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Tottenham predicted lineup vs Leeds

Tottenham Hotspur welcome Leeds United to the capital on Saturday afternoon for their final Premier League match before the World Cup.

Spurs come into the contest wounded after consecutive Premier League defeats in north London. Juande Ramos was in charge the last time Tottenham lost three straight home matches in the top flight (2008).

Here’s the XI Antonio Conte may deploy to avoid the home failures of the last manager to win a trophy with Spurs.

Rodrigo Bentancur

Rodrigo Bentancur has appeared in all 20 of Tottenham’s matches across all competitions this season / Catherine Steenkeste/GettyImages

GK: Hugo Lloris – Tottenham’s omnipresent number one has started the club’s previous 100 Premier League matches. He will surely make it 101 in a row this Saturday.

CB: Eric Dier – The only player to ever score a winning goal in a World Cup penalty shootout for England will be part of the squad that travels to Doha next week.

CB: Clement Lenglet – By Lenglet’s estimate: “Without the ball, we are the best team in terms of effort.” Although, Spurs haven’t kept a clean sheet since he made that comment last month.

CB: Ben Davies – The Wales international spent part of his childhood in Denmark, playing for Viborg’s youth team after his dad took a job working for Grundfos, one of the world’s most prolific pump manufacturers.

RWB: Emerson Royal – Within the last three weeks, Emerson has shanked a no-look pass straight out of play and belted a shot into the car park of Bournemouth’s Vitality Stadium. He remains a firm Conte favourite.

CM: Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg – Only Harry Kane (12) and Son Heung-min (five) have scored more goals for Spurs this season than Hojbjerg (four).

CM: Yves Bissouma – In a rare interview from Brighton’s owner, Tony Bloom admitted Bissouma’s sale last summer was “a big loss”. The midfielder is still working his way towards ensuring he is considered to be as valuable to his new employers.

CM: Rodrigo Bentancur – Despite his seemingly seamless adaptation to Premier League life, it wasn’t an instantaneous transition. “The speed, the rhythm, the intensity, the strength of the players,” Bentancur admitted. “It was a complete change from the level I was used to in Italy.”

LWB: Ivan Perisic – Each year Perisic sends equipment back to NK Omis, the club from a town of 15,000 inhabitants where he began his football career.

ST: Dejan Kulusevski – It took less than two minutes of his Premier League return to intricately tee up Kane’s opening goal against Liverpool last Sunday. After another substitute appearance in the week, Kulusevski could be in line for his first start since September.

ST: Harry Kane – He may be “really, really tired”, as his manager is keen to stress, but Kane will continue to make himself available for Conte to gratefully deploy his ever-present talisman.

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