Here's the Tottenham Hotspur team that Roberto De Zerbi has chosen to face Sydney FC in their pre-season friendly in Australia
Roberto De Zerbi has blended his Tottenham Hotspur team with youth and experience to take on Sydney FC on Wednesday in Australia.
football.london reported this week that De Zerbi has been pushing the Spurs players hard in training, especially those who returned earlier to pre-season, and the players' time in sessions and matches is being monitored and managed based on a variety of factors such as fatigue, little niggles, illness or even jet lag.
That means that after naming a young starting XI for the 2-0 win against Auckland in New Zealand, De Zerbi has added a sprinkling of senior stars this time for the game against Sydney in their Allianz Stadium.
Richarlison, Mathys Tel, Conor Gallagher and Ben Davies all come into the side. Mateus Fernandes is among those not in the squad for the game as De Zerbi continues to monitor the fatigue of his players after tough pre-season training sessions, with football.london reporting that the Portuguese does not have an injury despite social media fears. James Maddison, Destiny Udogie, Dominic Solanke, Micky van de Ven, Kevin Danso and Jan Paul van Hecke also remain out as they are carefully managed.
Sandro Tonali is back on the bench after missing the game in Auckland with a small issue and Andy Robertson is also on the bench after returning from the World Cup.
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Archie Gray captains Spurs again despite the older players returning, including Davies. Lucas Bergvall gets his first minutes of pre-season after asking to leave the club this summer before his World Cup exploits with De Zerbi saying he was going to speak to the Swede about his future amid links to Newcastle and Nottingham Forest.
Here's the Tottenham team De Zerbi has selected: