Pochettino should give Fernando Llorente one shot to save Spurs career

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Tottenham Hotspur fans would be forgiven for wondering if they are ever going to see Fernando Llorente play for Spurs again.

It must be fairly demoralising for Fernando Llorente right now. The Spurs striker has featured for just nine minutes of this campaign and is having to look on as Harry Kane desperately searches for form.

To many, Kane appears to be in need of a rest. He has broken his August duck, but he has not scored in his last three Tottenham games and is seemingly struggling after a year which has seen him shine so brightly for club and country.

Mauricio Pochettino has taken some of the pressure off Kane this term by making a tactical tweak that has seen Lucas Moura regularly line up alongside the Englishman as a front two. But taking Tottenham’s talisman out of the firing line for one or two games may not be a terrible idea.

Pochettino may be hoping that that rest comes during the next international break, but if Kane is going to carry on performing as he has done in the previous handful of games, then he may not be much use to Spurs during their next five fixtures, which includes the Champions League tie with Barcelona.

So perhaps Pochettino should take a gamble this weekend at Brighton and hand Llorente the opportunity to start in the hope that the Spaniard takes full advantage of what would surely be his last chance to really prove himself.

Llorente can shine in the Carabao Cup and FA Cup, but it is surely only the Premier League and Champions League that gives him a genuine platform to prove that he has been written off too soon.

And with the new system likely to make it slightly easier for the striker to avoid becoming isolated, perhaps there is an outside chance that Llorente could actually make the kind of impact that tempted Spurs to sign him in the first place.

The 33-year-old’s record is disappointing, but he has only started once in the top flight since joining from Swansea. Keeping some faith with him could make a difference for both himself and Kane, and could ultimately give Spurs the striker understudy that they desperately need in case the latter falls into this kind of rut again.