It’s the Capital One Cup last eight and it is Newcastle who will be travelling to White Hart Lane to face Tottenham on Wednesday. The game must be decided on the night, meaning that extra-time and penalties will be carried out if needed. The visitors come to North London with a lot of injuries, eight to be exact reports Alan Pardew. This could be Tottenham’s best chance of winning a trophy in Mauricio Pochettino’s debut season at Spurs. After all, we are very close to the final of the competition at Wembley, the winner of this being awarded with a two-legged tie in the last four. Here is the team news and predicted line-up.
Team News:
Pochettino has said that he will not rush Emmanuel Adebayor back into action after he has returned to training from compassionate leave, although he is back earlier than expected, he will not start against Newcastle.
Predicted Line-Up (4-2-3-1):
Goalkeeper: Michel Vorm:
After a very long spell on the sidelines, it seems that Michel Vorm has now become the cup goalkeeper after he started last Thursday in Turkey against Besiktas. I expect him to start again on Wednesday.
Defence: Kyle Naughton, Vlad Chiriches, Federico Fazio, Ben Davies:
Ahead of a busy Christmas schedule, Pochettino will be looking to rest a couple of his key defenders such as, Kyle Walker, Danny Rose and Jan Vertonghen. Federico Fazio may be dropped on Saturday after a pretty poor showing against Swansea, but he could, start ahead of Younes Kaboul, who make a horrible error last Thursday. Danny Rose could return to the Premier League starting eleven after a spell out, so he could be rested, and Ben Davies could start.
Midfield (Holding): Benjamin Stambouli, Mousa Dembele:
These two have had two pretty decent games in the last week and could both start together, looking to boss the area in the middle of the park. Dembele played well on Sunday from the bench, and so did Stambouli, but the Belgian showed up glimpses of what he can really do in the Europa League last week.
Midfield (Attacking): Andros Townsend, Harry Kane, Nacer Chadli:
After a spell on this sidelines with injury, Nacer Chadli has yet to start a Premier League game since his return and I think he could start here to get some more minutes under his belt against strong opposition. Sky said earlier this week that Harry Kane is a very important player for Tottenham at the moment, and you would have to say that this is true, so I think that he will make to starting eleven too. He could start in midfield, but easily push up to join the striker up front.
Striker: Roberto Soldado:
With Emmanuel Adebayor still out, Roberto Soldado is the man to start up front for me. This is a great opportunity for him to get another goal and start to build his confidence up again, something he has been lacking in recent times.
