Pochettino must resist the fans clamour for Onomah to start
Heung-Min Son, who has missed the last six games with a foot injury, is back in contention for the UEFA Europa League Group J match with Belgian side Anderlecht at The Lane.
Nabil Bentaleb has had an ankle injury and he like Son is now back in training. Bentaleb is not match fit yet. He will soon be off on international duty where he may perhaps get some game time.
Left-back Danny Rose is also a doubt after he had to be substituted with a dead leg late in Monday’s win against Aston Villa. Nacer Chadli and Alex Pritchard will also of course be missing.
“Sonny is in the squad and in contention, we now have to decide if he plays from the beginning or if it’s better to put him on the bench.
“Nabil is training well but he’s not match fit yet. Danny is better, it was a dead leg but it’s not a big issue, he still has a chance, but we have a strong squad and if he isn’t 100% maybe we’ll wait until the next game.”
In the Premier League Tottenham are on a role, not having lost since the opening day when a mistake cost us a draw at Old Trafford. A lot is talked about in sport about momentum, what is basically meant when it is mentioned is that it has an effect on mentality. If you are in a successful run you are happy, you want to keep it going, life is good, everything is positive and that kicks over into the football you play. When you are confident you try things that you wouldn't do when your confidence was low.
When you are in a losing streak everything seems harder, you play safe and don't try the difficult or perhaps creative pass, players stop making the runs off the ball. The players with strong mentalities continue to do the same things, those with weaker mentalities don't so the system breaks down.
The players let themselves down when losing to Anderlecht in the first game as this now makes this game much tougher. We now have to play a stronger side than we should have had to do which with a North London Derby after is not ideal. There seems to be plenty of talk that 18-year-old (19 next April) Joshua Onomah should start, which for me is nonsense. He is a youth player being developed and the next step for him is exactly wheat he is getting now, cameo substitute performances.
Mauricio Pochettino has indicated that he will be picking a strong side for the UEFA Europa League tie by telling the press that fatigue is no excuse, we have a schedule to play and complaining isn't going to change it. By doing so he is telling his players as well which a happy camp will accept, but an unhappy camp would have doubts about.
"We need to take the schedule and not complain about that. We need to accept the rules, the schedule, we knew the situation before. We're ready to compete.
"It's true this is not the best condition but we need to be ready and we need to take the excuse away from the players - 'Maybe they are tired because they played on Monday?' - no.
"We need to put this idea out of our mind. We're in a very good condition and we are fit and we need to be ready.
"It's more mental than physical, playing every two days, and we're in a very good run - we need to keep focused because we have a very important game."
That strongly suggests players will not be rested and we are likely to see a strong XI put out with perhaps players like Ryan Mason given a game, Ben Davies for Rose, Alderweireld and Vertonghen to play in defence, Eriksen, Lamela and Kane all to start.
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