Ange explains UEFA Europa League squad changes

Ange Postecoglou has explained the changes made to our Europa League squad ahead of March’s round of 16.

After sealing our place in the competition’s last 16 with a 3-0 win over Swedish outfit Elfsborg at the end of January, we were permitted to make alterations to our squad for the knockout stages.

Those changes were confirmed last Friday, with us making three changes to our squad.

Djed Spence was added to List A alongside January arrivals Kevin Danso and Mathys Tel.

Making way were Fraser Forster, Timo Werner and Radu Dragusin.

This morning, Ange Postecoglou expanded on the decision-making process behind those changes.

“It’s pretty straightforward. Obviously with Radu Dragusin going down, we’re short on a central defender there with Micky [van de Ven] and [Cristian] Romero – we’ve got to see where they get back – it made sense to bring Kevin Danso and Djed Spence into the squad.”

“We were keen to bring Mathys in as well, that’s why we signed him. We could only make the three changes.”

“We’re obviously still limited because we don’t have [enough] club trained [players] and that’s going to be an issue for us over the next couple of years. So that kind of limits the opportunities for us to tinker, but with three changes, I thought they were the logical ones.”

Our exact round of 16 opponent remains unconfirmed with the round of 16 draw to be held on 21 February. However, we do know it will be one of four teams who are involved in the competition’s play-off round, and on Thursday night, the first leg results did give us some indication of who we might face.

AZ Alkmaar made a strong case for advancing after a dominant 4-1 win over Galatasaray, with Spurs academy graduate Troy Parrott among the goalscorers for the Eredivisie club.

In a closer battle, Real Sociedad ran out 2-1 victors at Midtjylland.

We’ll travel to one of those advancing clubs for the first leg on 6 March, before the return leg at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium one week following.