Tottenham predicted team vs Villarreal as Thomas Frank makes some surprising decisions

Thomas Frank will continue to use his full squad as Tottenham return to Champions League football with the visit of Villarreal on Tuesday night.

Spurs come into the game off a 3-0 derby win at West Ham United and amid a busy run of games every three to four days they will welcome their La Liga visitors before making the trip to Brighton on Saturday afternoon as the Premier League continues. It means Frank will need to trust his squad across three games in a week, with the rest of the month constantly bringing more of the same until the next international break.

"I think it's important that I trust my players. Of course they need to perform and train well and show the right attitude and all that, but they do and they train well," Frank said on Saturday. "So I have the privilege to, for example, rest Rodri. Of course he could have played today. But he played two 90 minutes, he landed Thursday morning. So I'm not too worried about this, but what about Tuesday? What about the next one? And they can't play 70 games, all of them, all the time. Rodri is a key player for us.

"Richy is the same. He could have started but also played in 4,000m height against Bolivia and so on, and then others have done well."

Bentancur and Richarlison are therefore expected to start against Villarreal and Destiny Udogie will likely come in against the Spanish side. Frank will also have to decide whether one of Cristian Romero and Micky van de Ven needs a rest to reduce the risk of losing one of them to injury like last season or whether that comes at the Amex Stadium this weekend.

There are also decisions galore to be made in midfield with Lucas Bergvall deserving to start again after his goal and assist, while Pape Matar Sarr also scored and impressed and Joao Palhinha provides an important defensive shield to the backline but also could need a rest after plenty of football following a long period without it.

In the attacking areas, Xavi Simons could get a chance in the number 10 role after his debut on the left, while Brennan Johnson will be pushing for a start. Mohammed Kudus will need to be rested at some point rather than be run into the ground with so many games over the coming weeks. Randal Kolo Muani could also make his debut for the club with his own Champions League experience.

The Carabao Cup game against League One side Doncaster Rover at home next week also presents the chance to rest some players and give others some minutes.

Here's the team we reckon Frank could select to face Villarreal:

(4-2-3-1) Vicario; Porro, Romero, Van de Ven, Udogie; Bentancur, Bergvall; Kudus, Xavi, Johnson; Richarlison.

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