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Luton vs Spurs | How will Luton set up? Rob's analysis, Ben's one to watch...

Fri 06 October 2023, 12:15|Tottenham Hotspur

Club commentator Rob Daly and Ben Haines, presenter of Inside Spurs, The Warm Up and Review Show on SPURSPLAY, look ahead to our first competitive trip to Kenilworth Road in 31 years and first in the Premier League as we face Luton Town on Saturday (12.30pm).

Rob's analysis

We can expect a frenzied atmosphere at Kenilworth Road on Saturday. It felt a bit like a cup tie when Luton played Burnley on Tuesday night and, ultimately, they were very unlucky to lose that game. They will play with three at the back, high energy, they'll get in Spurs' faces, look to get the ball wide and cross into the penalty area, hope for knock downs and try to find a route to goal that way. In Carlton Morris, they have a really good, physical centre forward who can hold the ball up and bring others into play. While it's usually three at the back, they do have variation in attack. They started 3-4-3 the other day with Republic of Ireland international Chiedozie Ogbene getting a run of starts. He's really quick and deserves to be playing in the Premier League. I've seen a lot of him playing for the Republic of Ireland and he's really good at international level. However, they then switched back to 3-5-2 against Burnley and that worked as well, as Elijah Adebayo came on, played alongside Morris as a two-man strike force, that's also a threat. Alfie Doughty has wonderful set piece delivery and he'll be on every corner and free-kick if he starts.

For Spurs, bad news this week that Manor Solomon is going to be out for a while, meaning alongside Brennan Johnson and Ivan Perisic, Spurs are a bit lighter in attack than Ange Postecoglou would have liked. It was really good that Heung-Min Son and James Maddison were able to play their parts against Liverpool having gone into the game with issues. We know Luton will make this a dogged game and you need that quality on the ball, that vision. It feels like a different test. There might be a tactical similarity with Sheffield United, but they came to Spurs and sat off, I think Luton will try to be a bit more front foot and aggressive. Other than that, I can't envisage too many changes. I thought Destiny Udogie and Pedro Porro playing their inverted full-back roles were unbelievable against Liverpool. The other thing I want to pick out from that game is the link up between Yves Bissouma and Pape Matar Sarr. They've started seven games together now in the Premier League and won six of them. The way they linked up in midfield, the comfort to find each other in there and from that, they often stretch the opposition and play around the press.

Ben's one to watch

A big thing for us this week - Luton playing an extra game against Burnley, while we've had a week to recover, that's massive after the emotions of the win against Liverpool. Thinking about it, Liverpool could be the ideal dry run to facing Luton in terms of the way Luton might set up. When Liverpool went down to 10, they looked to hit us on the counter. When they went down to nine, it was basically attack vs defence, and we saw how tough it was to break them down, and how tough it is to break any team down that plays with three centre-backs. Off the back of that, the player I'm picking out for us this week is Pedro Porro. I think he'll be crucial, again, and I believe he'll be more and more important over the course of the season with the quality of his crossing. With teams defending so deep, it's crucial we get quality into the box, overlaps, so Pedro is key for us this week, as is Dejan Kulusevski.

For Luton, I'll go Marvelous Nakamba. Spurs are looking so good on the ball now and when we play quickly, one, two-touch through the middle, we can create dangerous opportunities. Nakamba will be crucial in terms of breaking things up for Luton and making sure their defence is screened - something Liverpool did so well when they went down to nine men. Let's not forget the saves Alisson made for Liverpool as well, so you'd have to think that Luton goalkeeper Thomas Kaminski will play an important role as well.