Tottenham travel to Germany on Thursday to take on Borussia Dortmund at Signal Iduna Park in the Europa League.
Right now, Dortmund are currently second in the Bundesliga, behind Bayern Munich, while Tottenham are second in the Premier League behind Leicester City.
Tottenham will be missing some key first team players as Dele Alli is suspended after picking up a yellow card against Fiorentina. Danny Rose and Eric Dier will also not be available for selection either as they did not travel with the team to Germany. Jan Vertoghen and Clinton N’Jie are still out with injury.
Dortmund will be more prepared for Tottenham’s style of pressing than Fiorentina were and they’ll arguably be the toughest team Spurs play this season. Luckily for Tottenham manager Mauricio Pochettino they play Aston Villa between their two matches against Dortmund. Because of that, he’ll be able to start most of the first team on Thursday.
With that being said, here’s the lineup I think Pochettino will be going with.
Goalie
Hugo Lloris – Lloris will once again be the starting keeper with backup Michel Vorm possibly starting the next game against Aston Villa.
Defence
Ben Davies will be starting at left back with Danny Rose out, and since Kyle Walker started against Arsenal Kieran Trippier should start at right back. He’ll have the tough task of stopping Marco Reus, and should be a good challenge for the young defenseman.
Toby Alderweireld and Kevin Wimmer will have the difficult task of stopping striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang. Their defensive line will probably be playing deeper than usual to deal with Aubameyang’s pace.
Midfield
Ryan Mason will be starting in the holding midfield position since Eric Dier didn’t travel with the team and Mousa Dembélé will be the centre midfielder. It should be interesting to see how Dembélé’s physical style of play fairs against the technical Iklay Gundogan.
Christian Eriksen will be the starting centre-attacking midfielder while Son Heung-min will be to his left. Son is familiar with the Bundesliga style of play after coming over this year from Bayern Leverkusen and has performed well when he’s played against Dortmund in the past. Erik Lamela will be on the right.
Striker
Harry Kane: After his brilliant goal against Arsenal on Sunday, Kane will look to continue his good form and breakdown Dortmund’s backline.
This match is the most exciting of the Europa League matches and the winner has to the favourite to win the Europa League. The first of the two meet ups between these two clubs should be entertaining and set the stage for the second leg at White Hart Lane a week later.
What’s your starting lineup for Tottenham and what do you think the result will be?
(4-2-3-1)
Via – Lineup Builder
