Tottenham boss Antonio Conte has hinted that he will stick with his 3-4-3 formation against Manchester United at Old Trafford tonight, despite injuries to Richarlison and Dejan Kulusevski.
Richarlison is certain to miss the game due to a calf injury sustained in the weekend’s victory over Everton.
While Kulusevski remains a doubt with the hamstring injury that has kept him sidelined since the international break.
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Conte:
“Kulusevski is working and we will see.”
“We have to go day-by-day with him and the medical department are working a lot to try to recover him but we don’t know about the game against United.
“I think the medical department are working to recover him but at the same time,
sometimes there are situations that you have to go a bit slowly and not to accelerate the
process because sometimes if you accelerate the process you risk making the situation worse.
For this reason we need to have patience.”
The assumption had been that Conte would switch to a 3-5-2 formation,
with summer signing Yves Bissouma coming in to bolster the midfield and Harry Kane and Heung-min Son starting up front as a pair.
However, Conte suggested he would prefer to stick with his favoured system, naming Bryan Gil, Ivan Perisic and the fit-again Lucas Moura as candidates to fill the position.
“Today, Lucas Moura can be a possibility,” Conte said.
“Gil can be a possibility, Perisic like a striker is a possibility.
I have another day of training sessions to make the best decision.
“You know we like to play with a 3-4-3, with three strikers, and if we can’t change then I prefer to continue to play with a 3-4-3.
Otherwise I will find another solution but I think we have the possibility to play with a 3-4-3.”
Tottenham predicted XI (3-4-3):
Lloris;
Romero, Dier, Lenglet;
Doherty, Bentancur, Hojbjerg, Sessegnon;
Son, Kane, Perisic.
