Antonio Conte and Tottenham are now ten days away from kicking off their 2022/23 Premier League campaign against Southampton. Following a very busy summer in N17, Spurs will be looking to demonstrate to everyone that they really do mean business when Saints travel to the capital.
Always imperative that they strengthened their squad this summer due to a lack of options in the run-in, Fabio Paratici has brought in six new faces and there's the possibility that a few more could follow. That in turn is going to hand Conte an almighty selection dilemma when it comes to both the Premier League and Champions League, although it a very good one to have and one the likes of Pep Guardiola and Jurgen Klopp have on a weekly basis at Manchester City and Liverpool.
Tottenham's strength in depth was there for all to see last Saturday in the 2-1 pre-season friendly win over Rangers. Conte took a total of 24 players with him to Ibrox, using 22 of them as Brandon Austin and Matt Doherty were the only two to unfortunately go without any game time in Glasgow.
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The boss did leave a few players back in the capital as injury forced Oliver Skipp and Ben Davies to miss out, while Troy Parrott, who has since sealed a season-long loan move to Preston, and Harvey White were also not present. Finally, Sergio Reguilon Tanguy Ndombele, Giovani Lo Celso and Harry Winks remained behind as they are not in the head coach's plans for the new season.
Providing that Skipp and Davies return to fitness in time for the Southampton game and there is no more transfer movement before then, Conte is going to have to omit a number of players as he forms his 20-man squad. Six will miss out on the squad altogether, something which is likely to be a regular occurrence in 2022/23 as Conte and Paratici look to build an impressive squad capable of competing on all four fronts. So who could miss out against Ralph Hasenhuttl's men?
As Fraser Forster has been brought in as Hugo Lloris' understudy following Pierluigi Gollini's exit, Austin will be the goalkeeper who is not selected against Saints. Conte then faces a call over his centre-backs with seven on the books at present.
Two are likely to miss out on the cut as a result, with Davinson Sanchez and Clement Lenglet leading the race to be selected over Joe Rodon and Japhet Tanganga as things stand. Pape Matar Sarr will be the favourite to join the latter duo out of the squad due to the four quality options ahead of him in the midfield pecking order.
Conte will be without Richarlison on the opening day due to his one-match suspension, meaning Bryan Gil, who would usually be the attacker most at risk of being left out, keeps his place in the matchday squad to ensure Spurs have another attacking option alongside Lucas Moura to pick from. A decisive few weeks for the Spaniard as the Lilywhites make their plans for the new campaign, an opportunity in the matchday party could just be what the youngster needs to demonstrate that he can play a part for the boss going forward providing that minutes on the pitch also come his way.
That could then spell bad news for one of the three right wing-backs as there is simply no need to have them all in the squad, especially as Lucas has operated there in pre-season as well. Richarlison's return the following week at Chelsea will then give Conte another dilemma in terms of his bench as he will have to choose whether to cut a defender or potentially Gil to accommodate the ex-Everton man.
Tough calls for the boss to make as he hands some players unwanted news, it's exactly what is needed in his quest to build a competitive Tottenham squad. That competition in the ranks could be the key to turning the new campaign into a very successful one for the club.
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