Tottenham’s Selection Issues Resolved For Tim Sherwood
By Logan Holmes
Tim Sherwood faces a number of selection issues at Tottenham in the coming weeks in central defence and midfield as players return to fitness. HotspurHQ readers have had their say on how to resolve the problems.
Les Ferdinand and Tim Sherwood [Photo: Alan Hill]
Tottenham’s Selection Issues Resolved For Tim Sherwood
Over the past three days we have considered three selection issues which Tim Sherwood will face in the coming weeks as players return to fitness.
Since taking over as manager, injuries have depleted the Tottenham squad meaning that Sherwood has not had to make a number of tricky decisions when selecting his teams.
HotspurHQ identified three areas in the team where first choice players have been on the injury list but in the coming weeks those players should be back to full fitness and providing Sherwood with a selection headache.
Central Defence
Vertonghen and Dembele – where will they play? [Photo: Jav The_DoC_66]In the absence of Jan Vertonghen, Michael Dawson and Vald Chiriches have held the fort. Vertonghen could return in the centre of defence or at left back in place of Danny Rose.
HotspurHQ’s View:
The readers’ opnion was overwhelmingly that Vertonghen should play in central defence alongside Chiriches. Captain, Michael Dawson would be the player to lose out with Danny Rose retaining his left back position at present while Spurs look to strengthen in that area.
Wide Midfield
For his first game in temporary charge Tim Sherwood selected Aaron Lennon and Andros Townsend as his wide players, Lennon on the right and Townsend on the left. The injury to Townsend ended that experiment and in the most recent games he has played Lennon with Christian Eriksen on the left. It has worked well with the Dane finding his form, scoring 3 goals in his last four Premier League games.
The return to fitness of Townsend who scored for the Under-21 team in mid-week will now require Sherwood to rethink the situation.
HotspurHQ’s View:
Readers resolved this issue with the majority favouring a status quo with Townsend having to wait for his opportunity. The thought was that when selected Townsend should play on the left with Lennon preferred on the right wing.
Central Midfield
Paulinho [Photo: Alan Hill]In AVB’s team Sandro, Paulinho and Mousa Dembele were regular starters but the Liverpool game saw Sandro go off injured while Paulinho was sent off. Sandro, a big favourite with the Tottenham fans, has not been available to Sherwood and Paulinho has played for less than an hour as he was injured in his first match back against Stoke. Since then Dembele and Nabil Bentaleb have taken on the central midfield role so, when all four are fully fit who will Tim Sherwood select?
HotspurHQ’s View:
Readers overwhelmingly opted for the Brazilian pairing in central midfield – Paulinho and Sandro. Paulinho topped the poll with Sandro a close second. Demble was third with Nabil Bentaleb gaining only limited support.
There were a number of different suggestions made on Facebook to resolve the selection dilemmas.
- Jan Vertonghen to return in central defence as captain.
- Drop Emmanuel Adebayor and return to Andre Villas-Boas preferred formation of 4-3-3
- Play 3-5-2 to make use of the central midfield players, an area where Spurs are strong, while being weak on the left side of defence.
- Dembele and Paulinho could play against teams we should beat with Sandro coming in for the ‘biog’ games and the tough away matches.
HotspurHQ Readers’ Team:
The readers’ team, keeping a 4-4-2 formation and retaining the other players who have played for Tim Sherwood would be:
Lloris; Walker, Chiriches, Vertonghen, Rose; Lennon, Sandro, Paulinho, Eriksen; Adebayor, Soldado Subs: Friedel, Naughton, Townsend, Dawson, Dembele, Bentaleb, Defoe