Matchday in focus: Tottenham

Eintracht Frankfurt

·4 October 2022

Matchday in focus: Tottenham

While all eyes will be on Tottenham Hotspur’s forward line, coach Antonio Conte’s side has much more to offer, including a few familiar faces from the Bundesliga.

Tactics

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129 matches in charge of Juventus, 106 with Chelsea, 102 for Inter Milan and 24 on top of that as Italy’s national coach: Antonio Conte is certainly one of the biggest names in European football, with a trophy cabinet to match. Since November 2021, he has been at the helm of Tottenham Hotspur.

Conte always sends his side out in a 3-4-3 formation, regardless of whether they are playing in the Premier League or the UEFA Champions League. Spurs have three players with Bundesliga experience in midfield in Son Heung-min, Ivan Perisic and Pierre-Emile Höjbjerg, but while they are always there or thereabouts when it comes to the top four of the Premier League, they have flattered to deceive in the Champions League recently, having lost four of their last five matches in Europe across the last two seasons.

Absentees

For Eintracht, Aurélio Buta, Almamy Toure, Jérôme Onguéné and Mario Götze are all sidelined through injury.

Tottenham, meanwhile, will have to do without Lucas Moura and Dejan Kulusevski.

One to watch: Harry Kane

When you say Tottenham Hotspur nowadays, the first name that comes to mind is that of Harry Kane, who has worked his way up through the youth system at the North London club to become a star.

Kane has scored 190 goals in 287 league games for Spurs, plus another 44 in European competition. He also has 51 goals in 75 caps for England.
He has been the Premier League’s top scorer on three occasions: in 2015-16 (25 goals), 2016-17 (29 goals) and 2020-21 (23 goals).
He also claimed the Golden Boot at the 2018 FIFA World Cup with six goals.

Key battle: Evan Ndicka vs. Son Heung-min

Evan Ndicka is now in his fifth season at Frankfurt, and over his 151 matches with the club, the 23-year-old Frenchman has evolved into one of the most crucial elements of the Eagles’ defence.

Son Heung-min’s qualities are well known to German fans, the South Korean having made 135 Bundesliga and 11 DFB Cup appearances for Hamburg and Bayer Leverkusen before moving to North London seven years ago. Only four players have been with the club for longer. The 30-year-old attacking midfielder has become one of the pillars of this Spurs team, for whom he has registered no fewer than 134 goals – 23 of them in the 2021/22 Premier League season alone – as well as 75 assists.