{"id":840300,"date":"2026-03-21T08:37:16","date_gmt":"2026-03-21T08:37:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/840300\/"},"modified":"2026-03-21T08:37:16","modified_gmt":"2026-03-21T08:37:16","slug":"solanke-out-xavi-key-role-vicario-pain-the-tottenham-team-igor-tudor-must-pick-vs-forest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/840300\/","title":{"rendered":"Solanke out, Xavi key role, Vicario pain – The Tottenham team Igor Tudor must pick vs Forest"},"content":{"rendered":"

We asked our Tottenham Hotspur correspondents Alasdair Gold and Ryan Taylor to select the team Igor Tudor should pick against Nottingham Forest\"Xavi<\/p>\n

Xavi Simons will be looking to start for Tottenham Hotspur again in their Premier League clash with Nottingham Forest on Sunday<\/p>\n

Tottenham face Nottingham Forest in a huge Premier League relegation six-pointer on Sunday afternoon and Igor Tudor will need to get his team selection spot on.<\/p>\n

Spurs <\/a>welcome Vitor Pereira’s side in a massive encounter at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium with the two teams lying 16th and 17th in the table respectively and just a point apart. While the Lilywhites prepared for the game by beating Atletico Madrid in N17 on Wednesday night, but exiting the Champions League, the following evening Forest needed extra-time and penalties to edge past Midtjylland in Denmark.<\/p>\n

Now the two clubs must do battle domestically with Spurs looking to move four points clear of their visitors and Forest aiming to leapfrog the north London outfit.<\/p>\n

We asked our Tottenham reporters Alasdair Gold and Ryan Taylor to select the starting line-up Tudor <\/a>should pick for the big match.<\/p>\n

Alasdair Gold – Tottenham correspondent<\/p>\n

Tudor finally has some options in certain parts of the pitch, although we can perhaps assume that the likes of Lucas Bergvall, Destiny Udogie, Conor Gallagher and perhaps also Dominic Solanke<\/a> will only be fit for roles from the bench before using the international break to build up their fitness.<\/p>\n

Guglielmo Vicario<\/a> will play through the pain again one last time before heading off to get much-needed hernia surgery next week.<\/p>\n

Souza comes back into contention while there is also the possibility to play Micky van de Ven as the left-back, while Pedro Porro played as a right winger on Wednesday night with Radu Dragusin as the right-back.<\/p>\n

In midfield, Archie Gray and Pape Matar Sarr deserve to start again despite Joao Palhinha being back from concussion. Xavi Simons<\/a> needs to be on the pitch from the first whistle after finally impressing Tudor and creating chances aplenty for Spurs in their win over Atletico.<\/p>\n

Mathys Tel and Randal Kolo Muani also caught the eye while Richarlison is back from suspension and gets the chance to build on his impressive display at Anfield last weekend. I’d go for a 4-2-3-1 formation in order to get them all involved and some width with Solanke able to come off the bench hopefully as the game wears on.<\/p>\n

Gold’s team: <\/strong>Vicario; Porro, Romero, Van de Ven, Spence; Gray, Sarr; Kolo Muani, Xavi, Tel; Richarlison.<\/p>\n

Ryan Taylor – Sports reporter<\/p>\n

I would go for a 4-2-2-2 or a 4-4-2 with plenty of interchanging in the forward areas. Tottenham need to get at Nottingham Forest as I think they would be playing a dangerous game if they tried to tighten the game up and win by a single goal.<\/p>\n

Pedro Porro starts at right-back and I’d actually go with Kevin Danso and Cuti Romero as the centre-backs with Micky van de Ven at left-back. I can’t believe that’s not been tried more often this season, particularly in recent weeks when Van de Ven has struggled at the heart of defence.<\/p>\n

In midfield, Archie Gray and Pape Matar Sarr can provide energy in the centre of the park and I’d go with Mathys Tel and Xavi Simons as the two attacking midfielders\/wingers, though as mentioned above, I’d like to see them play with the freedom to interchange throughout the game.<\/p>\n

In attack, Richarlison is a must-pick following his Anfield heroics and Randal Kolo Muani looks good for a goal at the moment.<\/p>\n

Dominic Solanke would have started for me if he was conclusively fully fit but he’s evidently not, having missed Atletico Madrid and training on Friday. He would definitely be an option from the bench for me, however.<\/p>\n

Taylor’s team:<\/strong> Vicario; Porro, Danso, Romero, Van de Ven; Gray, Sarr; Simons, Tel; Richarlison, Kolo Muani.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"We asked our Tottenham Hotspur correspondents Alasdair Gold and Ryan Taylor to select the team Igor Tudor should…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":840301,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4100],"tags":[19817,94,22408,225132,79,2358,240203,16,15,12813],"class_list":["post-840300","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-dominic-solanke","tag-football","tag-guglielmo-vicario","tag-igor-tudor","tag-sports","tag-spurs","tag-tottenham-hotspur-vs-nottingham-forest","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-xavi-simons"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116266261208003127","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/840300","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=840300"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/840300\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/840301"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=840300"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=840300"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=840300"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}