I really don't think a 4-4-2 would work. We already play a high line and commit tons of players forward, we don't have forwards that work hard in defence bar Adebayor but he's not producing enough offensively to be played (as of now at least), so playing with two strikers would leave us far too open against opposing teams. Defoe and Soldado don't complement each other and will really just get in each other's way. It's been quite a while since we've had a solid pairing of strikers that worked for each other (Keane + Berbatov).

At defence, I'd go with (fully fit) Kaboul Vertonghen as CBs and Walker Rose as FBs. Against tough teams I'd go with Sandro Capoue Dembele, weaker teams, Sandro Dembele Eriksen. Paulinho has not impressed me thus far into his Spurs career. He has flashes of brilliance, able to one-touch pass, has a great engine, very committed but Dembele has all of those qualities as well. The only thing that sets Paulinho apart is his desire to get in the box, however, he's failed to trouble keepers when he's gotten a chance.

Defoe is a good striker but doesn't provide for others when he's not scoring and the problem is much more apparent when the team can't play together well enough. End result becomes nobody gets enough service. Lamela is kind of a mystery so far, I'm not convinced he's the kind of winger we need, seems more like a number 10 to be honest. He's got good feet and likes to run at people but doesn't have the pace to beat good full backs. For now, I'd pick a front line of Lamela Soldado Lennon.

It's extremely hard to decide who to play right now, there are still a bunch of players who aren't 100% fit yet making selection even more tricky.

I actually liked the 4-4-1-1 we were using against United with Paulinho almost as a number 10 but not quite. The midfield was packed and we dominated United there. Limited their chances and would've basically nullified them had Danny Rose been playing; Vertonghen had trouble with Valencia all day long and that was the only weak point we had, almost all their attacks went through Valencia started off with a Rooney cross-field. I have no doubt we would've easily won that game had we had a proper LB there.

The 4-3-3 is what AVB is going for but right now I'd rather we just stick to a 4-4-1-1 which looks like it works.

Walker Kaboul Vertonghen Rose
Lennon Dembele Sandro Lamela
Eriksen
Soldado

Dembele Sandro double pivot did wonders last year, we played like a title winning side (in terms of points gained) when those two were together (which unfortunately was rare with Sandro gone all of second half of the season, I'm pretty sure we'd have got top four had Sandro not suffered that long-term knee injury :/). Solid pairing there leaves Eriksen with little defensive responsibility so he can focus on supplying Soldado. I'd like to see this formation