Jose Mourinho: Tottenham's new manager has five early issues to deal with

Deciding who to play, who to phase out and who to keep on side - just some of Jose Mourinho's key early questions to answer at Tottenham.

Deciding what to do with Eriksen

Mourinho will have to decide what to do with Christian Eriksen. The 27-year-old Denmark attacking midfielder has been one of Spurs' best players across his 291 games for the club but he is out of contract next summer and widely expected to leave.

Eriksen has only started eight out of Spurs' 17 games this season, scoring two goals and setting up one other. Compare that to last season, when he started in 30 Premier League games - with an abdominal injury keeping him out of the starting XI for six of the other eight games.

The new Spurs manager has not always found a place in his first-choice XI for playmakers - such as Kaka at Real Madrid or Juan Mata at Chelsea. With Eriksen perhaps unlikely to be involved with Mourinho long term, will the new boss instead settle on a system that does not require him?

Or will he instead build his Spurs team around Eriksen and hope to persuade him to sign a new contract?

He will also need to decide shortly whether he wants to try to keep Belgium defenders Toby Alderweireld or Jan Vertonghen at the club, with both of their deals expiring in July too.

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Trying to keep Kane happy

One of Mourinho's major challenges could be keeping captain Harry Kane on board. The England striker became a Spurs regular, and in turn a world-class goalscorer, under Pochettino.

After the manager's sacking, he tweeted: "Gaffer. I'll be forever thankful to you for helping me achieve my dreams. We've had some amazing moments in the last five-and-a-half years that I will never forget. You were my manager but my friend as well and I thank you for that relationship. Good luck with your next chapter!"

Some 89% of Kane's career goals at club level have come under the Argentine (169 out of 190).

Kane will want to win major trophies during his career - he has not won any yet - so the temptation to leave could grow with his friend no longer in charge of the club. So Mourinho either needs to turn on the charm in a show of great man management - or help Kane to win some silverware.

If he fails to do either, Kane may find himself wanting to follow Pochettino wherever he goes next.

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Deciding whether Dier is a key man

A new manager often has entirely different ideas to the previous boss - so could some of the old regulars who have struggled for game time recently suddenly find themselves back in the team?

Holding midfielder Eric Dier may well find himself in favour under Mourinho, who reportedly tried to sign him for Manchester United.

In fact Pochettino thought Dier, who was raised in Portugal, was disrespectful when he had a friendly conversation in Portuguese with Mourinho after a game in 2016.

Dier has only played three Premier League games for Spurs this season, including Pochettino's last game against Sheffield United - when he was played out of position at centre-back. Another central midfielder, Victor Wanyama, who has managed just 113 minutes this season, may have similar hopes of finding favour again.

So too might Brazil forward Lucas Moura, the Champions League semi-final hat-trick hero against Ajax last season, who has only started four league games this season - with two of those coming back in August.

Gambling on a new McTominay or Adan

Mourinho is never afraid to make big decisions - sometimes ones that fly in the face of all logic. Some make sense in hindsight, others not so much.

For a league game against Malaga in December 2012, Mourinho dropped Real Madrid's legendary goalkeeper Iker Casillas, who was only 31 at the time, and instead played the relatively unremarkable Antonio Adan.

Adan also started the next game - but was sent off, so Casillas won his place back. A month later Casillas fractured his hand and when he had recovered he could not win his place back from new signing Diego Lopez, a keeper of a similar age who has never been considered world class.

Then at Manchester United he picked young midfielder Scott McTominay, who had only played 204 minutes in the Premier League all season, above £89m signing Paul Pogba for a Champions League knockout game against Sevilla in February 2018.

In hindsight that was one of his better decisions at United, with the 22-year-old now one of their most consistent players. That said, it is probably best not to mention him picking McTominay at centre-back the following season in a 3-1 defeat at West Ham.

So what similar surprise decisions could he make at Spurs? Michel Vorm as number one? Drop Harry Kane and play Irish teenager Troy Parrott instead? Harry Winks at the heart of defence? We may find out on Saturday.

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Keeping up his good record in opening games

Pochettino was much loved at Tottenham, so Mourinho is going to need a quick start to get fans on his side. They will want attacking football, but at the very least they will expect to move up the table from 14th position.

He has not lost his opening game at any club since his very first match as a manager, when Benfica lost to Boavista in September 2000.

Since then he has won his opening match with Porto, Chelsea - twice - and Manchester United, and drawn at the start of his time with Uniao de Leiria, Inter Milan (although they won on penalties) and Real Madrid.

However, this is the first time since taking over Porto in January 2002 that he has joined a club during a season.