There was something very unique about the starting eleven that Ange Postecoglou named against Manchester City, with Tottenham setting a 33-year record on Wednesday.
After months of having to manage with around 13 or 14 fit first-team players, Postecoglou now finally has some options to rotate his Spurs squad after a number of key first-team players returned to full fitness over recent weeks.
The Australian made full use of that, deciding to leave the likes of Heung-min Son and Dejan Kulusevski on the bench for the clash against Manchester City.
In their place, Wilson Odobert and Brennan Johnson came into the side, while Djed Spence also made way for Pedro Porro, who returned to the starting eleven.
Tottenham name their youngest XI in 33 years
Spurs’ starting eleven featured four teenagers, Odobert, Mathys Tel, Lucas Bergvall and Archie Gray, while it also had two others in their early twenties, Udogie and Johnson.
That means that the average age of Tottenham’s startling eleven on Wednesday was just 23 years and 243 days, according to Optus Sport.
The outlet reveals that this was the youngest side that Spurs have named for a Premier League game since all the way back in 1992.
Postecoglou explains his decision to rotate his squad
Not all Tottenham fans were particularly happy to see the likes of Son, Kulusevski and Spence left out of the starting eleven against Man City, with many feeling that the Lilywhites had an opportunity to beat a City side who were low in confidence.
However, Postecoglou pointed out that having bemoaned his lack of options over recent months, it would make no sense for him not to use the options he now has at his disposal.
Postecoglou revealed why he dropped Kulusevski, Son, and Spence in his post-match press conference: “There’s no point having a squad and I can’t be sitting here bemoaning not having a squad and then not use it. I think that’d be highly hypocritical of me, but we needed Destiny, Brennan and Wilson to play today and get some minutes.
“Deki, Sonny and Djed have, you know, played an enormous amount of time, so having them have a little bit of a recovery and a breather, I thought was going to be helpful for us, but more importantly, now I’ve got three more players who are getting close to, I mean it’s 90 minutes for Brennan, that’s the first 90 minutes for quite a while.
“We’re going to have some real options which we’re going to need because we’ve got Europa and league back-to-back now and we need as many bodies available for that as possible.”