Harry Kane played 180 minutes and Dele Alli 168 minutes for Tottenham Hotspur across the course of their 1-0 win against Arsenal in latest edition of the north London derby at Wembley, and their spirited 2-2 draw against Juventus in Turin in the first leg of their Champions League last 16 tie.
Following those exertions Spurs manager Mauricio Pochettino decided to only name the key duo on the substitutes’ bench when his team faced League One outfit Rochdale in the fifth round of the FA Cup at Spotland on Sunday.
The Argentine boss certainly would have been aware that it could prove to be a difficult match even though Keith Hill’s men currently lie at the bottom of England’s third tier, and with his side being taken to a replay by League Two club Newport County in the previous round.
However, Pochettino has a big squad full of quality players and he was willing to give those an opportunity to impress against Rochdale, while giving Kane and Alli a breather ahead of what is going to be a crucial end to the campaign.
The 45-year-old also wouldn’t have wanted a replay and another extra fixture, and with plenty of international experience in the starting XI with the likes of Toby Alderweireld, Danny Rose, Victor Wanyama, Lucas Moura, Moussa Sissoko, Son Heung-Min and Fernando Llorente, he wouldn’t have been wrong to expect a routine victory.
Despite the absence of Jan Vertonghen, Mousa Dembele, Christian Eriksen, Alli and Kane from the line-up, no one could accuse Pochettino of taking their League One opponents lightly in a competition that is renowned for shock upsets.
Some of those players that had an opportunity to impress failed to do so however – especially in the first half – and they found themselves 1-0 down at the break thanks to Ian Henderson’s goal on the stroke of half-time.
They did find a little more rhythm in the second half and quickly took control of proceedings, with January signing Lucas netting his first Tottenham goal when he latched on to Moussa Sissoko’s pass through the middle before confidently finishing past Josh Lillis.
Spurs failed to make another breakthrough in the next part of the match and with 19 minutes left on the clock, Pochettino decided to introduce Alli in place of Lucas, while Kane followed five minutes later as he replaced Llorente following another sub-standard display from the Spaniard.
It didn’t take long for the duo to make an impact, and when Alli was brought down in the area Kane smashed home the penalty kick two minutes from time to give the visitors what looked like a ticket through to the quarter-finals.
However, Rochdale weren’t finished there and Steven Davies’ last-gasp strike saw Rochdale grab a deserved draw, and a dream replay at Wembley.
While it was clear that Tottenham should have done better throughout the 90 minutes and should have been able to hold on once they took the lead in the 88th minute, Pochettino was criticised by some supporters on Twitter for not starting Kane and Alli from the start, wrapping the game up early and then taking them off in the second half.
Football of course doesn’t always work out like that however, and there would have been huge furore from those same supporters if Kane or Alli had picked up a serious injury against the League One outfit.
Pochettino got it right and it was some of those players that were given an opportunity in the XI that let themselves and the club down, rather than the failure to start the talismanic pair.
While having another match to play is certainly inconvenient given Spurs ambitions to finish in the top four and progress as far as they can in the latter stages of the Champions League, it is not a disaster and with the England duo once again on the substitutes’ bench for the replay against Rochdale at Wembley, they should have more than enough to see off the League One strugglers and set up a quarter-final tie with either Swansea City or Sheffield Wednesday.
