Tottenham v Millwall Preview & Lineups

Tottenham welcome Millwall to White Hart Lane on Sunday as they attempt to break through to the FA Cup’s semifinals.

Both Arsenal and Manchester City won their own quarterfinal matchups on Saturday. With Chelsea and Manchester United due to play Monday, Tottenham are in line for a tricky route to their first silverware since 2008.

But first comes Millwall. The scrappy League One club hasn’t enjoyed the most luck lately, but under coach Neil Harris they appear to be on the mend.

Mauricio Pochettino will hope Tottenham doesn’t factor into that narrative. The prospect of a trophy — the last they realistically qualify for this season — is enough for the home side to take matters very seriously on Sunday.

Millwall will be doing the same, of course. They have already seen off two Premier League opponents in the FA Cup and will be hoping to do the same at White Hart Lane.

Let’s check out the team that will hope to break the Lions.

As we suspected, there’s not much of a dramatic turnover here from the team that beat Everton 3-2 a week ago. There is one notable twist though.

Michel Vorm comes in for Hugo Lloris in goal, but the back three of Jan Vertonghen, Toby Alderweireld and Eric Dier remain unchanged.

We can expect to see some adventurous runs from both Vertonghen and Dier. Though nominally centre-backs, their experience as full-backs and the relative freedom they are given on either side of Alderweireld means they have plenty of opportunities to look up the pitch.

With Millwall unlikely to commit too many men forward, that will mean that Tottenham’s wing-backs will enjoy even more attacking freedom. Ben Davies will hope to continue his fine form of late. On the opposite flank, Kieran Trippier comes in for Kyle Walker. The Englishman’s proven to be a fine backup option on the right.

Harry Winks and Victor Wanyama will continue their fine partnership first nurtured in the pre-season. Ahead of them, predictably, will be Harry Kane and Dele Alli.

That pair of attackers would normally be joined by Christian Eriksen. Here though, Pochettino opted for Heung-min Son. The South Korean is the more direct option compared to the Dane, so it could be that Pochettino is hoping for some additional penetration against an obdurate Millwall defense.

Next: Pochettino Prefers Development Over Loans

Check back here after the match for analysis of how all these changes worked out and what it tells us about Tottenham’s strength in depth.