After suffering a narrow defeat in the recent North London Derby, Tottenham are back on the road and face Coventry City next in the Carabao Cup.
Much like the Lilywhites, Coventry too have had a stumbling start to the season with two losses and draws each from their opening seven games across all competitions.
Naturally, Spurs are the overwhelming favourites for this tie being the top-flight team, but given their recent results, it is absolutely imperative that they win this game at the very least, if not with a statement win.
Here, we take a look at what Spurs’ possible starting XI may look like on Wednesday.
Tottenham Hotspur’s predicted starting XI against Coventry City
Now, in terms of absences, Richarlison is set to sit the game out, while Yves Bissouma will not be picked before the weekend’s Premier League game against Brentford, as confirmed by Ange Postecoglou in his latest press conference ahead of the League Cup game.
“Biss is still not where we want him to be but hopefully he there is a chance that he will be okay for the weekend.”
Postecoglou on Bissouma’s availablity, as quoted by Football London.
While early-round cup games are usually a good platform to offer to the youngsters and players on the fringes of the first team, Spurs need to put a strong team out in the midweek, especially after Postecoglou’s “I win in my second year” comments after the Arsenal game; they at least need to go deep in more than one competition this season.
Guglielmo Vicario‘s form has been called into question, yet he remains Spurs’ first-choice ahead of Fraser Forster and should be expected to start in goal for the Wednesday game.
Radu Drăgușin could get some minutes from the start alongside Micky van de Ven, whom we expect to retain his place from the weekend defeat and play a key role in both bringing the ball out from the back during build-up and serve as his side’s first line of defence in counterattacks due to his pace. On the right side, Archie Gray is likely to start, especially after Postecoglou said he’d be willing to give the young players more chance.
To that end, we also expect Lucas Bergvall to start in the middle of the pitch, while Ben Davies may be asked to deputise at left-back instead of Destiny Udogie.
Expect Pape Matar Sarr and Dejan Kulusevski to take up the other two midfield slots alongside Bergvall, with the Swede playing a more advanced role.
Up front, it is likely Son Heung-min at least start the game and get Spurs through to the next round early before coming off in the second half. This will also be a good opportunity for Dominic Solanke to open his account for Spurs; the longer his drought grows, the bigger his problems will become.
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Lastly, Brennan Johnson was relatively underwhelming against the Gunners and may be benched in favour of Timo Werner, who would be tasked with offering movement off the right.
