Ange Postecoglou has confirmed he will rotate his squad for Sunday’s Premier League meeting with Crystal Palace as the Tottenham manager looks to mitigate the impact of playing on Bodo/Glimt’s artificial pitch.
Spurs came away from their trip to northern Norway with a 2-0 win to book an all-English Europa League final against Manchester United, but there was cause for concern over the synthetic surface.
It was not the first time Tottenham had done so this season, facing the same conditions away to National League side Tamworth in the FA Cup third round, after which Postecoglou blamed Spurs’ injury issues on the pitch.
And with two Premier League games to navigate before their date in Bilbao, Postecoglou is keen to make sure history does not repeat itself.
He said: “The artificial pitch does take a toll. I could see after the game some of the boys were pretty sore and we also got back really late. A lot of them [on Friday] were just sleeping all day to recover.”
Postecoglou gave players the day off on Friday, though some still chose to train, ahead a full team training session on Saturday.
He continued: “I don’t know how many changes we’ll make, we’ll see how the boys are, but there are definitely a few things to consider.
“We’ll definitely make changes [against Palace], because it's the right thing to do for the players themselves, you know. We’ve got to look after them irrespective.
“We’ve also got a major game to look forward to, so we will see how the boys are [in Saturday training] and make decisions.”
The entire back four is likely to be changed, with Archie Gray, Kevin Danso, Ben Davies and Djed Spence all coming in. In attack, Wilson Odobert started and scored against West Ham last weekend and should be rewarded with another nod.
