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Football London
Football London
Sport
Alasdair Gold

Tottenham team vs Motherwell confirmed: Djed Spence starts with talented young striker on bench

Antonio Conte has named his first starting line-up as Tottenham begin their preparations for the return of the Premier League season with a friendly against Motherwell.

The Spurs head coach has been working with his non-World Cup players this week and the visit of the Scottish Premiership side to the club's Hotspur Way marks the first of a couple of friendly matches. The north London club also host Ligue 1 side Nice at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on December 21, just five days before their Boxing Day Premier League return against Brentford.

Tottenham's most stocked area of the team is at right wing-back with Matt Doherty, Emerson Royal and Djed Spence all available and without international commitments. With Ryan Sessegnon on his way back from injury and training outdoors with Ivan Perisic still at the World Cup, the versatile Doherty starts of the left for Spurs with Spence on the right.

READ MORE: Tottenham's under the radar summer signing impressing and training with Conte's first team

With Conte facing a shortage of strikers with Harry Kane and Richarlison still in Qatar and Son Heung-min due to return next week after South Korea's exit from the World Cup, talented 17-year-old striker Will Lankshear gets a place on the bench. The teenager joined from Sheffield United in the summer in a deal that could eventually be worth £2.5m and has scored seven goals in 11 games since.

Ben Davies and Rodrigo Bentancur are going through rehabilitation after their World Cup injuries and there is no place in the squad either for Emerson, Clement Lenglet, Lucas Moura or Fraser Forster.

Brandon Austin starts in goal with what looks like a 3-5-2 ahead of him with Davinson Sanchez the experienced man in a back three with Japhet Tanganga and youngster Charlie Sayers. Up front Dejan Kulusevski and Bryan Gil lead the line with a young bench of academy players ready to come on later in the game.

Here is the team Antonio Conte has chosen:

Austin; Sanchez, Tanganga, Sayers; Spence, Bissouma, White, Skipp, Doherty; Kulusevski, Bryan. Substitutes: Whiteman, Mundle, Devine, Santiago, Paskotsi, John, Lanskshear, Donley, Dorrington, Robson

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