Clinton N'Jie to Start for Tottenham in Europa League?

Clinton N’Jie has been a regular sub for Tottenham Hotspur.

With Tottenham’s Europa League match tomorrow against R.S.C. Anderlecht being on the road, it’ll be another short week of preparations. Changes will be on the way for Mauricio Pochettino’s starting eleven after dropping two points and drawing 1-1 against AS Monaco in Spurs’ last Europa League match on October 1st.

Pochettino’s lineup against Monaco was a strong starting eleven with four changes made. Danny Rose returned at left-back, Kieran Trippier replaced Kyle Walker at right-back, Érik Lamela moved over to left midfield and Nacer Chadli moved over to right midfield. Interestingly enough, Tottenham lined up in a more offensive formation, the 4-3-3, against Qarabağ FK to start their Europa League campaign and then reverted back to the more traditional 4-2-3-1 formation against Monaco.

Perhaps the drastic change in formations had to do with Spurs going down very early against Qarabağ and losing Heung-Min Son to injury in a blowout victory over Manchester City? If not, then Mauricio Pochettino just wanted to stick with what has worked best since the start of last season and that’s using the 4-2-3-1.

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Heading into Thursday’s matchup Nacer Chadli will miss this game after picking up a knock on his ankle against Liverpool when Mamadou Sakho accidentally rolled over his right leg. With a return date of four to six weeks for the Belgian left midfielder this means there is an open spot for Clinton N’Jie to make his first official start as a member of Tottenham. Although the Cameroon international was forced into against Liverpool, he started the game off slowly when he was an early substitute. As the match wore on N’Jie improved and got better, finishing the rest of the game by playing 79 minutes.

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For a player who made only half of his starts as a starter with Olympique Lyonnais in Ligue 1 last season, due to being the third attacker in Lyon’s 4-3-3 alongside Nabil Fekir and Alexandre Lacazette, the 22-year-old N’Jie could find himself being a starter once again if he’s able to put in good performances.

Nacer Chadli who has been a consistent left midfielder with Tottenham since arriving to North London in 2013 was never going to lose his starting spot despite Heung-Min Son and Clinton N’Jie being signed, unless he was injured.

Now that Chadli will a month-and-a-half of games as he recovers from his injury, Clinton N’Jie will slot in as Mauricio Pochettino’s new starting left midfielder with Christian Eriksen manning the central attacking midfielder position behind striker Harry Kane. Once Chadli is healthy — and depending on how N’Jie does — there could be a change in Pochettino’s starting eleven and it could be argued that it was only going to be a matter of time when Nacer Chadli would be moving to the bench. It’s just unfortunate that it had to be due to injury.

Once Son gets back to full fitness and starts playing as Tottenham’s central attacking midfielder again, then N’Jie and Chadli would both be on the bench as Érik Lamela is still the starter at right midfield until his form severely drops. If Son starts as the #10 then Christian Eriksen will move to left midfield as he needs to be in the starting eleven. In the end though, Pochettino will have a very deep attacking midfield in the starting lineup and on the bench (Chadli, Eriksen, Lamela, N’Jie and Son) so the Argentine manager can’t go wrong with whoever he decides to start for games.

Next: Key Battles: Anderlecht v Tottenham

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Could Clinton N’Jie Start for Tottenham in the Europa League?

By Alexander Balano | Oct 21, 2015

Clinton N’Jie has been a regular sub for Tottenham Hotspur.

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