Foyth out, Lucas in: Tottenham make changes to Champions League squad

Tottenham Hotspur will play Juventus in the first leg of their Champions League knock-out series on Tuesday, February 13 in Turin. As expected, Spurs have tweaked their roster slightly to accommodate both Erik Lamela and new signing Lucas Moura.

According to UEFA’s website, Spurs have taken winger Georges-Kevin N’Koudou, who is currently on loan at Burnley this spring, and 19-year old center back Juan Foyth off the Champions League squad to make room for Lamela and Moura. Lamela was not registered for the group stages since he was still recovering from a long term injury, and the inclusion of Lucas meant that another foreign player on the squad had to make way.

UEFA regulations state that a Champions League club must include a maximum of 25 “List A” players on their squad, but that number is reduced if they do not have enough “association trained” or “club trained” players on their roster. That’s what nailed them before the group stages: Eric Dier and Ben Davies aren’t considered “association trained” because Dier grew up in Portugal and Ben Davies’ background in the Welsh FA isn’t considered part of the England’s FA (yes, it’s super dumb). This reduced the number of non-association trained players down to 17.

All Champions League clubs are allowed to tweak their squads ahead of the knock-out rounds, should they make it that far. Spurs had a couple of options here: N’Koudou was obviously not going to feature since he’s now out on loan, but there were thoughts that third keeper Paulo Gazzaniga might make way instead of Foyth. However, Spurs clearly thought that with Toby Alderweireld returning in the near term that Spurs could make do with one less reserve defender rather than short-change their keeper corps.

Here’s a list of Tottenham’s Champions League squad for the remainder of the competition. Asterisks indicate “List B” players who are under 21 and have been at the club for at least two years. Interestingly, Luke Amos is still in the squad despite going on loan to Stevenage; since he is on List B his inclusion is probably incidental and will have no impact on Spurs’ overall roster.

Keepers

• Hugo Lloris
• Michel Vorm
• Paulo Gazzaniga
• Alfie Whiteman *

Defenders

• Kieran Trippier
• Danny Rose
• Toby Alderweireld
• Jan Vertonghen
• Davinson Sanchez
• Serge Aurier
• Ben Davies
• Kyle Walker-Peters *

Midfielders

• Erik Lamlea
• Eric Dier
• Victor Waynama
• Moussa Sissoko
• Mousa Dembele
• Dele Alli
• Christian Eriksen
• Lucas Moura
• Harry Winks *
• Anthony Georgiou *
• Luke Amos *
• Tashan Oakley-Boothe *

Forwards

• Harry Kane
• Son Heung-Min
• Fernando Llorente
• Kazaiah Sterling *