Tottenham Hotspur have now officially confirmed their squad for the knockout stages of the Europa League, with Ange Postecoglou forced to leave out one of the players who arrived at the club in January.
Europa League squad compilations for Spurs
Tottenham’s inability to fulfil the homegrown and club-trained player quota meant that Ange Postecoglou could not name his full 25-man squad for the league phase of the Europa League. As a result, Djed Spence was left out of the list alongside Sergio Reguilon.
Spurs sealed progression to the round of 16 stage fairly comfortably, where they will be facing one of Galatasaray, Real Sociedad, Midtjylland and AZ Alkmaar in the next round.
However, Postecoglou once again faces a complicated decision ahead of him as clubs are only allowed to make three changes to their squad.
Tottenham leave out January addition from Europa League squad
The three-change limit means that only three out of Djed Spence, Sergio Reguilon, Antonin Kinsky, Mathys Tel and Kevin Danso can be named in the squad for the knockout stages.
Tottenham’s official squad has now been announced by the club, and it turns out that Kinsky is the unfortunate one to miss out, with Spence, Danso and Tel making the cut.
Those three players come into the squad in place of Fraser Forster, Radu Dragusin and Timo Werner, who will no longer play any part in the Europa League for Spurs this season.
Postecoglou has made the right decision
The Tottenham head coach could not afford to leave out Spence on the back of his recent performances, while Tel and Danso could not be excluded either.
Kinsky was the only player who could have been left out, but what is perhaps more interesting is the decision to remove Werner from the list, which is further evidence that the German is seen as nothing more than an emergency squad option by Postecoglou.