FA CUP: Tottenham - Leicester City Preview January 24, 2015 23:00 White Hart Lane, London Pochettino aims for purpose and pace The Argentine is hoping his side play with more tempo after Wednesdays lethargic League Cup showing as they bid to reach the FA Cup fifth round for the first time since 2012 Tottenham manager Mauricio Pochettino will demand greater purpose and pace from his team when they host Leicester City in their FA Cup fourth round on Saturday. Pochettino was disappointed with the way Spurs went about creating chances in their 1-0 League Cup semi-final first-leg win against Sheffield United on Wednesday. But the Argentine refused to single out captain for the evening, Emmanuel Adebayor, as the eight-time FA Cup winners struggled to break down their League One opponents, before eventually finding a goal from the penalty spot. It was Tottenhams 36th match of the season - 12 more than Leicester have played - but energy and impetus in possession will be a must for Pochettino this weekend. We played a very slow tempo [against Sheffield United], Pochettino told reporters. When every player had the ball, they took three, four and five touches and after they pass the ball. This was the main difficulty in creating chances. We try to move in offensive situations by changing position. Harry [Kane] was on the left… we tried to move and create problems for the opponent’s back four. But it was a team problem, not for one player. I think in the second half we fixed this problem. We changed some positions and we improved our level and created some chances. Neither side have advanced past this stage of the competition since 2012, when Leicester were knocked out in the sixth round by Chelsea before Roberto Di Matteos side went on to thrash Tottenham 5-1 in the semi-finals on their way to lifting the Cup. Tottenham will enter the game as favourites, having won their previous three matches and beaten Leicester 2-1 at the King Power Stadium in their most recent meeting on Boxing Day. However, Leicester manager Nigel Pearson will be seeking a response to a disappointing home display against Stoke City last time out - as Bojan Krkic scored the only goal of the game to curtail a mini-revival following three wins in four. Unfortunately for us, when we went a goal behind, we didnt really create too many dangerous situations, Pearson told the media after the defeat. That’s probably the most disappointing thing for us because our results recently have been better and our performances have been pretty good but we didnt put them under enough pressure towards the end of the game. If Leicester are to improve on Saturday, the will have to do so without Kasper Schmeichel and Zoumana Bakayogo, who are struggling with foot and knee injuries respectively. Matty James will serve the second game of a three-match suspension, but Esteban Cambiasso and Dean Hammond, who scored when Leicester beat Tottenham 3-2 in the FA Cup in 2006, could be available. Record signing Andrej Kramaric could also be in line to make his first start. For Tottenham, Younes Kaboul will be available after overcoming his illness, but Erik Lamela (calf), Vlad Chiriches (back) and Federico Fazio (illness) are all doubts.
Posted on: Fri, 23 Jan 2015 10:39:37 +0000
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