Mauricio Pochettino may shelve plans to shuffle Tottenham pack and give players chance to make amends for Liverpool defeat
Tottenham boss Mauricio Pochettino admits he may have to shelve plans for rotation as a number of his side’s big-hitters want the chance to rectify their dismal performance in defeat to Liverpool against Gent on Thursday.
Pochettino had been expected to continue his policy of fielding a shuffled pack in the Europa League when Spurs face Gent, who are currently eighth in Belgium’s top flight, in their last 32 first-leg clash.
Spurs’s last outing was a disjointed showing against Liverpool at Anfield where a 2-0 defeat left the White Hart Lane club 10 points adrift of runaway Premier League leaders Chelsea.
“What happened against Liverpool, all the players want the chance to play again and try and change the feeling,” said Pochettino. “But we’ll see. Maybe we will make some changes, but not too many.
“In football, sometimes performances like that [against Liverpool] happen and you can’t explain why. Look at Barcelona at Paris Saint-Germain, where they lost 4-0. Sometimes you don’t have a good day. It happens.
“We feel disappointed because every time you play you want to show your best, and people expect it of you. Before we had been talking a lot about how we’d play that game, how we’d start. But sometimes it happens.”
Tottenham are set to be without a trio of injured players with centre-half Jan Vertonghen, full-back Danny Rose and playmaker Erik Lamela all sidelined. Winger Georges-Kevin Nkoudou is also doubt.
“I will decide tomorrow or after our final training session the starting XI,” added Pochettino. “We always try to put out the best starting XI for every competition, and we will always try to provide good energy to the team.”
Pochettino confirmed that defender Vertonghen, who has not featured for Tottenham since their Premier League clash with West Brom on 14 January, could feature in Sunday’s FA Cup fifth round tie at Fulham after resuming training following an ankle problem.