Tottenham fans are still holding their breath until they discover the full extent of the injury Toby Alderweireld suffered at West Brom on Saturday.
Thankfully Mauricio Pochettino claims it isn’t a big problem. Still, Alderweireld certainly wasn’t ready to travel with the Spurs squad for a tough Champions League test against Bayern Leverkusen.
Eric Dier replaces Alderweireld at centre back, while Cameron Carter-Vickers is chosen ahead of Kevin Wimmer on the bench to the bewilderment of many supporters.
Pochettino’s decision can likely be put down to Carter-Vickers being right-footed. That means he is able to deputise for Dier if another injury occurs, while Ben Davies can fill in on the left side of central defence, rendering Wimmer’s selection needless.
Here’s how Twitter reacted to Dier’s selection and all the rest of the team news.
#THFC team: Lloris, Trippier, Dier, Vertonghen, Rose; Wanyama; Alli, Eriksen, Son, Lamela; Janssen. #COYS pic.twitter.com/YzwmSAHkwZ
— Tottenham Hotspur (@SpursOfficial) October 18, 2016
Subs: Vorm, Carter-Vickers, Davies, Dembele, Onomah, Sissoko, Winks. #COYS
— Tottenham Hotspur (@SpursOfficial) October 18, 2016
Carter Vickers on the bench. Wimmer doesn't even make team. Wonder what he's done to piss Poch off.
— Rich (@Richspur) October 18, 2016
Wimmer is a left sided centre back so it was always very unlikely he would have started tonight in Alderweireld's absence.
— Spurs In The Blood (@SpursInTheBlood) October 18, 2016
Can't see Wimmer being happy not coming in ahead of Dier or even CCV on bench can see him looking to move on in January. Shame as good CB
— Kenny Palmer (@KennyPalmer) October 18, 2016
Vertonghen is left footed, Wimmer is left footed. Toby is right footed, Dier is right footed.
It's not that complicated guys.#COYS
— Jon. (@jonhotspur88) October 18, 2016
Spurs will line up with a left footed CB and a right footed one. That's all you need to know/grasp.
— Paul O Keefe (@pokeefe1) October 18, 2016
Almost the XI I expected. Thought he'd go with Dembélé over Lamela. Happy with that, though. #COYS https://t.co/DxP4n1xD0q
— Nikhil Saglani (@Nikhil_Saglani) October 18, 2016
Can you believe we went through seeing our starting line up without Toby Alderwiereld for 133 years before he joined… #NeverAgain
— Corbit (@Corbit_THFC) October 18, 2016
Not seeing Toby in that back four scares the daylights out of me.
— Harry C (@HazSpur92) October 18, 2016
On the day we discover that if last 38 PL games was a season, we'd be Champions I'm still reading genius comments questioning Poch
— Ergo (@SniersMoregut) October 18, 2016
Great news to have Rose back in the starting XI tonight, no doubt offers completely different outlet than Davies going forward. #COYS#THFC
— Ricky Sacks (@RickSpur) October 18, 2016
This is a must win game likd poch said.Sad not to see wimmer ahead of dier in the starting 11.He isn’t even on bench.Time to finish his tottenham career.Hopefully it doesn’t cost us much expensive.come on you spurs.Win this vital game with a great ambition.Show your quality once again that we can the ucl.coys
This is a must win game likd poch said.Sad not to see wimmer ahead of dier in the starting 11.He isn’t even on bench.Time to finish his tottenham career.Hopefully it doesn’t cost us much expensive.come on you spurs.Win this vital game with a great ambition.Show your quality once again we can the ucl.coys