Tottenham team news vs AZ Alkmaar and predicted lineups | OneFootball

Tottenham Hotspur make their return to Europa League action when they travel to face AZ Alkmaar in the first leg of their last 16 tie.

The game at the AFAS Stadion kicks off at 5:45pm and will be shown on TNT Sports 3.

Tottenham predicted lineup vs AZ Alkmaar

Tottenham (4-3-3): Vicario; Porro, Gray, Danso, Spence; Bentancur, Bergvall, Maddison; Johnson, Tel, Son

Tottenham team news vs AZ Alkmaar

Ange Postecoglou is set to have quite a few players missing for this first leg, as Dejan Kulusevski has joined Radu Dragusin and Dominic Solanke as players who will definitely miss Thursday’s game.

Tottenham are still assessing the fitness of Ben Davies, Christian Romero and Micky van de Ven. All could be ready to feature in some capacity against AZ Alkmaar, but to what degree it is currently unsure.

Spurs are also assessing the fitness of Richarlison, who is working his way back from a calf injury he sustained at the beginning of February. But the Brazilian isn’t expected to be back in time for the first leg.

Tottenham’s ball retention issues

Tottenham have averaged 56% possession across their games in the Europa League this season, ranking joint fifth for this metric. They have also averaged the fifth-highest number of passes per game, attempting 526.88 and completing 459.63 per game.

Despite being one of the sides who dominate more of the ball in this competition, Tottenham have been dispossessed more than any other team in the competition this season, averaging 14 dispossessions per game and 112 in their eight matches played.

AZ Alkmaar are currently averaging 8.1 shots conceded in the box per game in the Europa League this season, ranking 11th for this metric. From these statistics, we can predict that AZ will likely look to allow Tottenham more of the ball, focusing more on their defensive compactness and looking to hit them on the break.

Therefore, the likes of Lucas Bergvall, Rodrigo Bentancur and James Maddison will be extremely important in this game, having the responsibility to break down the AZ defensive unit whilst limiting the number of times they are dispossessed.

Maddison is averaging 4.7 attempted take-ons per game in the Europa League this campaign, completing 2.23 successful take-ons per game, making him the fourth-highest central midfielder for take-ons in the competition.

That being said, Kulusevski and Yves Bissouma join Maddison in the bottom 20 players for dispossessions per game. Kulusevski has been dispossessed 3.81 times per game, Bissouma 2.14 times per game and Maddison 1.73 times per game.

With Kulusevski ruled out due to injury, and Bissouma currently out of favour, you can imagine Maddison will have a huge part to play in this game, with the quality of his performance playing a huge factor on whether Spurs progress to the next round or not.