Tottenham Hotspur travel to the coast coast to face Southampton in the Premier League on Sunday, with a high likelihood of changes to the away side for the clash at St Mary’s.
Spurs were in Europa League action on Thursday night, overcoming Lokomotiv Plovdiv in Bulgaria to progress to the next round.
Given the quick turnaround ahead of the clash against Southampton, Tottenham boss Jose Mourinho will surely rotate his squad and make changes for the Premier League fixture.
A number of first-team players did not travel to Bulgaria, suggesting they may be involved from the start in Spurs’ next domestic fixture.
One absentee from the Europa League clash that has been grabbing headlines this week is Dele Alli, with plenty of speculation around the Tottenham star’s future.
Spurs signing Gareth Bale points towards a front three of the Welshman alongside Harry Kane and Son Heung-min, with it difficult to see just where Alli fits into the equation.
Even before the signing of Bale, I wrote stating that a 4-3-3 formation suits Tottenham better than a 4-2-3-1 system that allows Alli to feature in the number 10 role.
With the mercurial 24-year-old substituted at half-time in the defeat to Everton last weekend, it is understandable that there will be question marks over his role at Spurs moving forward.
Toby Alderweireld was left out of the travelling Tottenham contingent to face Plovdiv and is expected to slot back into the defence – it remains to be seen whether Alli will feature as well.
Given all the speculation this week, Mourinho’s team selection against Southampton should shine more light on whether Spurs fans can expect to see Alli featuring regularly for the rest of the season.