Tottenham Hotspur put Premier League woes on the backburner again this midweek, and although we have a significant advantage over RZ Pellets WAC in our Europa League Round of 32 double header, the question on everyone’s lips is will we turn up and put in a performance that shows a reaction to our current woeful run of form.
For some, Wednesday’s early evening clash at White Hart Lane is about far more than simply the result and fans will be looking at manager Jose Mourinho to ‘fix’ the problems he claims he ‘cannot resolve’ as our first team haven’t suddenly become that bad overnight, even if the form guide shows five defeats in our last six league games.
Whilst performances were hardly perfect, the wheels on the early season optimism bus have well and truly fallen off and more and more fans will soon start looking behind us, as opposed to up the table, particularly if we don’t pick up some points sharpish.
Holding a 4-1 advantage from the first leg, our route to the next round shouldn’t be in question, but the reaction of the players and the performance they put in, could be very telling in terms of how the rest of the campaign will now go.
Oops. Vinny scores but what a cross from Dele. Time to bring on the young guns…please, please. We are 6-1 in front!!!!!
Bring on the kids, and not just for 5 minutes,
Missed the second, should be a confidence boost for him again and nice to see Dele get the assist.
Looks like the 31 year-old kid Bale is going on
Sissoko could have played Bale in for a second there, poor decision making again around the opposition box.
Mission accomplished, nice comfortable win for a change.
Dele…. superb man of the match. At last some youngsters came on. But why Lucas????. We have a rubbish coach even though this was a walk in the park. Still want to get rid of Mourinho…..he is so negative and defensive despite this win over a very average opposition. Good to see Dele and Bale showing Moanino what he has been missing. Will they get a game or will it be back to Bergwijn, Lucas and Lamela against Burnley. Watch this space.
Guess I was right, jose messed up this one by giving the youngsters scraps, 2 could at least got 30 minutes or even started, with jose in charge no youth will make it.
Overall deli bale and vinny look hot, maybe jose should look at these players for a run of games instead of his old and trusted failed 1st 11 with lucas, stevie B and lamela added to mix. Coys.
Can we win the EL. I think we can
Job done. Both Dele and Bale look like they are coming back to form which will make a difference. We have played more games than any other side in the top 5 European leagues, which is scary. It highlights that rotation isn’t an option its an absolute necessity. So the more players we have fit and on form the better. Vinicius scored another two goals without anyone seeming to notice. You can talk about his limitations, mainly hold up play because he just needs to get stronger to hold off the defender, but he scores goals. Jose was talking up Dane Scarlett after the game and I can see why. Its clear he sees Dane, like Skipp, as someone to fast track into the squad. Obviously not the greatest opposition but some definite positives from the game.
Well guys job done but against what opposition ?
Lovely goal from Dele but he was given the whole penalty area to score . . Would a Prem defence allow him the space ? Yes he put himself about which was good to see but jury still out for me .
I think Bale ( I have been critical ) could be an answer as he has guile , class and awareness of those around him which cannot be said for the dribblers who try and beat one man too many .
If we can keep Bale on the pitch I am reasonably optimistic of getting some reasonable results before the season ends . Won’t say anything ref Cissoco , Winks and Doherty as self evident .
Crikey, do I detect some positivity here? As I have been saying without anyone picking up on it, we are now playing some nice attacking football. Lamela, Dele and Bale showing some decent form for a change and this can only increase our attacking options.. All this augurs well for an easier run of games that could bring us back into the Premier mix and doing something in the Cups. So it’s not all gloom and doom, although if we revert to our old form in this period I will join you all in the wailing and gnashing of teeth.
Will refer you to my 2:04 post, I’m going to do Tarot readings next thread.
I think it was a decent result, “Wolfs” put up a decent fist of it, keeping it high tempo.
I think this what Dele, Vinny, and Bale need.
Re Doh I noticed a link starting to form between him and Bale, unfortunately the yellow card saw him taken off. Re the young players, If they’re good enough, they’ll get a chance.
Good result in a Euro game last 16 COYS.
Sunny, insKane, deli, Gareth Wales. All need to start next game
Yes a lot of positive energy and movement from our players, Dele brilliant goal… yes he had space and remember a few years ago…his goal v Palace where he skinned scot dann and buried the ball into the net.. Credit to dele for trying that effort, and 2 assists while under the pressure of jose and fans. He may be a luxury player in dmf / defence, but a vital player in attack that wins games. This will boost his confidence and others in the squad. Bale getting better by the game, vinnie trying as well, 2 goals for him tonight. COYS
Stan I’m glad you saw positive remarks or posts, Coz a lot of what I saw, was snide comments.
For me we won Dele got on the score sheet and added some assists, so did Bale and indeed Vinny.
The youngsters got a few minutes in a Spurs shirt, we won comfortably, but still for some it boils down to a hate Jose fest. Whilst I still want him to leave like many others, I’m enjoying tonight for what it was, we beat what was in front of us, comfortably and some of the usual starters had a night off plus some other got on the score sheet and got a much needed boost.
Still think we have our best(current) RCB and LCB in Tobs and Dier.
Niall…it’s difficult to agree wholeheartedly with you that Toby and Dier are our best CB pairing as we haven’t seen much of Rodon yet. Toby showed tonight that he is not the player he was when he first joined us he made a number of errors that would likely have been punished by better opposition.
Alan. I’d like to go back to what I was talking about on here earlier today.
I was saying that we have a lot of very talented players that I don’t see as average. Then Dele rocks up with a goal that no average player will ever come up with or even be expected to attempt, let alone pull off.
I know you called it a “lovely goal”but you then proceed to kind of belittle the effort, and his performance in general, as though having that bit of space made it easy for Dele. Apart from it being a skill that requires great timing and a some sharp technique, it is one that a player obviously needs the space to be able to attempt it in the first place.
Dele started the whole move… With a sharp pass out of defence into him, from a tight area, and under pressure. He plays a neat forward ball into the path of Lamela. He then ghosts into a bit of space outside the area, receives the ball from Bergwijn who’s out wide on the left. He takes a touch, opens up his body and lays it out wide to Matt D in space on the right. Dele then moves swiftly into the box, into a space in front of the Central Defenders, and gives a nod to MD for the 1-2. MD plays, what is a poor ball in and behind Dele’s run. And so he has to improvise. He flicks it up and… And boom!
As JJ said in the commentary. “Wow, absolutely sensational!”
The move? Well it was all about Dele making space (and the opportunity for himself) and for others around him, in the move. It took him 6 quick touches in all, in the whole move, from start to finish… Brilliant!
This is the Dele of old. The Dele I love! And I feel compelled to praise him… 😉
And… if we are to get ourselves out of the current poor showing in the PL and hopefully move in the direction that is up to near the top 4. We will need the likes of Dele and Bale (among others) to continue to improve and play as well as they have done in the past couple of games…
After all, apart from Son and Kane, they are the only two other attacking players we have that have proven goalscoring records and high assist numbers…. And they have clever, forward thinking and very creative footballing brains… Jose is damn lucky to have them both in his squad. And they are exactly what we have been missing and needing, when on the front foot…
TQ can’t disagree, it’s just from what I’ve seen of them I just think on balance between either of them and Dave, I’d rather Dave was out of the equation, as you say, don’t know enough about Rhodon yet to judge, but I did post that earlier m8 in another thread.
HT agreed re Dele goal, no matter who the opposition was, it was still a difficult chance to take on and score. I just hope this is a spring board for him, because he has it in him to be great again,hes young enough. Re the opposition I thought though they were out classed they played at a premiership tempo for the whole game, and just lacked that bit of finesse at times. Final 16 here we come COYS.
It was good to see both Bale and Dele performing in the way we’ve all been waiting for. Vinicius is the only back-up striker we’ve had for years who looks like he can score goals …. and does. This game would have done much for the confidence of all three of them. It’s now up to JM to give them the opportunity to be more involved in what lies ahead. There were several positives to take from this game …. the main one being that it kept me awake until the final whistle. Hopefully this was not just a temporary reprieve from ‘the great boredom’ but rather a base on which JM can turn things around. The Burnley match just got a whole lot more interesting!