Tottenham Hotspur play Juventus tomorrow in the Melbourne Cricket Stadium in their opening fixture of International Champions Cup as a part of the preseason tour in Australia. There were some notable exclusions in the squad with Nabil Bentaleb, Clinton N’Jie and Alex Pritchard not traveling along with Harry Kane, Toby Alderweireld, Mousa Dembele, Jan Vertonghen, Hugo Lloris, Eric Dier, Danny Rose, Ben Davies, Kyle Walker who will also miss the friendlies as some of them are on an extended sabbatical after Euro 2016 competition. The trip will be a valuable experience for the youngsters. Both newcomers Vincent Janssen and Victor Wanyama.
Goalkeeping
Michel Vorm will undoubtedly start between the sticks for Tottenham with Hugo Lloris absent from the squad. Many Tottenham fans are skeptical even about his role as a cover for Hugo Lloris and the 32-year-old will be looking to prove his doubters wrong.
Defense
Kevin Wimmer and Cameron Carter-Vickers will start at the heart of the defense. Kevin Wimmer has proved to be a worthy back-up option for Jan Vertonghen when the Belgian was out injured last season and Wimmer will look to grab this opportunity to impress the gaffer for a regular first team role. Vertonghen is injured again and might miss the start of the new Premier League campaign which will provide the Austrian with another opportunity to impress Pochettino. With both Ben Davies and Danny Rose out, Tottenham will probably start with Luke Amos at their left-back spot with Kieran Trippier as the right-back.
Midfield
Ryan Mason will form the midfield pivot as a box to box midfielder along with Tottenham’s new signing Victor Wanyama who will start as Tottenham’s defensive midfielder. Wanyama will see this as an important opportunity to settle into the Tottenham squad while Ryan Mason will also look to climb up the pecking order for a regular starting spot as he will be under scrutiny as Tottenham look to find an upgrade on the 25-year-old.
Up ahead, Christian Eriksen is likely to start as the central attacking midfielder with Heung-Min Son and Erik Lamela on either wing for Tottenham. It will be interesting to see who Pochettino starts at the left wing given Nacer Chadli’s status in the team in jeopardy with Kevin N’Koudou’s arrival imminent while Heung-Min Son has done well whenever called upon and has scored some vital goals coming on as a substitute for Tottenham. Eriksen scored a wonderful hat-trick for Denmark despite failing to qualify for Euros 2016 in an International friendly and will look to develop chemistry with new arrivals Wanyama and Janssen.
Forward
Newcomer Vincent Janssen will be deployed as the lone striker up ahead. The striker did really well for Netherlands in the Euro 2016 qualifiers campaign and also scored a wonderful poacher goal in a recent closed door friendly against Rotherham United.
