Creating two Tottenham Hotspur XIs under Antonio Conte

Tottenham’s second XI under Conte

The second Tottenham XI is not nearly as strong or star-studded as the first team, however, with the right formation and motivation, there are several players in the group who will either compete for real playing time or will find a new home in January or the summer. Until this, here is the backup team.

Pierluigi Gollini is of course the goalkeeper for the second team and as the Italian influence may be growing going forward, that may mean Gollini is at N17 for the long term. In front of Gollini, there is another solid back three, quite capable of doing the job.

Japhet Tanganga would play on the right, with Joe Rodon in the middle, and Ben Davies on the left. Davies could be a left-sided back or play wing-back but given Spurs need six backs to field two full teams Davies gets the call.

In the midfield, the team is not as strong, although Harry Winks could end up with a new lease on life as a deep-lying playmaker in Conte’s system. Assuming he can be aggressive enough with his passing. Giovani Lo Celso and Bryan Gil would be the two attacking midfielders in this system. Both are active enough on and off the ball to apply the pressure Spurs would be looking for. Although this midfield is smallish, the pluck should be aplenty.

Matt Doherty would be another player with a new lease on life at N17, as a natural wing-back, he would be able to revert to his preferred position on the right. The left is a bit trickier. Ryan Sessegnon is not healthy enough to play and so it is one of Lucas Moura, Gil, or Steven Bergwijn.

We have elected to go with Bergwijn in this formation, leaving Lucas up-top and Gil in the attacking central midfield role.

Neither of the two forwards in this formation is natural strikers but it is what it is with the squad Spurs have. This means Moura is a forward along with Dele Alli. Alli will be one to watch to see if playing in a more advanced position as he did under Mauricio Pochettino can get him back on track. If not, do not be surprised to see Dele move on.

This line-up does leave Tottenham with two first-team players not involved, Sessegnon and Jack Clarke. For both young men, this may be a now or never opportunity as Conte comes to clean house.

While we are unlikely to see this second XI exactly as we have created it, there is certainly the depth available to run Conte’s preferred approach. And if people are not cutting it, they can expect to move on.