Following Tuesday’s humbling defeat at the hands of Sporting CP, our attention now turns to Spurs’ 7th match of the Premier League season at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium against the division’s basement side, Leicester City, this coming Saturday, kicking off at 5:30 pm BST.
After the postponement of domestic matches following the tragedy that swept the nation last week, this match is well and truly on. For better or for worse, however, we shall soon find out.
Now with Lucas Moura still the sole absentee from our squad, Antonio Conte, as has been the case for weeks now, has a mini-selection headache ahead of our last match prior to the final international break before November’s World Cup. A brilliant debate has been brewing with regard to this issue, and one you can view and contribute to here should you wish to do so.
However, with the Leicester match fast approaching, Conte himself has given his take on this selection dilemma. Speaking to Football.London in his pre-match briefing before the media, Conte addressed several issues that have been feverishly debated by our supporters this week. When asked if he deemed Heung-min Son “undroppable”, in spite of his goal drought this season, this is what he had to say:
“There are no players that are undroppable. This has to be very clear. There are no players that are undroppable. Because if I tell this, it’s only to try to help my players and to try to avoid injuries, to try to have players at the top of their form and to have a good performance. If I am telling this it is only to protect my players and to give them the possibility to be, in every moment, at the top.
Then you know very well you can play one game well, another you can score, another not, but my task is to try to protect my players and to protect the team. Also to find the right way to have a result.
Don’t forgot sometimes when you don’t start with certain players, it means during the game you have this player with the possibility to use him during the game. But I repeat if we want to play this four competitions and especially I repeat the Champions League because it is different to play Europa League or Conference League.
Europa League and Conference League can give you the possibility in the group stages to make rotations and then also if you drop a bit the quality of the starting XI, maybe you can win the game. In the Champions League they are always massive games and for this reason I need to have all my players available. I need all my players available for rotation to be in every moment ready when I call them to play and to play well for the team, for the club, for the fans, for everybody.”
When discussing the potential selection dilemma regarding wing-backs, he expressed his contentment with Emerson’s displays thus far, whilst noting that he may be due a rest given how he has started every game this season:
“In my opinion Emerson, he had a good start in this season and he can play in this position and is doing well. In the last game, in Sporting Lisbon, he can score three goals, not one, he can score three goals. In every game he is totally involved and don’t forget Emerson played every game in this period. For sure now he can be a bit tired because the wing-back, you can be fatigued because you become a striker when you are going to attack and you have to become a defender when we have to defend, but I’m really happy about Emerson’s performance because you have to think, compare last season and he’s made a good improvement.
He has to continue to work to do it and at the same time you know that we also have Ivan Perisic who can play on the right or left and Sessegnon, he is fit and he’s in a good moment of form. For sure maybe he’s one of the players that in this moment deserves to play, like Deki, but we’ll do it with the right time and the right patience, to try to do the best for our team.”
Conte then proceeded to discuss the midfield options presently at our disposal, stating that Yves Bissouma was still “struggling with the tactical aspect” of his methods. When pressed further on this issue by the reporters at the conference, he expanded on his stance by stating:
“If you compare other midfielders I have seen that other teams spent £60m, £70m, £50m. It depends on the view. I think that we spent the right money. Don’t forget that we spent a lot of money on players that now have gone out on loan.
It doesn’t matter if you spend money, you need to have players to go into our idea of football. There are players that do this quickly like Richarlison, Lenglet, like Perisic and then other players that need a bit of time.
Also the midfielder is a specific role for us, with the ball and without the ball. It’s not simple. I ask for some moments, some positions. They have to be a point of reference in every moment of the game.
The midfielder for sure, to go into our idea of football is maybe the most difficult position, but we are talking about a player that has great skill, good running. With the ball he’s really good, defensively he has to pay more attention. More attention because especially we only have two midfielders and then they have to be good with the ball and without the ball, but I’m really happy with his signing.”
These quotes provide a fascinating insight into the manager’s current thinking towards our options looking forward and open up a whole raft of questions going into this match.
Indeed, does Conte persist with Son in one, last bid to break his goal drought before the international break?
Will we see Emerson rested, and subsequently, Perisic shifted to the right, and Sessegnon brought into the left? Or do we see a first start of the season for one of Spence/Doherty? Given Conte’s reference to Perisic’s ability to play on the right, I think this is more likely, but I would not be surprised to see Emerson start from the off despite Conte’s allusion to his ‘tiredness’.
At the back, it may be a case of bringing Lenglet back into the fold given his ability to orchestrate attacks from defence, but Conte’s comments regarding Bissouma’s adjustment to his style would seemingly indicate that Bentancur and Hojbjerg will once again form our midfield pairing.
Meanwhile, a quick glance at our opponents really puts things into perspective for those who have been moaning and groaning about our recent performances. Now here we’ve got a bunch who are in the proverbial: no wins in 6, with one point to show for it; a defence that is leaking goals for fun; and causing unrest within a squad that is ostensibly harbouring a minimal interest in playing for their manager following a summer of turmoil that saw them lose key players like Kasper Schmeichel and Wesley Fofana.
In spite of all those problems, Leicester’s squad is in relatively healthy nick coming into this fixture, with only Dennis Praet a minor injury doubt and only long-term absentees Ryan Bertrand and Ricardo Pereira missing out.
Irrespective of Leicester’s problems, however, it is still worth remembering that this is a Premier League fixture, and the Foxes still possess several players that can hurt us. Whether or not he starts, Jamie Vardy will probably feature at some point, and we all know that he loves a goal against us, being Leicester’s top scorer in this fixture with 8 league goals to his name against Spurs.
Moreover, Youri Tielemans and James Maddison are talented chaps who possess the technical ability to fashion dangerous openings against any opponent, whilst Patson Daka, Harvey Barnes, and Kelechi Iheanacho are all a nuisance on their day.
Now I will finish by caveating all of that in saying that, if our attacking players are on it, there is no way that anything those Leicester players I’ve just mentioned can do will prove meaningful to the final outcome. They may score once, they may score twice, but even so, there is no chance they will manage to restrict our forwards if we are on song – and this arguably a big ‘if’, given the disjointed display of our front three on Tuesday night.
Nevertheless, it is ultimately up to us to grasp the nettle, assert our dominance at home against a fragile opponent, and really go out with a bang before the international break. It’s football, anything can happen – but if we replicate a similar performance to the one against Fulham a fortnight ago, we should win this comfortably.