for club and country recently. “We will see tomorrow if Kane plays,” Pochettino added. “This is a problem we have had in the last few weeks, the international players play a lot; Kane, Alli, Walker, Dier.
“The competition is very tough and it’s not easy to manage that. But always we try to assess and analyse to make the correct decision. Tomorrow is a very important game, one that we need to win.”
One player set to get another opportunity is full-back Kieran Trippier, whose playing time this season has almost exclusively come in the Europa League
“I’ll make sure I take every opportunity I get,” the 25-year-old former Burnley defender said. “It’s an experience for me to be playing in the Europa League and if we do get through then hopefully I will stay in the team for the Europa League. The lads are flying at the moment but if I keep training hard, and playing well in the Europa League, then hopefully time will tell.”
As well as the rested trio, Pochettino is without Erik Lamela, Nacer Chadli, Nabil Bentaleb and Alex Pritchard through injury. The England new boy Dele Alli is expected to start as he will be suspended against Joe Mourinho’s side on Saturday.