The Premier League mercifully reconvenes on Saturday, and Tottenham will be looking to improve over their performances in the season’s first three matches.
With Saturday’s match against Stoke City being the last that Mousa Dembélé must sit out due to his ban, Mauricio Pochettino is close to being able to name a full strength Tottenham squad.
That would certainly help reclaim some of the momentum of last season, but it remains vital for Tottenham to find some kind of fluidity and cohesiveness with the first team as a whole. With Pochettino more incentived than ever to rotate the squad, he needs the newer pieces of the puzzle to find their fit as soon as possible.
The trip to Stoke will provide ample opportunity for Pochettino test the mettle of his bench once again. One suspects, though, that the outcome of the match will rely more on the improving form of Pochettino’s mainstays than it will be the freshman class. They are tasked with belatedly finding their own rhythm.
Let’s see how Tottenham’s latest attempt to combine old and new appears set to work out on Saturday.
Predicted Tottenham XI
This is the type of rotation that many predicted for Tottenham this season, though the reasoning behind it isn’t.
While the club does host Monaco in the opener of their Champions League campaign on Wednesday, the changes expected for Saturday are rather more enforced than anything pragmatic.
The aforementioned Dembélé ban means that Victor Wanyama is slated to again come in for the Belgian. He’ll play alongside Eric Dier and act as the more advanced of the two much as Dembélé would were he available. Not quite adventurous enough to be termed box-to-box, it will nonetheless be a vital fulcrum between Tottenham’s defense and the four up front.
Pochettino’s named the same backline for all four games so far this season and, were it not for Kyle Walker‘s illness against Liverpool, they likely would have all played out those matches. Walker is back and available, but Danny Rose picked up a hamstring injury whilst on duty with England. It’s expected that his natural backup Ben Davies will slot into the side.
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Behind him in goal will once against sit Michel Vorm. If reports are to be believed, Hugo Lloris is close to full fitness but Vorm’s fine form makes it easy to give Tottenham’s captain all the time he needs.
Higher up the pitch, there remains some doubts about how prepared Érik Lamela will be after returning late from duty with Argentina. Moussa Sissoko would be the natural next best option on the right of Tottenham’s attack. It is thus likely that we will see the debut of Tottenham’s record signing on Saturday.
Elsewhere, Tottenham’s XI should remain unchanged. Jan Vertonghen and Toby Alderweireld returned to their best against Liverpool and will line up at centre-back. The same could be said of Dele Alli, though he will be playing in a more advanced role than he did against Jürgen Klopp’s team.
Of all the players listed here, Tottenham’s fate on Saturday might most rest on the shoulders of Christian Eriksen and Harry Kane. Both have suffered slow starts but appear more determined than ever to right the ship. A new contract for Eriksen gives him every reason to rediscover his best, while for the second season running Kane is determined to defy his critics and get on the scoresheet.
On paper this is a more ragtag team than Pochettino would prefer, but the season is young. Against a Stoke City team that is also underperforming expectations, it’s possible that Tottenham find the means to congeal into a more recognizable force.
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