He was injured in their game last Friday. Initial reports said he was stretchered off, but some say he actually came back on to finish the game. Not heard anything since.
The Mail claims Jan is fine. Despite that, I think he is actually fine, and there was nothing to the injury story. : "JAN VERTONGHEN (Belgium) Match results: Scotland 0 Belgium 2 Minutes played: 90 Air miles covered: 692 Weekend fixture: Norwich (h) Condition: A rock for both club and country, expect to see him starting for Tottenham against Norwich. Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/fo...turning-international-duty.html#ixzz2ebWaarjr Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook"
I think giving holtby and eriksen 60 mins and 30 mins back to back is an excellent idea. It not only allows them to get used to a squad it also gives us some leeway if we need to do something. Moreover, this is Norwich... They don't play overly expansive, attacking football so having an inexperienced number 10 isn't going to impact on us like playing against Swansea say. Nothing against Norwich I should add, just the brand of football will most likely involve a large yellow bus parked somewhere inside their box. If I were looking at it, with dembele's form, perhaps it's a good idea to play him in the deeper role (like we did last season). We've got the guy in, moved him deeper and trained him in that role which he played well for us, then immediately shifted him back up the pitch with 6 players around him that he's never played with. Cut him some slack - how can we get him back on track without dropping him unnecessarily ad potentially ruining morale? Play him with Sandro for a really solid, understanding physical base. Then play one of holtby or eriksen in the hole as the new boy. Switching as necessary later. If dembele still isn't playing well and holtby is having a stormer, drop holtby deeper and bring on eriksen. I'd play lamela on the right. The following game, paulinho should play and whichever of holtby, Townsend, lamela and eriksen didn't get good game time should be given it then. Maybe Paul and dembele should play together to give Sandro a rest to not rush him back too quickly. SO MANY OPTIONS?!! Looking at it, i see having so many games in such a short time as an excellent thing. Allows us to really take a look at players, in quick succession and so early in the season... Excellent! Ideally, we'd treat all 4 cup competitions equally as long as we can. Both externally and internally to the club. It's no shame to be picked in a Europa game and not in a league game. It's an opportunity to impress. Only if by December we look like it could harm the league do we perhaps need to treat them differently. And the squad looks so good at the moment, I don't think we will need to make sacrifices. Apart from sig... He is too functional a player and that for me doesn't suit our needs when every other player is efficient and clean and not creative. He's a lot like Dempsey for me - not in style - but in that he's unlucky. No doubt is a good prem player, I'm just not sure he suits what we require at this moment in time. And I really hope I'm wrong, he's young and clearly talented and never fails to work really hard. But, this would almost certainly result in us losing every game. Perhaps ill just trust Avb!
Vetonghen seems fine by the way. Gave an interview to Spurs TV yesterday after returning from international duty. Also showed a clip of him training and taking a shot, so any concerns should be quashed (I hope!).
All this talk of which player is going to start etc, what a embarrassment of riches AVB has. I am really excited to see who lines up on Saturday- yes! Saturday the day football is meant to be played. As everybody has said no diss to Norwich but this game could be anything and that gets me buzzing.(no insect jokes please lads)
I am hoping to see Lamela and Townsend(Lennon) out wide on saturday. After impressing me in preseason Chadli is out of favour for me, this is purely based on his positioning on the pitch. Perhaps he has been told to drift in, but I do not like it and it means the only width really had against Swansea was Townsend. Everytime I looked to the left wing there was a massive gap, Danny rose would work he arse off but the only time he got the ball was when Dembele drifted out wide to supply him. When Chadli got out wide his decision making was awful. Maybe its too early to tell but I think Chadli will be a squad player this year and not a regular starter.
Chadli's more of an inside forward than actual winger so he will be prone to drifting in side. He has shown though that he can cross well with either his left or right peg. I think Arsenal aside, where he along with others were poor, he's looked fairly promising. Not made the impact I expected but I think he can develops into a very important player here.
with the formation we seem to be heading towards we want our "wingers" drifting in. We need them to score a significant number of goals. Lamela will do the same.
Thanks but you should all beehive yourselves!! Oh bugger I did it to myself,feeling a little waspish now
