One injury away from playing a false number nine

Tottenham’s bold and unexpected plan to play two strikers in Saturday’s defeat backfired in unfortunate circumstances but once again, it puts the question of playing personnel and the depth of squad under the microscope.

Emmanuel Adebayor’s three match ban leaves the club with one recognised striker in Jermain Defoe and that would suggest a return to 4-2-3-1 for now, at least. Other alternatives might have included recalling Harry Kane but the on-loan striker is currently some way from match fitness.

AVB has previously stated that Spurs have enough striking options at the club but will the next few games alter his thinking ahead of the January transfer window?

For now, Andre feels we have it covered,

“Do we have enough firepower? Yes. We have one of the league’s top scorers in Jermain Defoe,” AVB said.

“Obviously recently we have been playing with Ade and he’s been excellent, so we understand that he’s one less option; one very important player but we have to adapt without him.

“Ade and Defoe have flourished well in the past and they know each other very well so to not have that will be hard to take, but the good thing is that the games against West Ham, Liverpool and Fulham are in one week so the player can be back quickly.”

That does, however, leave us completely reliant on Defoe and an injury or even a further suspension would probably leave us three unsatisfactory choices –

• Clint Dempsey
• Promotion of one of the youngsters – Jon Obika for example
• A false nine

Perhaps AVB would be forced into the market if anything were to happen to JD over the next three games – otherwise it could be a quiet transfer window.