Kane, Alli and Dembélé are Doubts for Tottenham Against Monaco
Tottenham’s chances of advancing into the Champions League’s round of 16 looks slim due to a multitude of reasons.
Tomorrow, Tottenham face AS Monaco at the Stade Louis II in a must-win game to advance into the knockout stages of the Champions League. Though making things difficult besides winning at Monaco is that Bayer Leverkusen can’t win against CSKA Moscow.
Because Spurs are currently two points from second place in Group E, no matter if they win, they need some luck to make sure Leverkusen lose or at least draw.
Mauricio Pochettino knows what’s at stake, but getting his side to be on their A-game will be difficult against a French team who has lost only once at home in their past 23 matches in all competitions.
This daunting task is even more compounded by the fact that Pochettino will still be without the services of Toby Alderweireld, Érik Lamela and Ben Davies. Making this situation even worse, Harry Kane, Dele Alli and Mousa Dembélé are being listed as doubts today during the Argentine manager’s press conference.
There’s a chance they Kane, Alli and Dembélé will play, but they don’t appear likely to play the full 90 minutes with Chelsea awaiting four days later.
“First of all we need to assess some players because we have some problems but all available players are here,” Mauricio Pochettino said at a news conference on Monday (via ESPN FC).
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“We need to be clinical about picking the starting XI for tomorrow because we have a lot of games ahead. Tomorrow is the most important but we have Chelsea Saturday and the level of the players is important.”
“Our selection for tomorrow will be the players that are fit or not, that can play 90 minutes or not. We need to assess Harry Kane, Mousa Dembélé and Dele Alli if they can play 90 minutes and don’t take any risks that can affect for the next games”.
“We have one day less than Monaco to recover because they play Friday, we play Saturday. Today is a very important day to assess and see if the players are fully recovered to play tomorrow. If we believe it’s a risk to play them from the beginning, they can play from the bench and have an impact.”
“It’s important to play with 11 players that are fine, feeling like there is no risk, and can run and play in the best condition.”
With a limited squad that has been battling injuries and form, Tottenham manager Mauricio Pochettino believes that if Spurs were to be eliminated from the Champions League, he doesn’t think it would have been a waste.
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“It’s a game that we must win, but we need to find a way how,” Pochettino added. “We have a good team in front, we know Monaco very well. We always want to win every game we play.”
“It’s not to take more or less risks but to be clever, follow the plan and try to win after 90 minutes. That’s our idea, our challenge. It’s not about risks, it’s about balance in football.”
“Will it be for nothing [if Spurs don’t qualify]? No. It’s always important to have experience. It’s not the same as competing in the Europe League. It’s a different level, everything is different. It’s good to assess our players, to compete in different levels. To realise it’s very tough.”
“We need to take a lot of things, a lot of information about our squad, players. Everything that happens will be positive for Tottenham.”