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Team news is out ahead of tomorrow evening’s League Cup match between Tottenham Hotspur and Watford in Milton Keynes, and as expected, Spurs will be starting their third choice keeper for the second consecutive match.
Tottenham announced via social media that progress has been made in the recovery of both Hugo Lloris and Michel Vorum, but it’s very likely that Argentine keeper Paulo Gazzaniga will start his second consecutive match for Spurs, and just his third start overall at the club.
TEAM NEWS:
— Tottenham Hotspur (@SpursOfficial) September 25, 2018
Hugo Lloris (thigh) - has now progressed to field work.@Vorm_Official (knee) – swelling has improved and continues rehabilitation.#COYS pic.twitter.com/MmZdk1qZfr
GAZINGA was... fine, if not great, in goal in Spurs’ 2-1 win over Brighton this past weekend, making a few good stops (with thanks to Brighton’s poor finishing) in adverse weather conditions. With Hugo and Vorm both still coming back from injury, expect academy graduate and development squad keeper Alfie Whiteman to start on the bench against Watford.
Both managers are expected to heavily rotate for this match, which will be held at MK Dons’ home stadium in Milton Keynes because Tottenham’s new stadium isn’t finished yet and Wembley isn’t available. We don’t quite know what sort of lineup Mauricio Pochettino will field, but the manager has indicated that he could make a number of changes for the mid-week fixture.
#thfc Pochettino says he'll make 5 or six changes tomorrow. "When you sign players and you have 24 in your squad, you need to respect all the players. If not, if they’re going to have the possibility to play and show their quality, why do you pay their salary?"
— Ben Pearce (@BenPearceSpurs) September 25, 2018
That probably means players such as Juan Foyth, Kyle Walker-Peters (who will be on the front of the match programme), Georges-Kevin N’Koudou, and Fernando Llorente, plus the usual fullback rotation. Poch might also opt to run out some of the promising youngsters like Luke Amos & Oliver Skipp, but we’ll need to wait and see if that actually happens.
As for Watford, Javi Gracia will likely rotate as well, and captain Troy Deeney will be rested after sustaining a toe injury in the Hornets’ last Premier League match against Fulham.
It’s been thought that Dele Alli might make his return to the Tottenham starting lineup against Watford, both to knock off the rust and because he came up through the ranks at MK Dons and is still a fan favorite. The Evening Standard is reporting that at least 1000 fans in the Tottenham “home” section will be made up of MK Dons supporters, who were given an option to purchase tickets as part of the stadium usage agreement.