Nuno making right decision taking new Tottenham XI to face Vitesse

In his pre-match press conference Spurs coach, Nuno Espirito Santo noted he was leaving his 10 field players who faced Newcastle in London, which is the right move for Tottenham Hotspur.

One of the issues throughout much of Mauricio Pochettino‘s Spurs era that carried over into Jose Mourinho’s tenure was a lack of true depth in the squad. After twenty years with ENIC at the helm, it is obvious Tottenham is not going to always buy the depth needed to compete with the Chelsea’s or Manchester City’s of the world, rather, Spurs have to develop it.

Since Santo has come to Spurs the Portuguese gaffer has shown a real commitment to playing Spurs younger players and working to expand the depth of the squad. Taking a completely new XI to Holland to face Vitesse is one way to do that.

It is not the first time for Tottenham under Nuno

At first, seeing the same XI play the entirety of the match against Newcastle seemed strange. Now knowing that 10 of those XI – goalkeeper Hugo Lloris has apparently made the trip – have been left in London, it does make sense that Santo stuck with the same players for all 90+ minutes.

This is probably something we should have predicted as Santo has done this before. In the first leg against Pacos de Ferreira, in Portugal, Santo took a side without any regular starters. That team featured Dane Scarlett, Bryan Gil, and Nile John among others. At least Gil and Scarlett are likely to play a big role on Thursday but John may as well.

That team lost to Pacos de Ferreira 1-0 but also included three players who definitely will not play in on-loan Cameron Carter-Vickers and the injured duo of Matt Doherty and Ryan Sessegnon. Instead, we should expect to see Steven Bergwijn opposite Gil, along with some combination of Giovani Lo Celso, Dele Alli, and Scarlett in the attacking portion of the team.

The point is Santo knows if you want to create a deeper and bigger squad you have to play more players and taking a new XI to play in Europe does that.

This does not create a second class Spurs team

Some may complain that this creates a second team and a first-team for Tottenham but I’d argue that what it will ultimately do is create competition, which is what Tottenham needs. If Steven Bergwijn plays well, it is quite possible he reclaims a starting role at the weekend against West Ham.

Alternatively, if Bryan Gil knocks in a nice free kick, maybe it gets him off the pine sooner on Sunday.

Further, as we have seen already this season, players are only one play or mishap from being needed in the first team. By ensuring that a large portion of the squad is getting real, meaningful minutes, players will be more likely to step up when called upon.

The idea that Japhet Tanganga and Joe Rodon getting minutes being bad is just plain wrong. Same with Dane Scarlett, Gil, and Pierluigi Gollini. We don’t know when these players will be needed, we just know they will, and playing them now will help make that happen.

Besides, if Tottenham is really going to win this competition, as they are favored to do, they need to be able to compete at all times, no matter who is on the pitch. Expect a lot of academy on the bench, but a lot of real senior players getting most of the minutes.