Nuno Espirito Santo has confirmed that the Tottenham players who started against Newcastle United on Sunday will remain in London rather than travelling to Holland to face Vitesse Arnhem.
Rotating his squad for the Europa Conference League so far this season to give those on the periphery of the first team a chance, the Spurs head coach was always expected to do the same to face the Eredivisie side.
While against NS Mura last time out the boss called upon the likes of Harry Kane, Son Heung-min and Lucas Moura to help finish the game off, Espirito Santo won't have that luxury this time after deciding to leave a number of players behind in England.
That was the case for the team's Europa Conference League play-off clash against Pacos de Ferreira back in August as a host of the squad remained behind with assistant coach Ian Cathro to prepare to face Wolves in the league.
With Cathro recently becoming a father, football.london asked if that was part of the reason for Espirito Santo deciding to keep his assistant at home to work alongside a number of the squad once again.
"That’s not the reason," he explained. "We worked today, we prepare the game with the players that are going to start tomorrow.
"Then we had a good training session with players that are going to stay. They’re going to work tomorrow and then we’ll join all the group on Friday.
"Ian’s going to stay with them but thank you. He has a beautiful baby but that’s not the reason he’s going to stay.
"He’s going to stay because it’s important for preparation in terms of the game on Sunday."
When pressed if it is a risk to leave the players behind, he added: "It’s not about that. If someone gets that interpretation...
"All of them have risk and it’s about trying to analyse and seeing what is better for us in terms of our process.
"We have another game next week, it’s about we respect all the competitions, all the games.
"We consider it’s better for us to leave players behind, recover well so they can compete better on Sunday. If you think about the risk, you’ll not decide."
