Nuno Espirito Santo made 11 changes to the Tottenham side that beat Newcastle 3-2 in the loss to Vitesse Arnhem. The Eredivisie outfit succumbed to a late defeat after a fantastic volley from Maximilian Wittek as Spurs’ season took another hit.
Tottenham were less than convincing throughout and Vitesse deserved their win after Wittek scored a brilliant volley.
It has been a rollercoaster of a season for Spurs so far, who have beaten Manchester City but lost to Chelsea and Arsenal in a row.
One trophy that they have high hopes for is the Europa Conference League, which they are the hot favourites to win.
The result puts the north London side top of their group but they have been less than convincing throughout the contest so far.
During the contest, Nuno fielded a number of fringe players that had the chance to impress.
Key stars such as Harry Kane and Heung-min Son were given the night off as several academy starlets made the jump up to the bench.
Dane Scarlett led the line but the 17-year-old was taken off with 15 minutes left to go as Tottenham struggled to score.
But the teenager cannot be expected to come and become a match winner while his more experienced teammates simply faltered.
Dele Alli, Steven Bergwijn and Harry Winks all came in from the cold but did not take the opportunity to further push themselves back into the first-team fold.
Another no-show was Bryan Gil, who was signed in the summer from Sevilla but has yet to make a meaningful performance.
For Winks, this was a chance to persuade Nuno that he can be his midfield orchestrator but had a shoddy night.
A late yellow encapsulated what was a dismal performance for the Englishman, alongside Giovani Lo Celso.
Alli had a tough year at Tottenham last season under Jose Mourinho and is yet to feel the love from Nuno.
Bergwijn was tasked with adding some pizzazz to Spurs’ attack but ended up failing to shine and was easily snuffed out.
Tottenham face West Ham next while the likes of Kane and Son will be back to lead the line – but this was another difficult night for Nuno.