Here's the Tottenham Hotspur team that we reckon Roberto De Zerbi will select to face Brentford in their Premier League opener
Roberto De Zerbi is set to name his first Tottenham team of the season for their Premier League opener on Saturday at Brentford.
It will be a much-changed Spurs side for the coming season with six new arrivals in De Zerbi's squad in the shape of Sandro Tonali, Mateus Fernandes, Jan Paul van Hecke, Andy Robertson, Marcos Senesi and Martin Dubravka. Manchester City duo Savinho and Omar Marmoush are expected to take the number of new faces up to eight in the coming days.
Neither of those two will be able to feature against Keith Andrews' side, while the north London outfit no longer have captain Cristian Romero, Guglielmo Vicario, Djed Spence and Radu Dragusin to call upon as they were among those sold or loaned out this summer.
De Zerbi said on Friday that new Tottenham skipper Micky van de Ven and Pedro Porro are not fit enough yet to be in the squad for the game at the Gtech Community Stadium while Pape Matar Sarr misses out with a small hamstring problem.
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Van de Ven's absence means Van Hecke and Senesi are likely to make their competitive Spurs debuts together after playing against Hoffenheim in last weekend's pre-season friendly at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. Andy Robertson will likely start on the left as Destiny Udogie has not played a minute in pre-season.
Archie Gray was named among De Zerbi's captaincy group on Friday and as he is expected to start at right-back, the 20-year-old could wear the armband against Brentford with players like James Maddison and Ben Davies on the bench.
There is a decision for the Spurs boss to make on who will start alongside Sandro Tonal in the centre of the pitch, with Mateus Fernandes, Rodrigo Bentancur and Lucas Bergvall all up for the role, with the latter having played more minutes in pre-season than the others.
Dominic Solanke is available but with a lack of recent pre-season minutes, the attack could be the same one that started against Hoffenheim last Saturday with Conor Gallagher between Mikey Moore and Mathys Tel with Richarlison up front.
It will be a team featuring plenty of youth in two 20-year-olds, one 21-year-olds and a 19-year-old, with 23-year-old Antonin Kinsky in goal but also a sprinkling of new experience through its spine.
Here's the Spurs team that we reckon De Zerbi could select: