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"I just felt the movement of Defoe and Keane would give their two central defenders more problems than the big man. That was the key factor.
"We had to pass the ball and get lots of movement in and around their two strong centre-halves who like to head the ball. I felt if we could get enough movement and get Robbie into those little holes where he can play clever passes we could open them up and that's how it went.
"I've never had such a difficult time picking a team. The goalkeeper, Gomes, came in at Preston and was fantastic. I stayed with Cudicini, but that wasn't an easy decision either.
"Overall it was a good performance and I was well pleased. I thought we played well, created lots of chances and to be fair, it could have been all over by half-time, we missed some great opportunities to finish it off then. Every time we went forward we looked dangerous.
"It's been a great week for us with the only downside the injury to Defoe. He dislocated his finger and they couldn't get it back in. He did it when he went through on goal and fell over. It was painful for him."
Owen Coyle was the first to admit Spurs were worthy winners but felt the scoreline was harsh on the Clarets. "There's no doubt Robbie Keane is a world class player on his day and his finishing was clinical," Coyle said of Spurs' four goal hero.
"But we didn't deserve to lose by the scoreline we did. We are not hiding behind the fact that Tottenham put us to the sword with their finishing but it wasn't as one sided as the scoreline would suggest.
"Without wanting to sound paranoid there were a couple of big decisions that went against us in the game. For me Fletcher was clearly onside to make the game 1-1 and if I am wrong with that I will be the first to phone the referee and hold my hands up, although he has been guided by his assistants.
"These margins are small, particularly for us, a small town club coming to these big clubs and not getting the big decisions. That's happened to us a few times now and for the second goal Stephen Jordan was clearly tripped, whether deliberately or not, coming back into the box to defend. He's had to pick himself up and he was the one the ball deflected off to make it 2-0.
"I don't want to hide from the fact that Tottenham were good in spells, but these are big moments for us. We know that the margins are minimal at this level and we have come off on the wrong side of these decisions again."
Coyle did admit that we had to improve and added: "We have to defend better, home or away we can't be giving goals up like that. We were punished and cruelly so, but that's the nature of football.
"I am hurt by that scoreline because our fans have been magnificent again and given a lot of support and a lot of expense to get here and I expect us to defend better as a team.
"We will probably come in for a bit of criticism but we will pick ourselves up and go again and look to make a real go of it. The scoreline is not easy to take but I just have to pick them up as always and look to move on."