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Tottenham Hotspur: Alasdair Gold now expects Matt Doherty to start on Saturday

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Tottenham Hotspur correspondent Alasdair Gold is expecting Matt Doherty to be the starting right wing-back in Saturday’s 2022/23 Premier League opener. 

The reliable Spurs journalist has been speaking on the latest Gold & Guest Talk Tottenham podcast ahead of their game in N17 against Southampton.

Antonio Conte went into the summer window with a new right-wing back on his wishlist of new signings, and that area has been addressed with the addition of Djed Spence.

However, there have been some questions raised over whether Spence was Conte’s first choice, following his comments after the 21-year-old was announced as a Spurs player.

Over the course of Tottenham’s pre-season efforts, Doherty, Emerson Royal and even Lucas Moura have all shared the role of playing at right wing-back.

Spence made a brief cameo against Rangers but did not feature at all against AS Roma last weekend, which has Gold expecting D0herty to retain his starting spot after Conte said he hopes Doherty can get back to his best form.

Gold said: “May be just me – I kind of got the impression, the way he was talking, as if Doherty will be the number one in that role. I just kind of got that feeling, the way he said it.”

TIF Thoughts on Gold’s comments…

We think that given Spence has not played much this summer, starting Doherty would be Conte’s best option on Saturday given the Irishman’s form before he sustained his season-ending injury.

Who would you start at RWB on Saturday?

Matt Doherty

Matt Doherty

Djed Spence

Djed Spence

Lucas Moura

Lucas Moura

Emerson Royal

Emerson Royal

There are question marks over whether Emerson will still be a Spurs player come the 1st September deadline, but he has played a considerable number of minutes in pre-season despite those reports.

What we do think is essential is that Conte begins to integrate Spence into the squad quickly and the defender gets some minutes under his belt.

We do not think he should just be thrown into the starting XI, however, he has not had much of a pre-season and could therefore seriously struggle to get up to match fitness if he just sits on the bench watching on.

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  • Jay says:

    Moura looked the most assured in all the times I watched him during preseason for that position, and I expect him to play a part there in the game at Southampton at some point.

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