Tottenham Hotspur head coach Thomas Frank has been carefully assessing his options at Hotspur Way as he aims to overcome a weekend defeat and maintain his side's unbeaten start to their Champions League campaign when they make the trip to Monaco on Wednesday.
Although Spurs allowed Aston Villa to come from behind and claim all three points last time out in the top flight, thanks to Morgan Rogers and Emiliano Buendia cancelling out Rodrigo Bentancur's early opener, they will head to the Stade Louis II with a win against Villarreal and a draw with Bodo/Glimt under their belt.
Monaco have already grabbed a share of the spoils against Tottenham's Premier League counterparts Manchester City during the league phase, highlighting that the north Londoners are facing a tough challenge, and GIVEMESPORT has predicted who will be involved for both sides.
Monaco Team News
Eric Dier will miss out on the opportunity to come up against former employers Tottenham due to suffering a hamstring injury which is due to keep him on the treatment table until next month, while ex-Chelsea loanee Denis Zakaria is set to be another high-profile absentee for Monaco due to nursing an adductor problem.
Paul Pogba and fellow summer arrival Lukas Hradecky are out of contention after picking up thigh and knee issues respectively. Lamine Camara, Christian Mawissa and Vanderson will also be unavailable for head coach Sebastien Pocognoli, who took charge of Les Monegasques earlier this month.
Pocognoli has confirmed that the clash with Tottenham will come too soon for Pogba to make his Monaco debut as he has only just been integrated into first-team training. The Belgian tactician said:
"Paul is training, but not fully. I think, for Paul, it is a process to take everything step by step. He joined the group for the first time under my coaching [on Monday].
"He was smiling, he was enjoying and interacting with the players. For me, this is the first step and this step can take days, can take two to three weeks, and then we can build on this through performance and consistency.
"That is the first step and here we are. That is the situation, but I am very pleased, for sure, to see him on the pitch."
Monaco Predicted XI
Monaco Predicted XI: Kohn; Diatta, Kehrer, Salisu, Ouattara; Teze, Coulibaly; Akliouche, Fati, Minamino; Biereth.
Monaco Predicted Substitutes: Lienard (GK), Henrique (DEF), Nibombe (DEF), Mokabakila (DEF), Golovin (MID), Idumbo (MID), Bamba (MID), Toure (MID), Cabral (MID), Balogun (FWD), Ilenikhena (FWD), Michal (FWD).
Tottenham Team News
Tottenham will make a late assessment on whether to include Cristian Romero after an injury sustained in the pre-match warm-up resulted in him being forced to miss the Premier League defeat to Aston Villa, leaving Frank with a potential defensive crisis as Radu Dragusin and Kota Takai are unavailable at a time when Ben Davies is also at risk of missing out.
Destiny Udogie did not board the flight to Monaco due to a knee complaint. Dejan Kulusevski, Dominic Solanke and Yves Bissouma are on the treatment table as well, while James Maddison is still in the early stages of his recovery from a cruciate ligament tear, meaning that Spurs will be without a host of big-names against Monaco.
Randal Kolo Muani, Brennan Johnson and Pape Matar Sarr - who are pocketing a combined total of £320,000-per-week before bonuses - are expected to be named among the substitutes.
When asked during his pre-match press conference whether Romero or Udogie will be involved for Tottenham against Monaco, Frank said:
"It's an adductor strain [suffered by Romero]. We will assess it more this week before we confirm any timeframe.
"The latest [with Udogie] is that he got that knee irritation after international duty. We are assessing and working very hard to get on top of it. We'll know more day by day."
Tottenham Predicted XI