Big games are coming thick and fast these days and Mauricio Pochettino has some major decisions to make ahead of Tottenham’s trip to West Ham.
The goalkeeper and back four are the most straightforward. Hugo Lloris, Toby Alderweireld and Kevin Wimmer will all start again, while Keiran Trippier and Ben Davies return having missed the game against Swansea.
Ryan Mason was also overlooked on Sunday and could return alongside Eric Dier. Further forward, Christian Eriksen is a lock-in after his brilliant performance last time out and Nacer Chadli deserves a shot having scored a crucial equaliser.
Harry Kane is another certain starter but the big question is whether Dele Alli will be fit enough to feature. With Alli banned for the trip to Dortmund there’s no reason why he shouldn’t play against both West Ham and Arsenal if injury free. If not then Erik Lamela will probably start in his place.
Here’s our Spurs team to face West Ham. What’s yours?
I think Eriksen has been more effective on the left so would play him there and and tuck Ali in behind Kane.
Rest Alli especially given potential ankle injury from warm up in Swansea game and put in Lamela. Agree with everything else.
I agree with halabil, don’t risk alli. Save him for arse-in-hole. It’s more important to have him at full strength in that game. Everything else is spot on.
My only worried is how are we going to contain their attack once the whistle blows at 19:45. West Ham is going to force us back in our own half by launching waves of attack on us, therefore we have to soak up the pressure. The problem is that are we able to hold on and not concede any goals throughout the 90 mins? IMHO, if we will to get a positive result out of this game, we NEED to tighten up our defense, especially at the left hand side of play because we have been conceding goals there. Take for example in our last home game against Swansea and also the FA cup loss to Crystal Palace, both goals were conceded at that side of the pitch. Although Wimmer has formed a good center defensive partnership with Alderweireld in the absence of Vertonghen, but I feel that he should stay a lot more focus and ought to read better on the whole situation of the game. I am not questioning his defending abilities and have no doubts that he has been performing well so far, the only thing is he still needs to shackle and tackle the opposition’s striker when necessary to prevent us from conceding goals. The opposing team will be aiming to attack down his side since he is still new to the PL game and I hope our 2 CDMs (Dier/Alli if he is fit to start) will give him full support in defending. COYMS, come on you our defense, stay ‘FOCUS’ and FIGHT liked a WARRIOR for every ball throughout the game. I believe your ‘NEVER SAY DIE’ attitude will help us gain another 3 points and bring it back to the lane.