Rotation Central to Tottenham Projected XI for Dinamo Zagreb
By Aaron Coe
Tottenham Hotspur needs a good result in the first leg of the Round of 16 contest against Dinamo Zagreb in Europa League. That is why with one eye on securing qualification before a trip to Croatia and one eye on the north London derby on Sunday, Tottenham Hotspur has a somewhat rotated XI Thursday at home. Despite a lot of rotation on the pitch, with securing advancement as much as possible from this game in mind, we see both of Tottenham’s top leaders in the line-up.
Top Two Lead the Line for Tottenham
Making the top four in the Premier League is still a major priority for Tottenham Hotspur. However, continuing to advance in Europa League to further hedge their Champions League bet is the right move. Tottenham Hotspur shows their respect for Dinamo Zagreb and the seriousness with which they take this competition by starting their two biggest players on each end of the pitch.
Hugo Lloris has the gloves and the armband in the goal for Tottenham. Lloris has not had a great season by his standards but he is still a top-class keeper and certainly the best on the Tottenham roster. Lloris started the first match against Wolfsberger in Hungary and conceded to Joe Hart for the second-leg as Spurs had things well in control.
The same philosophy applies here, where despite not having the opportunity to get those big away goals, the Spurs want to win the match and ideally not concede any away goals themselves. The best way to avoid conceding is in having their top keeper in the game, so Hugo Lloris gets the call.
At the opposite end of the pitch, we see Harry Kane get the nod to start at the top of the Tottenham attack. Like Joe Hart, Carlos Vinicius will have to wait a bit for his start but if things go well he should get at least 30 minutes on Thursday with Kane getting some second-half rest. Given Kane sat out the last match in Europa League and Son started the first match against Wolfsberger, it is Kane’s term to play talisman and help Spurs hopefully take a commanding lead in the two-game contest.
So we think both Kane and Lloris are going to start for Tottenham, what other surprises are instore from José Mourinho in his starting XI for the Lilywhites?