Is This What Tottenham’s Rotation Looks Like?
By Ryan Wrenn
The Tottenham team that Mauricio Pochettino fielded Sunday against Crystal Palace featured six of the same players that started against Qarabag FK Thursday in the Europa League group stage opener. Those same six featured in the game against Sunderland the weekend before, inspiring many to question Pochettino’s rotation policy.
Especially considering the perceived disparity in quality between Tottenham and Qarabag, this relatively small amount of turnover stands out. Is this what it looks like for Tottenham to legitimately compete on multiple fronts? If so, is it sustainable?
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The best answer yet for how exactly Pochettino plans to cope with another busy schedule this season will likely come with the squad announcement for Wednesday’s Capital One Cup match against north London rivals Arsenal. So much of the Tottenham first team have played so many minutes this past week that it might simply not be possible to field what would be considered a strong squad. We can probably expect to see a season debut from Federico Fazio at centre-back as well as possible first starts from winger Clinton Njie and midfielder Harry Winks.
The fact that only Fazio has failed to earn any minutes this season proves how much faith Pochettino has in the full compliment of his players. This past summer’s clear out of so much dead weight in defense and midfield has left a lean and especially young roster, though one deep enough in talent to reasonably assume there is a roles for just about every player this season.
Hence it was thought prior to last Thursday’s home game against Qarabag that Pochettino would name a starting XI that was wholly different than the one that beat Sunderland the weekend prior. Instead, the Argentine coach elected to start several first team regulars, including such crucial players as Hugo Lloris, Toby Alderweireld and Eric Dier. New signing Heung-Min Son and budding first team regular Dele Alli were also included, leaving a lot of questions about Tottenham’s ability to fend off a high-flying Crystal Palace side three days later.
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Tottenham, of course, won that game as well, though with all five of those players starting. So while there is some rotation going on, it’s being done around a core of players that will likely become exhausted at the rate at which they’re being asked to play.
It could be that Pochettino’s failure to rest key names against Qarabag hints that he’s simply steeling his side for a series of difficult Europa League fixtures against Monaco and Anderlecht that come before and after vital Premier League games against the likes of Chelsea, Arsenal and Manchester City. If Tottenham’s ambition really is to compete on both fronts, Pochettino will want to make sure his squad is prepared to feature in significant ways in all of those games.
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In truth, this might not be possible. The likes of Alderweireld and Dier might be used to the rigors of the Premier League and its often crowded schedule, but Son and Alli could end up suffering under that regimen. So offering chances for the likes of Kevin Wimmer in defense, Tom Carroll in midfield and Njie in attack could in effect act as a combined audition and training session for those times when the core squad cannot feature.
It’s too early to praise or damn Tottenham’s rotation policy, assuming what we’re seeing even is actually that policy in action. All Spurs fans can hope is that those players that do see time in the rotation will prove themselves worthy of more and more minutes as the season wears on.