Ange Postecoglou said he will have to be ‘careful’ in terms of team selection, particularly for Sunday’s Premier League clash against Palace at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium (2.15pm UK), as we build up to the UEFA Europa League Final against Manchester United on 21 May.
We have two Premier League matches before the final in Bilbao, and Ange, who made eight changes for the league games against Liverpool and West Ham between our UEL semi-final legs against Bodo/Glimt, also explained how playing on an artificial surface in Norway on Thursday evening will be a factor going into this weekend.
Speaking at his pre-match press conference on Saturday morning, Ange was asked about the plan for the matches against Palace and Villa (Friday 16 May) with Bilbao on the horizon.
He said: “It's a challenging one, but we've tried to navigate that for the last couple of months, particularly Micky, Romero and Destiny to a certain extent, because they've missed a huge chunk of the season, and you always know when guys come back, you have to manage them.
“Romero and Micky had a couple of setbacks after coming back, so we didn't want to go back down that path. We changed our structures and processes so when they came back, we keep them back. We've done that really well for the last couple of months, but part of that was just managing their minutes.
“It will be a balancing act. They do need to get some game time between now and then, and that's unlikely tomorrow, because the thing about Thursday night, playing on an artificial pitch takes a lot out of the players. It's fair to say they were sore.
“I remember when we played at Tamworth (on an artificial pitch in the FA Cup in January), we actually picked up a couple of injuries in the games straight after, because of the surface, so we have to be really careful about tomorrow's game, but next Friday (at Villa) is a bit different. We have to make decisions where, ultimately, we want to be in great condition for the final.”