Tottenham are just nine days away from opening up their Premier League campaign against newly-promoted Aston Villa in front of the Sky Sports cameras at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
And although their pre-season programme has gone pretty smoothly, their remains one ongoing issue that will be giving Mauricio Pochettino sleepless nights from now until 10th August.
That problem is who will be starting at right-back. Serge Aurier remains sidelined after suffering a freak hand injury whilst on international duty with Ivory Coast at the 2019 African Cup of Nations and looks increasingly unlikely to face Villa, especially considering he hasn’t featured once for Spurs in pre-season and is extremely short of match fitness.
Juan Foyth, who we already know is suspended for Tottenham’s opening two league matches after his red card against AFC Bournemouth towards the end of last season, injured his ankle quite badly against Bayern Munich last night and although the extend of the problem remains unknown, it appeared bad news as he left the pitch on a stretcher.
That leaves the Argentine with just one fit right-back – Kyle Walker-Peters. The 22-year-old has featured heavily in pre-season and whenever he had been given the nod by Pochettino over the last few years, has usually fared relatively well.
His performance on debut at Newcastle United on the opening day of the 2017/2018 season springs to mind, when he was named Man of the Match, then there was the thrashing over Bournemouth on Boxing Day of last year when Walker-Peters remarkably recorded three assists inside the opening 45 minutes.
But there is another member of Spurs’ squad that could play as a makeshift right-back, although it’s a position he has played in just a handful of times in his career.
That man is Moussa Sissoko.
Given his confidence levels and his form over the last 12 months, you certainly wouldn’t put it past him to slot in next to Toby Alderweireld and perform well. Apart from score goals, the French international can do pretty much anything.
It’s quite an unlikely scenario, but desperate times call for desperate measures and it’s something that Pochettino should be contemplating. After all, Sissoko is likely to be on the bench against Villa, with Harry Winks and Tanguy Ndombele starting in central midfield.
Shut up idiot he has played there before…
You having a laugh take Sissoko out of midfield were he’s so powerful at breaking up play, holding the ball up and powering forward with the ball just to put him at RB, maybe it would work ?. Unless we buy both Fernandes and Lo Celso we need him were he is, as at RB he’d need to go to ground with tackles which wouldn’t do wonders for his knees. I like your thinking though.
Toby should come before Sissoko at right back with Sanchez at CB. Toby is a bloody good fullback.
We will bring Dani Alves in for 1 season and play him in the CL with KWP as reserve for CL. Split the Prem games between Alves and KWP. Then play Aurier in our cup matches so giving KWP more game time to improve and take 1 more season to look at Aurier imo he’s not good enough but time will tell, i hope I’m wrong. COYS!
Dani Alves, never in a million years
You wouldn’t ask Hendrix to play the drums
You’d be surprised…
Haven’t you heard Belew, McCartney or Jaco on drums?
But I get your point…
Auriers hand not an issue, he can play in a cast, won’t be the first or the last. However, his hamstring injury against Morocco was the problem, that’s why he didn’t play again. At least try and base your articles on some facts not guesswork.
Why all the fuss. KWP is a brilliant right back as we all saw against Bayern. He is still young and is a very good attacking right back also. Toby is well needed in the middle with Jan and Sanchez with Danny on the left back. DO NOT let Danny go. He was fantastic against Bayern. When all the players are fit we are spoilt for choice at the back. KWP, Aurier, Toby, Jan, Juan, Sanchez, Danny, Davies and the other defender that played against Bayern (at the moment I am forgetting his name) and even Dier can slip in if needed.