We travel to Reading for our fourth Premier League match of the season. After taking two points from our last two matches, Andre Villas-Boas will be hoping to take all three this time. But who should be in his Spurs line-up to take on the Royals?
Factors affecting the Spurs line-up this week
It was a historic day for Spurs this week, as Hotspur Way finally opened its doors, seeing the players take their first training session at the new facility on Wednesday.
The boss hasn’t had much time to work with his whole squad though, with ten of the lads away on international duty. This won’t be helped by the fact that some of the squad had to travel long distances.
Clint Dempsey clocked up the air miles playing in Jamaica and America, whilst Sandro went all the way to Brazil for a friendly against China on Monday night.
The match with Reading is on Sunday though, so it does give AVB an extra day of preparation, as well as the players who were away getting an extra day to recover.
Sandro should go back in to Spurs line-up as a result, whereas Dempsey will probably find himself on the bench, having not trained with team until Thursday.
Brad Friedel should keep his place if Andre Villas-Boas is true to his words after the Norwich game.
“When you transfer it’s not written in the contract that you have to play,” Villas-Boas said. “He [Lloris] has to compete against three good goalkeepers and at the moment Brad is doing extremely well. He deserves to be playing and he’ll continue to do so.”
AVB still remains upbeat that we have got what it takes to win for the first time this season though.
“We have to assume responsibility for what is happening, which is disappointing, but everybody inside the dressing room feels if we get the win that we need, it will be the boost we need to take this through.”
His decision about who makes the starting Spurs line-up this week could depend on quite a few of the above factors.
Here’s my Spurs line-up to face Reading, what’s yours?
Do you agree or disagree, what’s your Spurs line-up to take on the Royals this Sunday?