‘A possibility’: Antonio Conte says £125k-a-week player could start as winger for first time ever for Spurs on Wednesday

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Antonio Conte says he could start Ivan Perisic as a winger for the first ever for Tottenham Hotspur on Wednesday.

Tottenham face a big game during midweek as they travel to Old Trafford to face Erik Tan Hag’s Manchester United side.

Spurs picked up another three points on Saturday night as they beat the Toffees 2-0 in north London.

But Conte could now be forced to rotate his side with Dejan Kulusevski sidelined and Richarlison picking up a calf injury on Saturday evening. 

And the Italian has hinted that he could play the £125,000-a-week Perisic in a more advanced position.

Perisic could start as winger

Speaking to Football.London ahead of Wednesday’s clash, Conte said he is weighing up his options for the right-wing spot in his side. 

“Tomorrow Lucas [Moura] can be a possibility, [Bryan] Gil can be a possibility, Perisic like a striker in a three is a possibility. 

“We have another training session to decide. I prefer to play with a 3-4-3 but we’ll see.

“Yes [I would like to stick with 3-4-3], because in my idea we’ve worked a lot with this system. Lucas Moura is recovering from his injury, Gil is making progress and then I have Ivan Perisic who can play like a striker.” 

Conte was actually the manager who converted Perisic into a wing-back during his time at Inter Milan. The Croatian has excelled in the role ever since but was naturally a winger beforehand. 

Perisic is an extremely versatile player, who can play on either side as a winger or wing-back.

The Italian has used Perisic in the front-free briefly this season, usually while seeing out games.

It will be interesting to see if Conte is desperate to stick by his 3-4-3 system on Wednesday evening, which would likely mean that Yves Bissouma misses out once again.

With Lucas only just coming back from a lengthy spell on the sidelines, it could be make sense to play Perisic in a more advanced role.