Jose Mourinho has admitted that he left Dele Alli out against Newcastle in order to rotate the squad and ensure that the team had fresh legs after their exertions on Thursday.
The game against Newcastle is the third time Alli has missed out on Tottenham’s matchday squad in their first five matches of the season, with the midfielder also failing to make the cut against Lokomotiv Plovdiv and Southampton.
The 24-year-old did start the 3-1 win over Shkendija in midweek, although he was withdrawn at the hour mark in that game.
Despite the speculation linking the midfielder with a move away from Tottenham (Telegraph), Mourinho has insisted that he expects Dele to stay at the club beyond the end of the transfer window (Football.London).
Mourinho chose to go with a front three of Harry Kane, Son Heung-min and Lucas Moura up front against the Magpies, with Giovani Lo Celso starting as the number ten in-behind the front three.
When asked if the need to rotate accounted for Alli’s absence or if it was down to something else, Mourinho told The Metro: “A bit of both. We start with Harry Kane, with Son, with Lucas, and then on the bench, we have Lamela and Bergwijn.
“A little bit of rotation. And when the players are on the pitch they have to try to earn more minutes for the next match and for the next match they have to fight for that.”
Spurs Web Opinion
Given the injury to Son and the fact that Bale is still several weeks away from being match fit, we are certainly going to need Dele over the next few weeks. He is certainly going to get opportunities to get himself back into Jose’s good books in the next few matches. A decent performance against Chelsea on Tuesday will certainly do his prospects of getting back into the team a lot of good.
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