Another Europa League trip looms for Tottenham Hotspur. Bulgaria is the next stop as they take on Bulgarian League leaders Ludogorets Razgrad. Tottenham are looking to bounce back from defeat last time out when they were defeated by Antwerp in Belgium.
Tottenham Hotspur Face Ludogorets Razgrad With Point to Prove
Against Antwerp in the last Europa League tie, Tottenham came unstuck. Jose Mourinho has had to contend with a heavy schedule in the new season; rotation has been key to keeping players fresh. In Belgium, too many players looked far from fresh and Jose Mourinho did not hold back when giving his views in his post-match interviews:
It doesn’t take too much analysis to realise that Mourinho was saying he felt let down by his players on the night.
Antwerp are a good side and should not have been underestimated; but with players such as Gareth Bale, Dele Alli and even Son Heung-Min and Harry Kane at half time, there was enough quality to get a result. Dele Alli was subsequently dropped from the squad for Spurs’ next game at home to Brighton and Hove Albion.
New Aquaintances
This will be the first time that Tottenham have met Ludogorets in any European Competition whose best result against an English team was in 2014 when they stunned Liverpool with a 2-2 draw. Spurs played and beat Lokomotiv Plovdiv 2-1 in Bulgaria in the qualifiers this season in September.
Mourinho to Rotate Again
After that Antwerp defeat, Jose Mourinho may stick to his word and not pick many of those that played in Belgium. Eyes will be on Dele Alli in particular who seems more and more likely to be heading toward a January exit from the club. What needs to be considered is that he is not getting regular games and when he does, the personnel around him is constantly changing. Knowing he is likely to be dropped for subsequent games must be playing on his mind and he looks short on confidence.
The game against Ludogorets could finally confirm whether he has any place at all in Mourinho’s plans for the rest of the 2020/21 season.
Prediction: Tottenham Hotspur 3-0 Ludogorets Razgrad
Ludogorets will be excited to play Spurs but they have lost both of their first two matches. It is hard top see Spurs slipping up here. In Belgium, Spurs struggled to trouble Antwerp at all and will need to be more clinical on this occasion.
Defeat would put Tottenham under unnecessary pressure in what should be a simple group to progress from.
Ludogorets will dig on but Spurs will win 3-0.
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