Harry Kane makes it but have the Soccer Saturday boys picked the wrong Tottenham defender?
Unsurprisingly, Manchester City stars dominate the Sky Sports pundits’ Premier League teams of the season so far having left their title challengers for dead by the end of December.
There are still nods to a couple of Tottenham Hotspur players, despite Mauricio Pochettino’s side sitting a disappointing seventh in the table as they approach the festive period.
Phil Thompson and Paul Merson chose Harry Kane to lead the line in their sides after the 24-year-old striker scored 12 goals in 17 games in his hunt for a third successive Golden Boot.
Thompson and Charlie Nicholas also selected defender Toby Alderweireld, who has not played a league game since October because of a hamstring concern which continues to sideline him.
Spurs kept five clean sheets in the 10 matches that the Belgian played before sustaning his injury against Real Madrid in the Champions League, compared to two in seven games since.
Nicholas told Sky Sports: “I’m finding the centre-backs incredibly difficult because there’s a lack of real quality. Alderweireld goes in there and we can see how much Spurs are missing him.”
Alderweireld’s form had dipped from the incredibly high standards he set for himself in his first two seasons at Spurs and Jan Vertonghen has actually been the club’s standout defender this term.
However, Vertonghen is not nearly as good when he is not playing alongside his international colleague, and the statistics clearly show the importance of Alderweireld to Tottenham’s solidity.
Matt Le Tissier was the only Soccer Saturday pundit not to include a Tottenham player in his lineup, preferring Sergio Aguero up front, and Nicolas Otamendi and Burnley’s James Tarkowski at centre-back.
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