OPINION
Tottenham defender Serge Aurier has nothing to fear regarding his playing time despite Jamie Redknapp describing the player as being in a fight to feature.
The Sky Sports pundit drools over the latest performance of Kyle Walker-Peters and claimed that Spurs now have three right-backs striving for a place in Spurs’ starting line-up.
“Tottenham have emerged as genuine title contenders after enjoying a free-scoring festive period so far,” wrote Redknapp in his column for the Daily Mail.
“What will please Mauricio Pochettino most about the last few days is the performance of right back Kyle Walker-Peters against Bournemouth.
“The 21-year-old endured a difficult Champions League debut at the Nou Camp earlier this month. He was robbed on halfway by Ousmane Dembele to gift Barcelona the lead.
“Wednesday was his first appearance since then and he responded by demonstrating his attacking qualities, setting up three of Tottenham’s five goals.
“Suddenly, Pochettino has three right backs — Kieran Trippier, Serge Aurier and Walker-Peters — all fighting for a place.”
Yet while Aurier hasn’t featured lately due to injury and while Redknapp is right to rave about the recent outing of Walker-Peters, the 26-year-old Ivory Coast international shouldn’t be worried due to have a trump card ready to play.
Unlikely Trippier or Walker-Peters, Aurier is extremely versatile to the degree where he is comfortable playing in any position across the back-four.
This means that even if Pochettino opts for a different option at right-back, the 26-year-old will likely always find a way to get himself into Spurs’ team due to his versatility.
The Spurs manager has so many options on how to deploy Aurier and as long as he submits a display his quality is capable of, it’s hard to see him ever being rooted to the sidelines for a long period.
While many may suggest that due to the defender missing the last few games due to injury puts him at a disadvantage compared to the other two, Spurs’ official Twitter account did share on Thursday that he is back in training.
TEAM NEWS: @Serge_Aurier (groin) – returned to training. @mousadembele (ankle) – final stages of rehab. @ericdier (appendicitis) – continuing post-op rehab. @JanVertonghen (thigh) – continuing on-field rehab.@VictorWanyama (knee) – commenced on-field rehab. #COYS pic.twitter.com/QOWnvcC3j6
— Tottenham Hotspur (@SpursOfficial) December 27, 2018
Therefore while Redknapp is right to say that Pochettino basically has tons of choice in regards to the position of right-back, it’s unlikely to cause Aurier to miss out on getting a tremendous amount on playing time shortly due to the player’s versatility being a glorified trump card.