How should injury-hammered Spurs line up vs Barcelona? Here are three possible line-ups (more options than you might think)

Mauricio Pochettino’s Spurs take on the mighty Barcelona on Wednesday night in what has been a slightly muddled period for both clubs. 

Neither meet the other in top form or great shape; Barca sputtered their way through the second half of September, drawing with Girona and Athletic Bilbao and losing to Leganes in La Liga, leading to a high degree of fan animus toward Ernesto Valverde.

Spurs, meanwhile, are yet to fully convince, with doubts remaining mostly on the basis of a consistent theme of late conceded goals and uncharacteristic defensive dodginess, though they’ve won their last two.

More problematic for Tottenham is their troublingly long list of absentees through injury in the first-team ranks: Jan Vertonghen, Serge Aurier – who is playing well – Christian Eriksen, Mousa Dembele and Dele Alli miss out through injury – all five could have conceivably started for Spurs at Wembley.

So, taking those misses into account, here are three ways Spurs could line up against Barcelona.

The spearhead (3-4-2-1) 

This is probably the most likely formation and personnel. Pochettino set his side up this way against Huddersfield, the exception being a midfield including Dembele and Dier becomes Winks and Wanyama while Vertonghen is replaced by Dier, who drops into the back three.

This formation provides good solidarity with the extra man in the back three theoretically helping propel some of the world’s best attacking stars that Barca possess, while Son and Lucas should help provide some dynamism and goal threat behind the (possibly) back in-form Harry Kane.

Winks and Wanyama should compliment each-other fairly well – the game is an opportunity for both to stake a claim in the middle of the park after what’s been a less-than-convincing run of games for Eric Dier, while Dembele will miss games this season through injury without a doubt.

The narrowness of Son and Lucas will allow the full-backs to bomb on when possible, which is the team’s preferred mode of attack.

The diamond (4-1-2-1-2 )

This is another attacking formation that keeps a degree of solidness to the XI while ensuring fluidity through the lines.

Wanyama, who has been returning to match-fitness over the last few weeks, sits at the base of a diamond with Harry Winks and Moussa Sissoko entrusted with the job of No.8s, running off up and down, carrying the ball and providing some vertical penetration with their passing (mostly Winks) through to the attackers, who will be supported by the in-form Erik Lamela.

Lamela would be crucial in this formation with the main creator Eriksen out; Lamela is the only other player in the squad with the ability to play clever through balls into the strikers and generally do something out of the ordinary to prize out an opening.

Kane and Moura should have support in this setup, though they may have to split and work the wide areas out of possession a lot.

The defensive workhorse XI (3-5-2)

The big overarching question mark going into tonight is just how brave Pochettino is going to be against a Barcelona side that is still very much Barcelona, but also a Barcelona that have picked up a string of middling results.

What’s more, Spurs are at home, they lost to Inter already so could do with picking up points, and so will need to show some adventure going forward, even if key players are missing.

Lamela has been good, very good in fact, scoring three and assisting two in seven games so far this season. He’s looked bright from the bench and seems to be Pochettino’s go-to man to change the tone and direction of games.

The trouble for him is Poch will probably want to keep him in reserve as a secret weapon, so both he and Son could inject more attacking threat in the second half if needed.

So with that being said, this formation is the most conservative Spurs could line up given the circumstances, but it will be difficult for Barcelona to penetrate, and it wouldn’t be unlike the team the manager put out against Real Madrid at Wembley last year, when Spurs won 3-1.

On that day, Pochettino went with a 3-5-1-1, in many ways it’s possible he’ll do the same here, it’s just that, without Eriksen, that three in midfield becomes very workmanlike.

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