Tottenham Could Rotate Once More Against Dortmund

Tottenham’s Mauricio Pochettino should select another heavily rotated side prior to kick-off in order to have a better chance at winning the Premier League.

Yesterday afternoon Sky Sports‘ Lyall Thomas broke news that Mauricio Pochettino would consider resting Christian Eriksen and Mousa Dembélé for tonight’s second leg tie against Borussia Dortmund.

After a heavy rotation a week ago that featured seven changes, it’s entirely possible that it will happen once more with Eriksen and Dembélé carrying minor knocks heading into a win or go home fixture at White Hart Lane.

“We will see about Eriksen, but maybe he needs to rest a little bit,” Pochettino said. “Maybe Dembélé too. They have some things, but not big issues. But maybe they are not available tomorrow.”

The last thing that Pochettino needs is to have his squad suffer anymore injuries after going through this season with key players missing some time off.

For the most part though, Tottenham have been healthy which is surprising considering that four players have made 40-plus appearances this season: Harry Kane (42), Eric Dier (42), Dele Alli (40) and Toby Alderweireld (40).

Tonight will be Tottenham’s 45th game of the season. So clearly rest and rotation is needed again to stand a better chance at making up ground in the Premier League.

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Something that even Marco Reus, of Borussia Dortmund, couldn’t fault Mauricio Pochettino in last week’s 3-0 defeat in Germany.

Reus, talking to SPORT1, had this to say after Tottenham made seven changes and lost in the first leg: “I do believe that they took the game seriously. But we are currently in such good form that we would still have beaten their best team.”

“However, their team has other priorities. I think Tottenham are giving priority to winning the Premier League and you can’t blame them.”

This is something that Dortmund don’t have to worry about in the Bundesliga.

While BVB (61 points) are second and trailing league leaders, Bayern Munich (66 points), with eight games remaining. Hertha Berlin (45 points), Borussia Monchengladbach (42 points) and Schalke (41 points) are so far behind that Dortmund were able to play their full squad.

Spurs don’t have that luxury at all, therefore a compromise had to be made. And that was to take a loss last week to secure a win over Aston Villa. Tonight should be no different.

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But despite what happened, Mauricio Pochettino wants to make sure that supporters know he has belief in the entire squad regardless of who he chooses.

So even if he’s throwing away a chance at a quarter-finals spot in the Europa League, he’s looking out for his club’s best interests.

“It’s important for the supporters to know I believe in all my squad and one negative result does not change my vision of them,” said Mauricio Pochettino.

“When I select them, or change or rotate, for me it’s clear; if we are in a good period and in a good position in the league then it’s because all the players were involved from the beginning.”

“I accept the criticism because if you win you are a genius and if not you are a disaster. Sometimes we rotate and sometimes I make a mistake because we analyze our decisions, we can do better and we are open to learning.”

“But it’s important to keep them all my players motivated and I need to show I believe in them. If you want success in football the squad is always important.”

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It should also be noted that with only two injued players remaining, Jan Vertonghen and Clinton N’Jie, it’s best to keep that number as low as possible. And with the international break coming up following a home game against Bournemouth on March 20, both Vertonghen and N’Jie could start training with the squad again.

“Jan and Clinton N’Jie are in a very good situation now,” Pochettino added. “We expect from next week they start to train with the group and maybe for after the international break they will be available to be selected.”

So again, limit the amount of injuries by rotating the squad in a competition that Tottenham are currently trailing in — and a difficult task of trying to overcome — and focus on a team that Spurs have a chance of beating in the Premier League. That being, Bournemouth and once again closing the five point gap, to two points.