Here is the Tottenham Hotspur morning digest for Thursday, September 10.
Berbatov explains striker struggle at Spurs
Former Tottenham Hotspur favourite Dimitar Berbatov has admitted the club will struggle to find a player content to play behind Harry Kane.
Berbatov, 39, joined the club from Bayer Leverkusen in 2006 and had a successful two years at the club before joining Manchester United.
The former Bulgarian international jokingly suggested he could fill the role behind Kane has also explained why the club have such trouble sourcing a new striker.
“When you think about it, what kind of other striker do you want to bring in? When you have a striker like Harry Kane, he is number one. So how are you going to convince the other player that he is going to be number two?” the 39-year-old Betfair Ambassador told football.london.
“If it’s me I’m not going to go there. I want to play football. So this is the problem in teams when you have a player like this because Harry Kane is number one and he’s going to start.
“Even if he’s tired or has a knock here or there. ‘Harry are you ok?’ ‘Yes, I’m fine, I’m ready to play’. This is how he is; he always wants to play.
“The problem is that it can’t all fall on the shoulders of Harry Kane for sure. He’s going to have bad games like everyone."
You can read his full quotes here.
Mourinho's goalkeeper situation hint
Jose Mourinho has hinted at a shift in the hierarchy of goalkeepers at Spurs.
The Portuguese opted to sign Joe Hart on a free transfer from Burnley earlier this summer to the surprise of many.
Michael Vorm departed the club after returning on a short-term deal, and it had at one stage looked like one of Brandon Austin or Alfie Whiteman would step up into the first-team.
Mourinho has now confirmed that Hart will provide competition for first-choice goalkeeper Hugo Lloris.
“Joe is one of the top goalkeepers of the last decade in the country. He started very early, playing in a big club like City and playing for the national team. 75 caps, so he has all the experience,” said the head coach.
“I think a negative episode a few years ago marked his career for the past three or four years, because it’s not easy to leave a champion club and then go into clubs of another dimension.
“So now he has the chance to be back to a club like us. Of course, Hugo is our captain. Hugo is the world champion captain. He’s a phenomenal goalkeeper and very important in our group but I think Joe will give him the hard competition that we need.”
Southgate makes Dier centre-back claim
Southgate believes Tottenham’s Eric Dier has the potential to become a top centre-back.
Southgate selected Dier as part of a 3-4-3 formation on Tuesday as England struggled to a goalless draw against Denmark in Copenhagen.
Although there were few positives to take from the result Southgate did single out Dier for praise.
“The options that we had to play a 4-3-3 tonight weren’t going to get through the 90 minutes and this was the best way to refresh the team but also to look at something different,” he said.
“Second half we started to accelerate the game with some of the changes where we felt we were in control. Putting Mason [Mount] into midfield made us more forward-thinking and Jack [Grealish] did the same.”
He went onto add: “Ainsley [Maitland-Niles] I thought did really well so I was very pleased with the players who made their debuts, I thought Conor Coady was excellent and Eric Dier has had two excellent games at centre-back for us, so the back three today was very solid.
“Dier can be a top-class centre back and he has shown what he is capable of. Still in a strong position in the group."
