Pochettino reluctant to ring the changes against Monaco — UEFA Europa League

In his second match against FK Qarabag, which is the Europa League clash, he scored twice as Tottenham sealed a comfortable 3-1 victory.

Njie is hoping that progress will lead to a first Spurs start in Thursday’s Group J tie against a club he knows better than most thanks to his Ligue 1 experience.

And, although he admits the Europa League is a step down, he feels it is becoming more prestigious and is worth taking seriously. “It’s changed a lot“.

“We’re in a group with Anderlecht, they’re not a bad team”.

Having joined Monaco from Benfica for around £11m, the Portuguese midfielder will be a test in the middle of the park for Spurs players. Celtic who were disappointed to not qualify for the Champions League again this year were presented with a few decent fixtures in their Europa League group and to many people’s surprise including my own, managed to take a point from their first game in Amsterdam while taking on Ajax. With the new youth movement, which I happen to be a fan of, Christian Erikson, Son Heung-min, Toby Alderweireld, Nacer Chadli, and even Erik Lamela, will bring a few great play under Pochettino, if he can get them going in the same direction as Southhampton.

“That’s one of the reasons that made me go – I could see how progressive they are and the manager (Mauricio Pochettino) is”.

Tottenham Hotspur take on AS Monaco at the Stade Louis II in the Europa League on Thursday night, with former Chelsea man Ricardo Carvalho likely to marshal the hosts’ defence. “We will expect a very tough game”.

“Still, they are a very good team, with young players”. That’s why I’m very happy that, while we scored four goals, we didn’t give them a lot.

“If we work hard and we do everything we have to do then we have the quality to make the difference”.

Spurs responded to their League Cup defeat to rivals Arsenal with a comprehensive win over Manuel Pellegrini’s side on Saturday – their fourth in five matches in all competitions.

The sales of defenders Layvin Kurzawa and Aymen Abdennour this summer have also damaged Leonardo Jardim’s squad and they have conceded six goals in their last two games at home.