Last Thursday, England manager Gareth Southgate released his eagerly awaited 26-man squad for the forthcoming Qatar World Cup. With Spurs hitman Harry Kane and centre-half Eric Dier both receiving call-ups – but what other Spurs players will we see lacing up their boots in the Middle East, this winter?
World Cup winner Hugo Lloris was un-surprisingly selected for Les Bleus; however, it is likely to be the shot-stopper’s last World Cup – with the talented Mike Maignan vying for the number 1 jersey. The other Frenchman in the Spurs squad – Clement Lenglet – did not receive a call-up, due to an abundance of talent in France’s defensive third.
Welsh duo Ben Davies and Joe Rodon will likely both start in the Wales backline – with Rodon having impressed while out on loan at Rennes, in Ligue 1.
Despite his recent injury issues Richarlison has been selected for the Selecao – ahead of the likes of Roberto Firmino. Tottenham’s other Brazilian – Emerson Royal – however, will not be on the plane – to the surprise of absolutely no one!
Staying in South America, midfielder Rodrigo Bentancur has been called up to the Uruguay squad – a squad many are tipping to be the tournament’s dark horses. Fellow South American Christian Romero has recovered from his hamstring injury intime to be called up for Argentina.
Croatia’s squad includes many of the players that took them to the final of the last World Cup, including Spurs wing-back Ivan Perisic. Another side who will look to replicate their form from their last major tournament is Denmark – who reached the semi-finals of last year’s Euros – with Spurs stalwart Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg being a vital cog in the Danish machine.
Heung-Min Son will also be over the moon that he will be available for his side in Qatar – with South Korea needing Son to be firing on all cylinders if they have any chance of progressing from Group H.
To round off, it was also nice to see that Pape Matar Sarr received a call-up for his Senegal side – with Sarr sadly becoming a forgotten man at Spurs, in recent times.
Pape Matar Sarr and Spence!
Goodbye Mr. Conte! Take your backpasses with you. Even if we win some cups with you it won’t be worth it. You have us playing as though we were Bolton Wanderers stuck into a 442 and fearing to move forward.
Our tradition is glory, Mr. Conte, and you are trying to change it to boring the opposition to death, but they are on to you and always taking an early lead by anticipating a back pass to intercept. Losing while boring occurs far to often, and this is not our way.
Good bye.
Can’t say I really agree with you all that much Conte has a proven track record at the highest level. Granted as an Italian he has a strong defensive, and counter attacking philosophy which is tried and tested on the continent, problem at Spurs is the defence we have is not up to scratch, for me Emerson is a headless chicken, Dier does not always show the full blooded commitment needed in a top CD, and needs to learn a thing or two from Romero, Sess’ is improving but still a little green and Lenglet needs more time in the side. Put that together with a defence that should be plugging the gaps and building attacks for the forwards, are instead conceading possession far too regularly allowing opposition players to control large segments of attacking play, that needs to stop. For me possession is key and I admit that when Spurs go behind they seem to rally better and control their play better butI am certain that Conte is striving to make this happen and the players themselves must bear a lot of the responsibility for poor individual perfomances. Tottenham however still need to make core changes to certain personnel to improve as a team and this will take further time to achieve, because as we all know Levy is never going to hand Conte an open cheque book, that just won’t happen I’m afraid. I think we need to show belief in a great manager who has made definitive changes and improved the squad, it just takes time to achieve
Duty fulfilled. Let no thread go empty.