The race for the top four in the Premier League is heating up heading into the final few matches of the 2021/22 season but for Tottenham Hotspur, it doesn’t get trickier than this evening.
Antonio Conte’s side travel to Merseyside to face an in-form and title-chasing Liverpool team at Anfield, who too are in need of points to keep the pressure on Manchester City, who were knocked out of the Champions League in agonising fashion in midweek.
Last weekend, Spurs bolstered their claims for European football next season with a resounding 3-1 victory over a heavily-rotated Leicester City side; their fifth win in seven.
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Just like Brendan Rodgers, the Italian head coach also tinkered with his lineup but only slightly, with Lucas Moura coming in for Dejan Kulusevski in the attack.
Ten minutes into the second half, the Brazilian winger was withdrawn for the Sweden international with the Lilywhites only holding a 1-0 lead, and Kulusevski quickly made his presence known by providing two assists for Heung-min Son to net a brace.
Moura has struggled for form and has lost his place in the starting XI to Kulusevski, so that change is ought to be one that Conte makes for this encounter.
Across 31 league appearances, the former Paris Saint-Germain ace has delivered only two goals and five assists – by comparison, the Juventus loanee has already usurped that with three goals and eight assists in only 14 games, via WhoScored.
Valued at £18m by Transfermarkt, the 29-year-old winger has previously been described as a “nightmare” to train against by team-mate Eric Dier, but we’ve seen anything but that from Moura in 2022, with his last league goal coming back in December.
Moura has also provided two assists since Boxing Day, despite only failing to make two appearances in that time.
Furthermore, Kulusevski is clear for creating chances, even if they do not get converted into a goal – his average of 1.6 key passes per game eclipses Moura by 0.7.
Therefore, it should be a no-brainer for Conte to make the ruthless call to axe Moura from the starting XI up against Liverpool. If there’s any game where he’ll go missing, it’s certainly this one. He is just not good enough to start for Tottenham.
AND in other news, Conte could land his own Jorginho in Spurs swoop for “extraordinary” £45m-rated titan…