Plastic pitch takes its toll on Spurs
Spurs travel to Stoke City for the second league game of the season with 4 out of the possible 5 front players injured on the plastic pitch in Berne Switzerland on Tuesday night. All the forwards that played picked up strains and only Peter Crouch is fit possibly because he is the only one that didn’t play.
It is a bit difficult to predict the line up with Modric also injured. If none of these players travel it looks like Harry might be forced to play Jenas as an attacking midfielder getting up to play in and around Crouch or possibly Kranjcar could play in the hole.
It looks like Spurs are getting stronger now with the arrival of Gallas and Sandro. The weakness appears to me to be the fullbacks now. Ekotto can be great but has a few stinkers but how Corluka gets the nod over his rivals for right back is a bit of a baffler. He is tidy but slow and rarely delivers a decent cross. He is too slow to overlap and often gets outpaced when defending so it ought to be a good time for Walker or Naughton make the breakthrough this season. It is unclear why Spurs bought Kaboul back as they had already sold him once because he wasn’t good enough.
For Saturdays game perhaps only having one forward might be a blessing as going to Stoke is a job for the physically and mentally strong. A packed midfield might just be whats necessary to get a result.
