This will be an interesting tactical battle. By nature Pochettino is not drawn to performing tactical circus acts, he generally prefers to rely on one solid basic system with small tweaks game by game – but in recent few months due to various factors he has been forced into a lot of experiments: switching between back 3 and back 4, tinkering with Alli's and Dier's positions, trying Moura as a 2nd striker with Kane almost at #10 etc. Against Watford he had the back 3 play very narrow to combat the threat of 2 centre-forwards and this negatively affected the Spurs' own build-up.
As for Klopp, I don't think this is the right game for him to make radical changes to formation or personnel – with players coming back from an international break and still building up fitness, form and continuity are key. Spurs should be the ones to try to figure out how to defend against us. I think it's more likely they will go for a back 3 and try to catch us on the counter with Moura's pace – counterintuitively I feel they will try to target Van Dijk since he's been a little sloppy in the last couple of games. We will surely retain the usual 4-3-3 and with back 5 and front 3 picking themselves, only midfield merits any kind of discussion.
One trend I noticed lately is that Wijnaldum and Hendo generally don't play well together. Gini seems to be an introverted type who goes into his shell when paired with an over-active "cover-every-blade-of-grass" partner like Henderson. Against Leicester, he completed only 30 passes in 90 minutes, letting Hendo completely dominate the playmaking responsibilities – whereas when paired with Can last season Gini would usually be the one stringing moves together and carrying the ball and that's where he was at his best. It's interesting that Milner doesn't seem to have the same kind of negative effect on Wijnaldum, possibly because he tends to play more on the wings and Gini is quite good at filling in the gaps.
So with this in mind, it would make sense for me to select a midfield 3 with either Hendo and Gini, but not both. Milner is a 100% starter, I think, based on his early-season form and I really hope Keita can bounce back from 2 rather ordinary performances and make a statement in our first "big" game of the season. Keeping the PSG game in mind, where I would like to see Fabinho and Gini together, I would start Hendo against Spurs and let him battle it out against his England teammates and rivals like Dier. As for the front 3, I would like to see Salah and Mane, particularly Salah, to play wider in this game and try to use their threat to pin back their wing-backs, which would make Spurs' formation more like 5-3-2 and rob them of width and supply lines for Kane.
4-3-3:
---------------------Alisson--------------------
------------Gomez-----Van Dijk-------------
Trent--------------Hendo--------Robertson
-----------Milner----------Keita---------------
---Salah----------Firmino--------Mane-----
Subs: Mignolet, Matip, Moreno, Fabinho, Wijnaldum, Shaqiri, Sturridge
As for Klopp, I don't think this is the right game for him to make radical changes to formation or personnel – with players coming back from an international break and still building up fitness, form and continuity are key. Spurs should be the ones to try to figure out how to defend against us. I think it's more likely they will go for a back 3 and try to catch us on the counter with Moura's pace – counterintuitively I feel they will try to target Van Dijk since he's been a little sloppy in the last couple of games. We will surely retain the usual 4-3-3 and with back 5 and front 3 picking themselves, only midfield merits any kind of discussion.
One trend I noticed lately is that Wijnaldum and Hendo generally don't play well together. Gini seems to be an introverted type who goes into his shell when paired with an over-active "cover-every-blade-of-grass" partner like Henderson. Against Leicester, he completed only 30 passes in 90 minutes, letting Hendo completely dominate the playmaking responsibilities – whereas when paired with Can last season Gini would usually be the one stringing moves together and carrying the ball and that's where he was at his best. It's interesting that Milner doesn't seem to have the same kind of negative effect on Wijnaldum, possibly because he tends to play more on the wings and Gini is quite good at filling in the gaps.
So with this in mind, it would make sense for me to select a midfield 3 with either Hendo and Gini, but not both. Milner is a 100% starter, I think, based on his early-season form and I really hope Keita can bounce back from 2 rather ordinary performances and make a statement in our first "big" game of the season. Keeping the PSG game in mind, where I would like to see Fabinho and Gini together, I would start Hendo against Spurs and let him battle it out against his England teammates and rivals like Dier. As for the front 3, I would like to see Salah and Mane, particularly Salah, to play wider in this game and try to use their threat to pin back their wing-backs, which would make Spurs' formation more like 5-3-2 and rob them of width and supply lines for Kane.
4-3-3:
---------------------Alisson--------------------
------------Gomez-----Van Dijk-------------
Trent--------------Hendo--------Robertson
-----------Milner----------Keita---------------
---Salah----------Firmino--------Mane-----
Subs: Mignolet, Matip, Moreno, Fabinho, Wijnaldum, Shaqiri, Sturridge
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