Tottenham Hotspur manager Mauricio Pochettino has essentially been playing down the importance of the FA Cup, but it has a lot more significance than he publicly acknowledges. For all four teams involved in the semi-finals, it’s the only chance to win a trophy this season. For Spurs, it would end their decade long trophy drought.
While Tottenham has certainly made tremendous strides under Pochettino, especially so in regards to European football, the north London side still hasn’t attained any silverware under his tenure. They will playing Saturday’s FA Cup semi-final against Man United at Wembley Stadium, Tottenham’s temporary home for the season.
Pochettino maintains that this will not be an advantage for his side. “It’ll be a typical cup game at Wembley: half Tottenham, half Manchester United. Man United have experience of playing at Wembley too,” the Spurs boss said.
I guess we’ll see this weekend if he’s right about that or not.
Let’s take a look at who he might select in this one.
Attack: Son, Harry Kane Dele Alli
Centre-midfield: Moussa Dembele, Eric Dier, Christian Eriksen
Back line: Ben Davies, Davinson Sanchez, Jan Vertonghen, Kieran Trippier
Goalkeeper: Hugo Lloris
Team news, match preview, prediction: go to this link
Manchester United starting XI prediction: go to this link
FA Cup Odds: Tottenham 14/11 United 32/13 Draw 5/2
FA Cup Outright Winner Odds: Chelsea 7/4 Tottenham 2/1 United 11/4 Southampton 20/1
As always, feel free to post to your own Tottenham and/or United starting XI predictions, as well as your score predictions, in the comments section below.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net and TheBank.News, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com, currently contributes regularly to WGN CLTV and the Tribune company’s blogging community Chicago Now.
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