Tottenham Hotspur are aiming to bounce back to winning ways as they take on Manchester City on Saturday. The Londoners have fallen behind in the race for the top four spots after back to back defeats to Southampton and Wolves. Things won’t be made any easier as they travel to Etihad to face defending champions Manchester City, who are gunning for their fourth straight win in all competitions.
Predicted Tottenham Lineup Vs Manchester City
Defence
Tottenham boss Antonio Conte is sweating on the fitness of Eric Dier. The Englishman has missed quite a few matches due to injury but reports suggest he might get back to full fitness by the weekend. However, his chances of starting remain scarce considering the lack of first-team action he has received over the past month or so.
Dier’s extended absence could once again force Conte to persist with his central defensive trifecta of Davinson Sanchez, Ben Davies and Cristian Romero. Davies remains a weak link in this back three due to his lack of experience at centre-back, whereas Romero’s leadership could go a long way in steadying the ship.
Meanwhile, in goal, Hugo Lloris will be expecting a busy evening up against the mighty Manchester City attack that has scored nine goals in the last two competitive matches.
The 4th Official uses images provided by the following image agency: Getty Images (https://www.gettyimages.de/) Imago Images (https://www.imago-images.de/)
Midfield
Moving into midfield, we are predicting a small tactical change from Conte, who might employ a 3-5-2 that was synonymous during his time at Inter. In this system, two advanced midfielders usually partner the number six, with the wingbacks providing the width going forward.
Similarly, we may witness Emerson Royal and Sergio Reguilon occupying the wide areas, whereas Oliver Skipp should feature as the number six. The Englishman should partner the two dynamic box to box midfielders in Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg and Rodrigo Bentancur. It should bring more balance to Spurs’ midfield play, and help them better contain the Manchester City attacks.
Attack
As for the offensive unit, the presence of an additional midfielder should see Son Heung-Min and Harry Kane spearhead the line for the Lilywhites this weekend. The two boast good understanding between each other and could be useful in the first line of press.
Lucas Moura remains an option should Conte persist with the 3-4-3, whereas deadline day signing Dejan Kulusevski is always an interesting option to have on the bench.
