Projected Tottenham Line-up for North London Derby
By Aaron Coe
Tottenham Hotspur take on Arsenal in the third and most important North London Derby of the 2018-19 season.
Tottenham Hotspur have everything on the line, as they look to hold of the pack in maintaining third place in the Premier League. Coming off consecutive losses, how will Mauricio Pochettino line-up his squad to take down the Gunners and stretch the lead in north London to seven points.
Spurs Defensively
Even with Jan Vertonghen likely out nursing a hip injury and despite the lapses in the mid-week loss to Chelsea, this is still arguably the strongest unit for Spurs currently. While Tottenham will not be technically in a back five, if Winks can’t go – also a hip issue – I’d expect Moussa Sissoko to the sole holding midfielder in front of a solid back four.
Hugo Lloris will still start in goal, yes I love Gazza too, but Lloris is our captain and has won many more games than he has lost for Spurs. Expect a Danny Rose, Toby Alderweireld, Davison Sanchez, and Serge Aurier back four. Slip in Sissoko as a false center-half and there is your back line.
Spurs Offensively
With all the injuries and the sale of Mousa Dembele, the Spurs engine room is kind of on empty at the moment. While Oliver Skipp has played some good minutes this season, this is just too important of a game to have him on the field from the start, but he likely makes the bench.
Dier’s out, Winks may be out, Dele is out, that leaves Skipp and Sissoko, but I’d just go with Sissoko, wouldn’t you?
So that means, unlike the lame attacking three we had against Burnley or even off-balance four against Chelsea, Spurs are going to essentially commit five players to attack and see if they can get their game back on track.
Erik Lamela, Christian Eriksen and Lucas Moura support Harry Kane and Heung-Min Son and there is our fantastic five. Expect long balls and a lot of players checking back and playing in and out back to front. If this can lead to the third man running, we might see some success with the long balls and Spurs could potentially take this game in a shoot-out. With Koscielny likely out of an already questionable defense, outscoring Arsenal is really Spurs best shot.
Bottom line, given the current availability, there is no way we win this game in the midfield, so we have to skip that step and play with a lot of interchange. If Spurs do that, they can win this game and get moving again, as players return to health.