Dugout Discussion

Spurs roll out a 3-5-2 as Mourinho ditches the wing-back system

After a barnstorming match between Cardiff City and Arsenal on Sunday lunchtime, the two 16:00 BST kick-offs at Vicarage Road and Turf Moor bring Gameweek 4 to an end.

Tottenham Hotspur have made three changes to the side that beat Manchester United last Monday, with Ben Davies (£5.8m), Davinson Sanchez (£5.9m) and Michel Vorm (£4.9m) – in for the injured Hugo Lloris (£5.5m) – the men to come in. Danny Rose (£5.9m) and Eric Dier (£4.9m) drop to the bench.

Sanchez’s inclusion means that Mauricio Pochettino’s side are set to employ a 3-5-2 formation this afternoon, with Lucas Moura (£7.2m) possibly set to join Harry Kane (£12.5m) in attack – as the Brazilian did in the 3-1 win over Fulham. Moura was the second-most-bought player of Gameweek 4, being drafted in by more than half a million Fantasy Premier League managers.

Watford, meanwhile, are unchanged for the fourth successive league match.

The injured Phil Jones (£5.2m) is one of three players to drop out of Jose Mourinho’s starting XI, with Fred (£5.8m) and Ander Herrera (£5.0m) forced to watch on from the bench.

Alexis Sanchez (£10.2m), Marouane Fellaini (£5.0m) and Victor Lindelof (£4.9m) earn a reprieve to the United first team, which looks on paper to be a 4-3-3 following the wing-back experiment of Gameweek 3.

United are yet to keep a clean sheet this season (having recorded a league-high 19 in 2017/18) and David De Gea (£5.9m) – the most-sold goalkeeper of this round – has the worst save percentage of all the Premier League shot-stoppers this campaign.

Having naming an unchanged team for his side’s first three league matches, Sean Dyche has rotated his full-backs, with Charlie Taylor (£4.5m) and Phil Bardsley (£4.4m) replacing Stephen Ward (£4.9m) and Matthew Lowton (£4.9m).

An injury to Johann Berg Gudmundsson (£5.9m) means that 18-year-old Dwight McNeil gets a start on the left flank.

Burnley XI: Hart; Taylor, Tarkowski, Mee, Bardsley; Cork, Hendrick, Westwood, Lennon, McNeil; Wood.

Manchester United XI: De Gea; Valencia, Lindelof, Smalling, Shaw; Fellaini, Matic, Pogba; Lingard, Lukaku, Sanchez.

Watford XI: Foster; Janmaat, Cathcart, Kabasele, Holebas; Hughes, Capoue, Doucoure, Pereyra; Deeney, Gray.

Spurs XI: Vorm; Trippier, Alderweireld, Vertonghen, Sanchez, Davies; Dembele, Eriksen, Dele; Lucas, Kane.

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3,734 Comments Post a Comment
  1. Tev
    • 6 Years
    5 years, 9 months ago

    Thoughts on Eriksen? Been one of my most disappointing picks so far, along with Tosun. Whenever I watch Spurs he seems to be playing rather deep and I’m not inspired by what I see, as well as his loss of set pieces. However, he was inches away from scoring yesterday so this could’ve been completely different, and his fixtures take a nice turn after ‘Pool. Stick or twist?