On Tuesday afternoon, Fantasy Premier League managers were told that Harry Kane (£12.5m) would be out until March.
The injury news is a landmark event in this 2018/19 campaign as mass sales are expected, and a potential shift in the FPL template with it.
The Spurs man had previously registered attacking returns in 10 of his last 12 Premier League matches and was proving a useful asset to own.
With him now not returning to training until early March following damage to ligaments in his ankles, there is suddenly a lot of money to spend.
Marcus Rashford (£7.4m) feels like the obvious alternative, having averaged seven points per game over the last seven Gameweeks.
The Manchester United forward seems fully capable of sustaining that run of form, with 10 shots on target in the last four matches, the second best in the league.
Meanwhile, the Red Devils’ have an appealing run of fixtures which sees them host Brighton and Burnley next, before travelling to Leicester and Fulham after that.
Moving to Rashford instead of the more expensive Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (£11.3m) or Roberto Firmino (£9.2m) could also allow greater spending in midfield.
However, aside from Rashford, or perhaps for those already in possession of him, there may still be some interested in the fact that Spurs themselves have appealing fixtures of their own – and reasonably priced options too.
They visit Fulham in Gameweek 23 which looks the perfect opportunity to show how they can perform without Kane.
After that, it’s home meetings with Watford and Newcastle, neither of which look particularly sound at the back this season.
Of course, the key question for Spurs is who replaces Kane in the centre-forward role, especially with Son Heung-min (£8.7m) going off to the Asian Cup with South Korea.
Given his country’s standing in that continent, they are one of the favourites to win the competition so the former Bayer Leverkusen star could be unavailable until nearly the start of February.
Could that mean Fernando Llorente (£5.6m) has to stick around at Wembley for longer than expected, considering he was looking likely to leave in the January transfer window?
According to the local press, there does seem to be a chance the Spaniard could start against Fulham at least.
Llorente has come in for some praise of late with a hat-trick against Tranmere in the FA Cup while he was credited with helping fashion some chances for Kane in the closing stages of Spurs’ defeat to Manchester United last time out.
While that’s not much to set the world on fire, it might be enough for Pochettino to consider him, as the only recognised centre-forward truly available to him.
As we said, that’s the view of the local press anyway, who were keen to report than Vincent Janssen is “not in my plans” in the words of Pochettino himself.
The only other alternatives to fill Kane’s boots on the pitch from a positional sense are Lucas Moura (£6.8m) and Erik Lamela (£6.1m), both of which have some experience playing in a false-nine role.
The former was actually playing in a more advanced position to Kane earlier this season, so that could easily be repeated against Fulham.
However, he is still fighting to be fit in time after picking up a knee injury against West Ham.
Also, whether Moura can play as a lone striker remains to be seen, as he had the close support of Kane when deployed as a forward back in September and October.
With options in the academy reportedly not in a position to step up at this stage, maybe the only other player that could be turned to is Dele Alli (£8.9m).
He also has some experience of leading the line and actually has a history of doing well when Kane is not in the side.
Since the beginning of the 2016/17 season, Spurs have played 14 games where Kane has either been completely absent or has had a cameo, and of those, they have won 10, drawn three and lost only once.
In those matches, the top-scorer for Pochettino’s men is Alli with 10 goals although it must be said that Son played a big part in these games too, meaning the Englishman wasn’t used as the forward.
What Spurs do with the striker position at this point remains unclear but there are still potential risky avenues that could reap rewards.
Anyone of Llorente, Moura or Lamela being handed the furthest forward place in a side as threatening as Spurs would deserve serious consideration when you look at their remarkably cheap price points – it’s just whether Pochettino can keep their attacking output at a similar level with Kane as well as Son.
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5 years, 3 months agoThink my tinkering is over for today guys...let me present the new and improved jia you jia you 2019 version:
Alisson
Robertson / Shaw / Digne / VVD
Hazard / Alli / Pogba / Sterling
Rashford / Auba
(Speroni, AWB, Puncheon, Kam)