Tottenham Hotspur will once again field a weakened side in the Europa League as Harry Redknapp would rather concentrate on the Premier League.
The Tottenham Hotspur manager has made no secret of his disdain for the Europa League and he will once again play a side made up of youth and reserve players on Thursday night, when Spurs host Shamrock Rovers at White Hart Lane.
That means that players such as Harry Kane and Jake Livermore will be given a chance to impress the manager but also those who have fallen out of favour such as Giovani Dos Santos and Roman Pavlyuchenko will be given some game time, in order to stay fresh for what could be a long, hard season for a side who have top four ambitions.
This mixture of youth and experience should work well for Spurs against Shamrock Rovers, who are several levels below them in terms of ability. It is no surprise to see the hosts priced at 1/7, by
bet365, to win this evening and they will be a popular pick on midweek accumulators.
That seems fair enough although the fact that Spurs reserves could only draw 0-0 at home to Hearts in qualifying and also played out a goal-less draw against PAOK a fortnight ago would be a worry for those who won't to pile in on the hosts.
Shamrock aren't world beaters but they will be motivated by the opportunity to upset one of English football's biggest clubs and 25/1 (
Victor Chandler) seems a tad unfair.
It is 15/2, at Victor Chandler, that the Irish side draw at White Hart Lane but it is difficult to see them scoring. Therefore, rather than backing a 0-0 draw, at 25/1 with
Sky Bet, it may be worth covering both 1-0 and 2-0 correct scores, at odds of 13/2 and 5/1 respectively with
bet365 as the firm will refund losing bets if the game finishes goal-less.
