We asked our Tottenham correspondent Alasdair Gold and football.london boss Lee Wilmot to name the team they reckon Conte will select at Old Trafford
Spurs played well at Old Trafford under Conte last season but were undone by a finishing masterclass by Cristiano Ronaldo in a 3-2 defeat in Manchester. This time around the north London outfit will be wanting to travel home with a better result against a United side now coached by Erik ten Hag.
We asked our Tottenham correspondent Alasdair Gold and football.london head of football Lee Wilmot to name the team they would like to see Conte select at Old Trafford. Here are the starting line-ups they went for.
Alasdair Gold – Tottenham Hotspur correspondent
The 3-5-2 has looked good in recent weeks whenever used but Conte seems set on trying to use the 3-4-3 as it’s the system he’s worked with the players the most on.
Unless it was a pre-match bluff, the Italian repeatedly said he would prefer to start with that formation and named Lucas Moura, Bryan Gil and Ivan Perisic as the players who could step in for the injured Richarlison. So with that in mind I’m not even going to go for the 3-5-2, even though I’d prefer to see it.
The Spurs boss did not actually rule the injured Dejan Kulusevski out of contention for the game but even if he did make a late stride towards fitness then he would be on the bench.
Conte has always looked to use Ryan Sessegnon in big games against the likes of Manchester City, Liverpool and Chelsea and the England U21 star has often delivered his best performances in those encounters so the Spurs might go down that road again, using Perisic in the front three as the fittest of the trio he mentioned above. If the Croatian does play in that front three then Conte will have to decide whether he plays on the left or right, with Son Heung-min equally adaptable.
Then it’s a choice between Clement Lenglet and Ben Davies on the left of the back three and Matt Doherty will likely get the chance to impress again at right wing-back.
Yves Bissouma also impressed against Everton but if Conte wants just two in the centre of the park then it’s likely to be the equally impressive Rodrigo Bentancur and Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg. Bissouma can always be introduced to make a 3-5-2 at any point in the game.
Gold’s team: Lloris; Romero, Dier, Davies; Doherty, Hojbjerg, Bentancur, Sessegnon; Perisic, Kane, Son.
