3 weeks ago
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Thomas Frank will select his first Tottenham Hotspur starting line-up on Saturday as his side travel to Reading to kick off their pre-season friendlies.
The Dane spoke to the media for the first time on Friday afternoon and he confirmed that, as often is the case in the first few summer friendlies, he will select two different Spurs XIs for each half of the contest against their League One hosts. Frank revealed that Son Heung-min will captain one side in one half while Cristian Romero will captain the other, although he did not specify which of them will play in which period.
Of the three players coming back from serious injuries or surgery, Frank told football.london: "Maddison is the closest one. He is part-training with the team so that is very positive and obviously a key player. Dragusin and Kulusevski a little bit further I think."
Frank will have new £55milion signing Mohammed Kudus to call upon after his move from West Ham United while Koto Takai has only just been able to start training this week after receiving his work permit. However, the 20-year-old central defender was halfway through his J.League season at Kawasaki Frontale so should be the fittest and sharpest player in the squad. Luka Vuskovic will also be hoping to make his first appearance in a Tottenham shirt.
Archie Gray, Mathys Tel and Wilson Odobert were the latest to return to pre-season training this week following their exploits at the U21 European Championships last month so they might not be ready to play 45 minutes unless those tournament minutes are still in their legs.
We know it's nearly impossible to predict the team Frank will select to start a pre-season friendly, especially the first one. However, we are not one to back away from a challenge so let's see how many we get right or perhaps we end up predicting the second half side.
Here's our predicted Tottenham starting XI to face Reading on Saturday afternoon.
(4-2-3-1) Vicario; Porro, Danso, Van de Ven, Udogie; Bergvall, Bissouma; Johnson, Kudus, Son; Solanke.
The Morgan Gibbs-White mess, a departure from the club and Thomas Frank's first set of matches as Spurs boss - click here to listen to the latest episode of Gold & Guest Talk Tottenham! Or click here to watch on YouTube!
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