Jose Mourinho has named his first Tottenham starting XI ahead of his debut as the club’s new manager against West Ham on Saturday.
Saturday is GameDay on talkSPORT and our coverage starts with Mourinho’s first game in charge of his new club at the London Stadium.
The former Manchester United and Chelsea boss has replaced Mauricio Pochettino following a disastrous run of results in 2019 and he’ll look for an immediate response from his players.
Mourinho has been thrown in at the deep end with a London derby just three days after his appointment, but the 56-year-old insists the foundations are already there.
At his press conference on Thursday, Mourinho described the players already at the club as ‘the best gift’ and expressed his desire to continue Pochettino’s good work, rather than make wholesale changes.
He said: “I tried to buy some of them for different clubs and I couldn’t. I don’t need [new] players. I love this squad. We cannot win the Premier League this season. We can – I’m not saying we will do – but we can win it next season.”
And Mourinho is already demonstrating Tottenham’s strength in depth by naming star players Christian Eriksen and Moussa Sissoko on the bench for the Premier League clash.
In their place, Eric Dier starts in midfield despite falling out of favour under Pochettino, while Lucas Moura gets the nod on the right wing.
Tanguy Ndombele and Jan Vertonghen both miss out due to groin and hamstring issues respectively.
For the hosts, captain Mark Noble returns to the side after missing the 3-0 defeat to Burnley due to injury.
Confirmed line-ups
West Ham: Roberto, Fredericks, Diop, Ogbonna, Cresswell, Rice, Noble, Yarmolenko, Anderson, Snodgrass, Haller.
Subs: Martin, Balbuena, Zabaleta, Sanchez, Fornals, Ajeti, Antonio.
Tottenham: Gazzaniga, Aurier, Sanchez, Alderweireld, Davies, Dier, Winks, Son, Alli, Moura, Kane.
Subs: Austin, Rose, Walker-Peters, Sissoko, Lo Celso, Foyth, Eriksen.
Saturday is GameDay on talkSPORT. We’ll bring you THREE live Premier League commentaries across our network this Saturday, including West Ham vs Tottenham (12:30)
