Mauricio Pochettino has placed his trust in local trio Ryan Mason, Tom Carroll and Josh Onomah to start against Borussia Dortmund in the first leg of Tottenham’s Europa League last 16 clash.
It looks as if Mason and Carroll will start as the central midfield pair, while Onomah will join Heung-Min Son, Christian Eriksen and Nacer Chadli in the attacking four.
Ben Davies and Kieran Trippier are the full-backs. Spurs’ defensive core remains unchanged: Hugo Lloris, Toby Alderweireld and Kevin Wimmer all start.
Here’s how Twitter reacted to all the team news.
Lloris (C), Trippier, Alderweireld, Wimmer, Davies; Carroll, Mason; Onomah, Son, Eriksen; Chadlihttps://t.co/hhnL0lqrT5
— Tottenham Hotspur (@SpursOfficial) March 10, 2016
Subs: Vorm, Carter-Vickers, Walker, Bentaleb, Dembele, Lamela, Kane. #COYS
— Tottenham Hotspur (@SpursOfficial) March 10, 2016
Team is what it is. Nothing can do. Our job is to get behind it. #THFC ??
— Vass Koni (@vkon1) March 10, 2016
All on Poch's head with that team. Once he'd surrendered the FA Cup I thought he'd put more into this. Let's hope the tie isn't over tonight
— Bateseyboy (@Bateseyboy) March 10, 2016
I don't begrudge Pochettino deciding the league is more important than Europa. It is! And key players (Kane/Dier/Dembele) clearly need rest.
— Michael Caley (@MC_of_A) March 10, 2016
Carroll, Onomah and Chadli need big games tonight. Carroll needs to turn into John Cena. Chadli work hard n Onomah shock #EuropaLeague #COYS
— Harry Charalambous (@PrimeSpur1992) March 10, 2016
Midfield pivot of Ryan Mason and Tommy Carroll away at Borussia Dortmund. What a time to be alive. Let's 'aaaaav it. #COYS
— Spurs In The Blood (@SpursInTheBlood) March 10, 2016
Anyone in any doubt about Poch's priority comp, now no doubts whatsoever #PLnotEL
— Kev Breslin (@TheBrezTHFC) March 10, 2016
Let's see how good Spurs' squad depth really is. Even if it 'fails' tonight we can't allow the tie to be out of reach when they come to WHL.
— Andrew Gaffney (@GaffneyVLC) March 10, 2016
Honestly a full season of being tired on a Sunday to draw BVB and field half a team in latter stages?
— General Burkinshaw (@TsideSpurs) March 10, 2016
#thfc Poch will continue to insist the PL & EL are joint priorities but that evidently isn't the case. 7 changes tonight from Arsenal.
— Dan Kilpatrick (@Dan_KP) March 10, 2016
Josh Onomah will save us! He's the Enfield Messi #EnfieldMessi
— Jack (@Debaser92) March 10, 2016
Even if we'd been playing Man City in the league tonight there would have been changes. Perhaps not this many, but rotation is necessary.
— Chris Miller (@WindyCOYS) March 10, 2016
Just need to be compact. Hit on the break. Get Son & Chadli a couple chances. Pack it up & come home. Full strength at the Lane. Nervous tho
— Colin LaPage (@colinlapage) March 10, 2016
That team is Pochettino in a nutshell. This isn't Redknapp throwing the kids in, it's a coach making boys in to men. https://t.co/hg5PriSl5m
— Raj Bains (@BainsXIII) March 10, 2016
Didn’t expect Poch to go that way. I thought he’d go for it in the Europa. OK, the footballing gods kicked the EPL teams in the testimonials when the draw was made, couldn’t have made a better job of trying to eliminate the English clubs if they’d had a free hand in doing so. Nonetheless, this team selection is a clear indication of Pochettino’s priorities and is pretty close to being an insult to Dortmund. Poch did this in the Capital One Cup game against Arsenal and unsurprisingly lost. We forgave him to a degree because of the stunning win over Man City immediately afterwards. However, even beating Villa 10-0 won’t make up for what is going to happen tonight in Germany. I’ll be happy for the ‘lads’ to prove me wrong. Just popping out to put a bet on Dortmund to win!
Ridiculous team selection
Dortmund played strongest team v Bayern strongest team against us and they will all play against Mainz at weekend all this rotation bollocks