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Mauricio Pochettino under pressure to keep Harry Kane in Tottenham Hotspur starting XI for Aston Villa clash
Spurs manager faces selection dilemma for Sunday's game with Capital One Cup hero facing battle with Emmanuel Adebayor and Roberto Soldado for one starting place
Mauricio Pochettino is set to leave Harry Kane sweating until the last minute to find out whether he has earned his first Premier League start of the season.
Kane took his Tottenham scoring tally to seven goals in 11 appearances this season against Brighton in the Capital One Cup, but is yet to start a Premier League game.
Pochettino, the head coach, left Kane out of his starting line-up for the Newcastle United game after the 21-year-old had scored a hat-trick in the Europa League but pressure is now growing on the Argentine to give the England Under-21 star a prolonged run in the first team.
Tottenham’s players have been left in the dark over Pochettino’s team selections until just hours before kick-off at times this season. He gives little away during training and likes to keep the squad guessing.
Vice-captain Emmanuel Adebayor will expect to be restored to the starting line-up after scoring against Newcastle, which gives Pochettino a real selection dilemma for Sunday’s trip to Aston Villa.
Roberto Soldado also performed well against Brighton alongside Kane, but Pochettino has favoured starting with just one forward for Premier League games.
Playing with two forwards would mean having to drop one of Erik Lamela, who scored against Brighton, Christian Eriksen or Nacer Chadli, who has scored four Premier League goals this season.
Statistics support Kane’s claims to start against Villa, as he is top of Tottenham’s list for minutes-per-scoring or creating a goal in all competitions.
On average, Kane has scored or created a goal every 69 minutes, while it has taken Adebayor 256 minutes to hit the back of the net or set up a team-mate. Eriksen is only slightly better on 250 minutes.
Goals from Kane and Lamela secured a Capital One Cup quarter-final date with Newcastle at White Hart Lane and Jan Vertonghen believes winning the competition could breed a successful mentality at the club.
Tottenham have not won a trophy since lifting the League Cup in 2008 and Vertonghen believes one piece of silverware could lead to more glory.
“One hundred per cent,” said Vertonghen. “It gives a bit of belief that we can do big things with the team and I think it would help us.
“We have a lot of good players, but sometimes you just need it to click and I hope we find it now – in the Capital One Cup. We are in the quarter-finals and, hopefully, we can force something.
“When I was at Ajax [before joining Spurs in the summer of 2012], the club went through a period of not winning a trophy and you lose a bit of belief that you’re capable of it.
“But then we won the Dutch Cup in 2010 and after that we won the league twice in a row before I left. Ajax won it the following two years, too, so when you win one trophy, you start believing that you can do it again.”