Julen Lopetegui has an opportunity today against Spurs to ring the changes and put the last two weeks’ training into practise. He welcomes back several players from their foreign travels knowing that one or two of them are tired- Michail Antonio played 80 minutes on Tuesday night before travelling back and Mohammed Kudus had that disappointing two games as Ghana captain before a tortuous journey back from Libya.
Now would seem the time to change the front line and carry the game to Spurs, instead of starting with a ‘same-old, same-old’ predictable front three. Footballfancast echo the sentiments with todays headline suggesting Jarrod Bowen should be starting as a striker, having been successful in the role last year and being described as ‘unplayable’ by Brentford manager Thomas Frank after netting a hat-trick against his side.
Starting Summerville on the left, Bowen in the centre and Mohammed Kudus in his favoured right sided role would not be what Spurs are expecting: easier for them to deal with a tired Antonio than a refreshed Bowen leading the line and the press – who after all has had two weeks’ break from competitive football.
Lopetegui strikes me as a manager who, unlike Moyes, is not afraid of ringing the changes ( let’s not think about the Spaniard’s disastrous Chelsea experiment with Alvarez playing as a centre back!) and this is a game which cries out for a high energy front line plus two holding central midfielders to combat Spurs’ mobile midfield threat of James Maddison, Rodrigo Bentancur and Dejan Kulusevski.
I’m keeping everything crossed that Antonio starts from the bench as an impact sub with 20 minutes to go if needed and Crysencio Summerville gets a start.Today isn’t a time to send the same tired old war horse out to lead the line in what needs to be a fast-paced high press from minute one.
