Tottenham news: Mauricio Pochettino will not experiment with lineup against Newcastle
The Spurs manager bizarrely rebuffed questions of experimentation ahead of the fixture
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Your support makes all the difference.Mauricio Pochettino has bizarrely ruled out experimenting with his side against Newcastle, saying “I’m not a scientist.”
Newcastle have lost each of their first two games while Tottenham Hotspur followed victory over Aston Villa by securing an away point against Manchester City.
Yet Pochettino has suggested that experimentation is left to those in other walks of life.
“Experiment? I’m not a scientist. I’m not a chemist,” Pochettino commented when asked about his plans for selection this weekend.
“You’re talking about experimenting. That’s in some room outside of this training room. We’re coaches and we do our job, we don’t experiment. We train people that have the ability to play football ... that’s it.
“Don’t compare us with doctors or people in university studying a lot. I have a lot of respect for the people who do what you say, experiment, to help life. But for us to find solutions, only I’m a football coach.”
Tottenham could call upon fit again Dele Alli at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Sunday, while Son Heung-min is free to play again after serving his suspension.
Tanguy Ndombele will miss the game after picking up a minor thigh injury during training this week.
However, fellow summer signing Giovani Lo Celso is unlikely to fill the void in the starting lineup left by the Frenchman, with Pochettino suggesting his countryman is not yet close to full match fitness after a busy summer.
“Lo Celso is a situation that’s not going to be easy. He was in extended holidays after the Copa America, he didn’t have a proper pre-season and didn’t train much. He then signed for us after a week without training,” Pochettino said.
“He’s training well but is so far away from what we expect from him. We need to give him time and we won’t expect too much from him.”
Pochettino would not comment definitively on the future of midfielder Victor Wanyama, having called earlier in the week for the Premier League to bring their transfer deadline back in line with the rest of Europe.
Wanyama, 28, has been heavily linked with a move to Club Bruges.
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