Europa League 2024 LIVE updates: Tottenham Hotspur v AZ Alkmaar

Looks chilly in north London. Ange has just done up the buttons of his coat as he settles into a standing position on the edge of his technical area. Timo Werner forms part of the front three too, and he almost creates Tottenham’s opener inside five minutes, delivering a lovely ball from the left wing into the box, where Moore has floated in from the right and glances his headers just wide of the post.

Tottenham 0-0 AZ Alkmaar, 5th minute

Richarlison is pulled back for an early offside as he jumped the gun marginally making a run.

Kick-off is imminent. Maddison leads Tottenham’s line-up, less than a week after he was hooked at half-time against West Ham. He’d been playing well, too, but Postecoglou had other tactical plans in that match. Given the relative inexperience of this XI I can’t see that happening today.

Erik ten Hag will step back into the pressure cooker (did he ever step out?) when his United face Fenerbahce, also at 6am AEDT. The Turkish side is managed by none other than one Jose Mourinho, which has made for some pretty great headlines over the past few days. We’ll keep you up to date with the score there, along with any drama from this morning’s other fixtures.

My colleague Vince Rugari has written a terrific biography on Postecoglou, along with a Good Weekend piece which ran a couple of months back. Here’s a tiny snippet, but the whole thing is worth a read if you haven’t yet.

Postecoglou isn’t an easy boss; while some coaches cultivate close relationships with their players, he ­purposely keeps his distance, to the point where even the biggest stars of his teams never feel too sure they’re going to be picked each week. While he has ­mellowed a bit over the years, Postecoglou can be ­incredibly grumpy, and struggles to suppress his rage when his players don’t obey his instructions. And yet somehow he has this ability to bring the absolute best out of everyone, an invisible force that makes his ­subordinates want to run through brick walls for him. Each team he has coached has come out the other end a lean, mean fighting machine.

As flagged yesterday by Postecoglou, Son Heung-min will sit this one out.

“Sonny was a bit sore after the weekend, he was never going to be involved tomorrow,” Postecoglou said in his pre-match press conference. “We’ll leave him out and we’ll see how he is from there.”

James Maddison will captain in Son’s place, and he and Destiny Udogie are the only names retained from the XI that started against West Ham. It means a chance for fringe players. The big one is that 17-year-old Mikey Moore gets the nod for a home starting debut. Lucas Bergvall and Fraser Forster are also in.

Here we are again, prepped and ready for another test of Ange Postecoglou’s managerial credentials. The Australian seems to be sitting this sort of this test almost every game he oversees, and this is the European variation. The classic “European credentials” test. Very important.

On this front, Postecoglou’s Tottenham are off to a flying start in the Europa League’s league phase, having already beaten Azerbaijani outfit Qarabag and Hungarian side Ferencvaros. This meeting with AZ Alkmaar should, based on recent form, go the same way. As I type this I realise it could mean anything from a straightforward 2-0 win to one where Spurs go up 3-0, then down 4-3, and then finally get it done with two injury-time goals.

It’s worth noting, though, that Tottenham have won six of their past seven games in all competitions, including the weekend’s 4-1 dismantling of West Ham in the Premier League.

Kick-off is at 6am AEDT at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.