Tottenham will be up against undoubtedly their toughest opponents of the season so far when they face Real Madrid on Tuesday night.
Mauricio Pochettino has a number of selection decisions to make ahead of the Champions League clash at the Bernabeu.
Ben Davies hasn’t recovered from illness in time to feature, but Pochettino has suggested Danny Rose could be on the bench.
That means Jan Vertonghen is likely to start on the left of a back four, just like he did in the win over Bournemouth.
Mousa Dembele has travelled and could play a part. Spurs could do with his strength and ball retention in central midfield.
To add further muscle, it’s possible Moussa Sissoko will join Dembele in a sort of midfield diamond.
Harry Winks could be dropped as a result, but it wouldn’t surprise me to see him start instead of either Sissoko or Dembele. We’ll see.
Dele Alli is still suspended so Heung-Min Son is certain to play as the closest attacker to Harry Kane.
Pochettino then must decide between Kieran Trippier and Serge Aurier at right-back – I think he’ll go for the latter.
Here’s our predicted Spurs XI to face Madrid – what’s yours?
Very good line up for tomorrow’s game
Winks will start. Dembele will be on the bench with Rose.
Dembele if fully fit can dictate play better than Winks. The boy is brilliant and has a fantastic future but he isn’t at Dembele’s level yet. Sissoko offers something different in mid which could pull Real back and keep them honest.
I like Dier’s position in the line up as he’s good at dropping into defence esp when Sanchez goes up to win the headers from long balls and he’s even better at preventing the defence from becoming active before it needs to.
Auriers pace and Jan’s experience will serve us well in both attack and defence, just a shame Davies is ill as he’s improved so much over the past 6mnths.
My only concern is Son hasn’t looked decent when starting games, he’s been more of a presence as an impact sub but not much choice with Dele out, Lamela not at full fitness and N’koudou still not quite upto speed for us yet plus getting a knock against Bournemouth
…Llorente on the bench also ??
It’s a tough ask with us at full strength any way, so I really would like to think we could get a quick goal then maybe, sit back a little then try catch them in the break.
It’s a big loss not having GB fit as he would want to prove that he’s as good as when he left us, Ronaldo is not at his best but he only needs a sniff and he’ll score.
Danny Rose will be off in January anyway so we need to get used to life without him.