Spurs man tells Ange Postecoglou where Tottenham will finish this season after two consecutive losses and injuries to key players.
Gary Lineker and Micah Richards have both shared their predictions on where Tottenham Hotspur will finish this season in the Premier League.
There was plenty of change at Tottenham over the course of the summer with Daniel Levy turning to Ange Postecoglou to become the club’s new head coach and the Australian has enjoyed an impressive start to life in North London having gone unbeaten in the league for the first ten games before losing back-to-back matches against Chelsea and Wolves.
Spurs lost against Mauricio Pochettino’s side after going down to nine men, following red cards to Cristian Romero and Destiny Udogie, while Micky van de Ven and James Maddison were both forced off due to respective injury issues.
While Van de Ven reportedly does not require surgery on his hamstring tear, the Dutchman is still expected to be out of action until at least January alongside Maddison (The Telegraph).
Despite the two successive losses, Tottenham are still well positioned in the league, sitting fourth in the league and just two points off the top. They will be hoping to push for a Champions League spot come the end of the campaign.
Speaking on the Rest is Football podcast, both Micah Richards and Gary Lineker have revealed where they expect Spurs to finish this season.
Richards said: “I think they can get Champions League if everyone is fit.”
Lineker added his opinion: “Well two big players won’t be fit until the new year at least. Maddison who has been absolutely brilliant, one of the signings of the season I think we would all agree, as has Van de Ven. To lose one of them is bad luck but two!”
Richards continued: “And then to lose Romero, your partnership, we talked about them being the partnership of the season so far. To lose that… It’s very difficult to predict. If they were all fit I would say Champions League but I would like to see when they are going to be back. I am going to say could slip into that number five position for Champions League.”
Lineker replied: “I wouldn’t disagree with that. We said Europe at the start of the season but I think we were all probably forgetting a little bit that it’s very likely that the Premier League have five teams in the Champions League next season.”
Considering the start we had, Spurs fans might be expecting more than just a Champions League finish this season. That said, we must also be realistic about the situation.
Going by the number of injuries and the lack of squad depth we currently have, finishing in a Champions League spot would be a huge achievement. If someone had given us that at the start of the season, we would have taken it with both hands. Considering there could be five teams who qualify for the competition next season, Spurs have a decent chance if Daniel Levy backs Ange in the January window.