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In his pre-West Ham press conference on Thursday (via Football.London, 13:55), Tottenham boss Mauricio Pochettino hinted that he would not be taking any risks with his players returning from injury.
What did he say?
“It was a good time for us because we are going to recover a few players like Christian (Eriksen) and Mousa Dembele. Still maybe 10 days more for Dele Alli and Danny Rose is the same, one week more. Jan Vertonghen is a little bit longer.
“But the most important thing is that we start to recover players. It will be a tough month of competition for us. There are a lot of games ahead and it’s so important to have nearly all the squad fit to compete and play and to give options to rotate and share the games because it will be tough, the months we have ahead.”
What did he really mean?
As well as giving specific updates on the recovery times for some of Tottenham’s injury doubts, Pochettino hinted that he will be rotating his players heavily over the next month to ensure that they are all able to have a proper recovery time.
After becoming the first ever Premier League club to not sign a single player during a summer transfer window, the Spurs boss has limited options and with seven games in the next four weeks the Argentine will have to ensure that all of his returning players aren’t rushed back too quickly.
Good news for West Ham
Here at Football FanCast, we wouldn’t be surprised if both Dembele and Eriksen were only used from the bench on Saturday, and with Alli ruled out the Lilywhites will be lacking a huge portion of their creative talent.
This could give West Ham a good chance to start quickly on the weekend, and if they nick an early goal like they did at home to Manchester United, the Hammers could quite conceivably sit deeper and attempt to frustrate their London rivals.
