"The tricky thing": Ange Postecoglou explians why he's reluctant to start 18y/o star vs Wolves

Tottenham manager Ange Postecoglou admitted losing as many as five players in one game was unusual and bemoaned the lack of Champions League football for the first time this season.

According to him, some of the players he's been forced to bring since Monday night would have had game time if they were in Europa which would have been great use now that they have three out of their first four defenders injured or suspended.

The Spurs manager told reporters ahead of the game against Wolves: "Yeah of course it is but I don't think it would take that for them to rally around because they do it every day. Ultimately that is what you want. You want them every day to give their all, to give their best and they don't need any extra motivation.

"We're aware that obviously we're going to have to make some changes for tomorrow, but the guys who have come in have been training hard to understand the way we want to play, so they'll come in and give everything they can to try and make us successful.

"The tricky thing for us and I know people say it's been an advantage that we haven't been in Europe or the cups, but if we had some of these guys would have had game-time.

"That is the tricky bit. A lot of them will come in having not had a lot of game-time and from our perspective because we can't afford any more injuries, we've got to be really careful about the kind of game time we give people.

Tottenham will hope to make a swift return to winning ways in the first game on Saturday afternoon.