Will Harrison and Carter-Vickers Play for Spurs?

Spurs have brought Shayon Harrison and Cameron Carter-Vickers with them to the Europa League, but they have yet to play a game. Will it eventually happen?

With a chance to advance into the round of 16 on the line, if Spurs beat Fiorentina on Thursday, it wouldn’t be out of the ordinary to see Mauricio Pochettino select a strong lineup to get the job done.

However doing so will put his his side at risk to be fatigued with two days of rest ahead of Sunday’s Premier League fixture against Swansea City, followed by two London derbies against West Ham United and Arsenal, respectively.

So, in order to alleviate a tired team with only 48 hours of rest before playing in another game, perhaps a semi-rotated lineup with two youth players being added in could take on La Viola instead.

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Certainly the idea of starting two youth players, Shayon Harrison and Cameron Carter-Vickers, at two important positions, striker and center-back, would surely see Spurs crash out of the Europa League in terrible fashion. At home, no less, and leading the game via away goals.

But with Harry Kane suffering a broken nose and not playing in tomorrow’s game so that he’s ready to play on Sunday, there’s a chance for Shayon Harrison to get some kind of playing time. That is, assuming that Mauricio Pochettino doesn’t want to play Son Heung-Min or Nacer Chadli for 60-80 minutes and then try to play the same amount in the Premier League.

This doesn’t mean that Harrison has to start. Instead, being a second half substitute would be a good move. Because this will give Son and Chadli enough rest should they be replaced by Shayon Harrison.

The same thing could be said for Toby Alderweireld. Now, while the Belgian central defender has started every single Europa League game, at this point in the season, he’s now going to be considered the most important player to not lose on Spurs’ backline after already losing Jan Vertonghen last month.

Therfore a Cameron Carter-Vickers and Kevin Wimmer partnership should do. Having Carter-Vickers play instead of Alderweireld also gives him a chance to rest before playing three Premier League games in seven days.

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As stated above, playing two youth players and rotating the starting lineup to not feature many regular starters, would be detrimental to Spurs’ chances of advancing into the round of 16.

But now is the time to pick and choose which competition is more important to focus on after losing both Harry Kane and Mousa Dembélé for Thursday’s game. Dembélé of course will be out for much longer.

The only thing that can go wrong for playing Shayon Harrison and Cameron Carter-Vickers too early is that the team gets eliminated in another competition, after being knocked out of the FA Cup this past Sunday. The after effect could end up lowering the team’s moral even more.

Plus, not to mention watching Manuel Pellegrini’s decision to play quite a few teenagers on his Manchester City side against Chelsea and then getting thrashed 5-1 in the FA Cup is probably weighing on Mauricio Pochettino’s mind even if he fully believes in his young squad to continue getting results this season.

Next: Kane and Dembélé out for Spurs

In any event, playing Shayon Harrison and Cameron Carter-Vickers is a two-step process.

For starters, they’ll give key players some rest ahead of a busy three game schedule in seven days. Secondly, giving both 18-year-old kids some playing time will help determine if they’re ready to play next season or not.

Whatever happens in the end, it would be good to see Harrison and Carter-Vickers get some playing time under their belts this term before it’s all said and done.

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