Spurs under 23’s versus Swansea City: (match preview)

Following on from our under 23’s disappointing 1-0 defeat to Derby County in the PL2 last Sunday, Wayne Burnett’s development side will be hoping to overcome bottom of the table Swansea City when the two teams meet at Hotspur Way on Friday afternoon. Burnett’s sides challenging encounter with Derby at the weekend was an experience from which they will learn from, and they’ll be hoping to return to winnings ways against a Swansea side who are bang out of form. Managed by both Cameron Toshack and Gary Richards, the ‘Swans’ enjoyed a fine season in division one during the 2017/18 campaign where they finished in fourth place, after only winning promotion to the division the previous season. The club from South Wales have drawn four of their opening nine league games this season, losing five and winning none. Toshack and Richards winless side haven’t won a PL2 game since April, and the out of form ‘Swans’ have scored the fewest goals of anybody in the league this season (7). Although the championship club don’t have one of the best under 18 or 23 sides out of the category one clubs, Swansea still have some talented youngsters in their ranks, and the Welsh club have recruited well over recent seasons. Some of their standout players from the development side include former Liverpool youngster Yan Dhanda, former Ajax youngster Kees De Boer who operates as a midfielder, Scottish midfielder George Byers, and locally sourced winger Liam Cullen who we were once linked with a couple of seasons back. Our two meetings with Swansea in the PL2 last season were highly entertaining games, both of which ended in 2-2 draws. The home game which was played at Broadhall Way was most notable for a spectacular solo goal scored by our former player Keanan Bennetts. Once again Burnett’s side will be without the experienced duo of Shayon Harrison and Luke Amos to injury, whilst Cyprus international Anthony Georgiou remains a doubt as far as I am aware. 

This preview was written before our first teams Carabao cup game against West Ham on Wednesday which will likely feature a number of our young players due to fixture congestion. Therefore my lineup prediction for the Swansea game may include players who will have featured for the first team only a couple of days beforehand. Swansea are not as well structured as our last opponents Derby, I also doubt that they will included many if any overage players in their side for Fridays game in Enfield. Therefore I am expecting Burnett’s young side to return to winning ways. I will be at Hotspur Way on Friday afternoon, and my in-depth match report of that game shall be out by the following evening at the very latest.

My predicted lineup: (3-4-2-1) Whiteman, Eyoma, Tanganga (c), Dinzeyi, Hinds, Bowden, Oakley-Boothe, Reynolds, Duncan, Roles, Sterling.

Subs from: Glover, Brown, Marsh, Patterson, Richards.

Injured/unavailable: Shilow Tracey, Luke Amos, Shayon Harrison.

Doubtful: Anthony Georgiou and Charlie Freeman.

Previous meeting: 2-2.

My score prediction: Spurs 4-1.

My one to watch: Yan Dhanda. A skilful attacking midfielder who has overcome many injury setbacks during his short career. The 19 year old who joined Swansea from Liverpool in the summer, scored the winner with his first touch for their first team in their championship game against Sheffield United earlier on in the season. However, the skilful and clever Dhanda has struggled for game time in Graham Potter’s side, and the teenager has appeared on two occasions for the development side in the PL2 this season. It will be interesting to see how he gets on against us if he does play on Friday. Dhanda impressed against us for Liverpool last season. 

ICYMI: https://superhotspur.com/2018/10/29/spurs-under-23s-0-1-derby-county-match-report-2/