Former Premier League winner Chris Sutton has claimed that Tottenham Hotspur manager Mauricio Pochettino must start Lucas Moura and Son Heung-min against Liverpool on Saturday.
The Argentine faces a huge decision on whether to bring fitness risk Harry Kane back into the team for the Champions League final in Madrid, and Sutton believes the England captain must be left on the bench.
“Who would Pochettino drop to make room for Kane too?,” he wrote in his Daily Mail column. “Lucas Moura, whose hat-trick against Ajax in the semi-final second leg got them to this showdown with Liverpool?
“Son Heung-min, the versatile forward who has arguably been Spurs’ best player this season? Neither of those should be making way. If Kane had been back in training for a while, if he had managed to play in a couple of matches, then of course you’d put him in.
“That would be a no-brainer. But he hasn’t so he has to be considered a risk. Kane could turn out to be a great weapon from the bench. Pochettino has a huge decision to make and he has to be sensible about it. ”
OPINION
It’s not often that you hear this, but Sutton has hit the nail on the head here. Kane isn’t going to be fully fit on Saturday no matter what happens, so as Sutton says, he must be considered a risk at this stage. If he’d made a few substitute appearances down the stretch of the Premier League season, maybe started a game, then you’d put him in from the start on Saturday no questions asked. However, he hasn’t, and so there’s no way that he’s going to be fully fit and at his best against Jurgen Klopp’s side. Also, again as Sutton alludes to, who do you drop for the England skipper? Neither Lucas nor Son deserve to be dropped – particularly the latter after a stunning individual season. But Lucas scored the hat-trick to take Spurs to this final, so can you really drop him after that? He’s a big game player, he needs to start. Bring Kane off the bench to make the difference late, that should be the tactic Pochettino goes for in the final.