Tottenham Hotspur boss Thomas Frank will face his former club Brentford for the first time since leaving the Gtech Community Stadium as the two clubs face off in the Premier League this Saturday.
Spurs are looking to put a run of poor results behind them as they search for a first win in six in all competitions in this home fixture against a Brentford outfit that have lost their last three on the road.
Tottenham predicted lineup vs Brentford
Tottenham (4-2-3-1): Vicario; Porro, Romero, Van de Ven, Spence; Palhinha, Gray; Kudus, Simons, Odobert; Kolo Muani.
Thomas Frank continues to chop and change his starting eleven and after being rested for the trip to Newcastle on Tuesday there could be recalls to the starting eleven for the likes of Micky Van de Ven, Djed Spence and Wilson Odobert.
Tottenham team news vs Brentford
Thomas Frank remains without a handful of first-team players as his struggling Tottenham outfit look to recapture their early season form.
Creative midfielders James Maddison and Dejan Kulusevski are yet to feature for the Lilywhites under Frank while striker Dom Solanke has played just 31 minutes in the Premier League this season having picked up an injury in August.
While Maddison is expected to be out until the end of the season, Tottenham appear more confident in Solanke and Kulusevski’s chances of returning to action before the end of the calendar year – although this game is likely to come too soon for both of them.
One player who could be available for selection again soon is defender Radu Dragusin. The Romanian has been back in training recently after recovering from a long-term knee injury, although he’s likely to sit behind Micky Van de Ven, Cristian Romero and Kevin Danso.
Thomas Frank has been slightly unpredictable in his team selections of late and after a handful of changes for the midweek trip to St James’ Park in which Spurs managed to secure a point thanks to a Cristian Romero brace, there could be more changes for this match against the Dane’s former club.
Archie Gray has featured more regularly in recent weeks and could return to the starting lineup, while Micky Van de Ven was a surprise absentee on Tyneside and will expect to start here.
Xavi Simons has not started in any of Tottenham’s last four games but could be in line for a start here as he looks to recapture the kind of form that convinced the North London club to bring him in for a £51m fee from Bundesliga club RB Leipzig in the summer.
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Stumbling Spurs need to find attacking spark
With Maddison and Kulusevski missing in action so far this season, Spurs have been lacking somewhat in attack and Simons’ lack of form since joining the club hasn’t helped the situation for Thomas Frank.
Spurs have produced some record low numbers in terms of xG this season including 0.03 in the recent derby defeat to Arsenal. They’ve managed to record an xG over 2.0 only once so far this season, in the 0-3 win at Everton back in October.
Summer signing Mohammed Kudus has shouldered much of the goalscoring burden and he was on hand to assist Cristian Romero for his first goal at St James’ Park on Tuesday night after scoring what turned out to be a consolation in the defeat to Fulham last weekend.
But the likes of Wilson Odobert, Randal Kolo Muani and Xavi Simons have struggled for form in the Premier League, with that trio managing just two assists and zero goals between them so far.
Frank’s reliance on long balls and set-pieces has not been particularly productive for Spurs so far. To get the fans back on side, he’ll need to find a way for his most talented attacking players to gel and create more chances in the coming weeks.