Tottenham Hotspur: Cristian Romero to be the main man for Antonio Conte?

Tottenham Hotspur have been dealt a fresh injury blow, with Football.London’s Alasdair Gold confirming that Eric Dier was absent from the matchday squad for the FA Cup win over Brighton on Saturday night due to injury.

Antonio Conte had to make do without Dier, but could call upon Cristian Romero for the first time since early November, a timely return to action for the Argentine.

There’s no return date stated for Dier, so we don’t know how long he’ll be absent from the Spurs squad for. What we do know is it creates opportunities elsewhere.

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Romero to be Conte’s main man?

The central defender signed for a hefty £42 million fee in the summer, with his injury setback a blow at the time for the London side.

Thankfully, he has returned just in time to cover the absent Dier to keep the Spurs backline looking strong as they look to secure a top four finish and a date with Wembley in the FA Cup.

Considering he had been sidelined with injury for a number of months, Romero looked extremely comfortable on the night – his pass accuracy of 97% along with only losing possession twice in the fixture shows his capability.

Jonathan Veal took to Twitter to praise the defender. The journalist claimed that the ‘aggression’ and ‘calmness’ of Romero was a huge miss.

With Dier out, the hope will be that Romero can seamlessly slot in as Conte’s main man at the back.

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Joe Rodon’s chance to shine?

Joe Rodon only has 506 minutes under his belt in all competitions this season, with the majority of those coming in the Conference League.

With injuries, your younger fringe players tend to get a chance to shine – is this Rodon’s chance to impress Conte and cement his place in the Italian’s plans at Spurs?

It’s likely to be a lifeline for the 24-year-old should he start to get minutes at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. He looked set to leave in the January transfer window but nothing materialised and he remained a Spurs player.

Now that one of Conte’s permanent fixtures at the back could be out for the foreseeable future, the £12m-rated Welshman may dramatically come back into the fold.

It could well be his final chance to impress the Spurs boss before the summer transfer window.

In other news, Gold brands Spurs ace as ‘sloppy’