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.
Ah bo//ocks, Benfica were within 5 minutes of knocking the gooners out of the EL. 🙁
Surprised to see Leicester go out of the EL, we’ll find out our next opponents tomorrow morning.
So who would you like for us in the EL last 16 draw today?
Arsenal, Man U, Rangers? Ajax, AC Milan, Young Boys?
The draw starts at Midday, GMT.
HT….another question…does it matter who we draw? because we have to beat everyone we are drawn against to win this Cup, whether it be in the rounds or in the final.
My answer to the 6 you mentioned….Young Boys.
Lucky lucky Gooners and oh my Leicester. COYS
Actually, it’ll be the CL draw up first at 12pm. Followed by the EL draw.
I never mind who we draw in cups PY.
But some teams are surely preferable to others?
We’ll probably get the Gooners or MU. Just to spice it up a bit.
It doesn’t need to be 1 from those 6. 😉 I just couldn’t be bothered to mention all of them.
HT
That’s my only issue, I don’t particularly want us going to the a*se end of Europe on a Thursday nite then back for a Sunday Lunchtime game. Other than that I suppose you have to beat em all.
Still looking forward to the draw, and looking forward to Sundays game. COYS.
I remember not so long ago, the Young Boys (what a name!) giving us a scare in a CL qualifier at their place. They were 3-0 up in the first half hour or so!
They beat us 3-2. But it was alright in the end. We thrashed them 4-0 at home.
So when people talk of playing “pub teams” in these comps, they do forget that they can still cause upsets… It’s what cup comps are all about!
Crouchie scored a hat trick at WHL in that 4-0 win. And I think a young man named Bale set him up for at least 1 of his goals… 🙂
My preference would be for Dynamo Zagreb!
Dinamo Zagreb, not sure if that’s good or bad. United have AC Milan which could be a tough match. Maybe the most interesting tie is Slavia Prague (who beat Leicester) against Rangers.
Dinamo Zagreb!
One thing I found interesting after the Leicester defeat was the way Rodgers just shrugged it off, saying his priorities were top four and the FA Cup. So clearly not someone who believes all competitions are equal and you have to put out a strong team for every game no matter the consequences further down the road.
I think that might be because the Foxes are in an FA cup QF and currently third in the PL…
A not-so-strong team for one club is not the same as for all clubs, jod.
City putting out a weakened side will be much stronger than WBA putting out their back-ups.
And, I think that you tend to confuse the word strong with strongest.
Spurs can put out a strong team without Kane and Son in it for instance… But putting out Scarlett and Nile John for instance, instead of Kane or Son, may not be quite the same as Bale or Dele …
Hot Tottingham – “Spurs can put out a strong team without Kane and Son in it for instance”, I’d seriously question that. The evidence this season is that without those two we have very little firepower. Even with a decent amount of possession our chances of actually scoring goals is dramatically reduced. To me the only other natural goalscorer (someone who will score a lot of tap ins rather than the occasional worldie) we have is Vinicius and its too early to judge whether he will be up to the premier league.
So its Dynamo Zagreb next, happy with that, bring em on. COYS
So, Dele and Bale in the team (or even Vini and Lamela) would be equal to a 16 year-old Scarlett and a 17 year old John, in place of Son and Kane?
I think you have completely missed my point, jod. Never mind…
I named John and Scarlett because they have just been in a EL squad and played … From sitting alongside both Kane and Son and Bale on the bench… And it was those two kids that played as subs, and not Kane or Son…. And yet we were strong enough on the night, were we not?
Whilst I don’t know a great deal about Zagreb, I am aware that much like Ajax they do produce some good academy players some of whom we obtained a few years ago, I also see they are top of their leage and have a decent score sheet, these Croatian teams are decent at football. Im relatively happy though that it isn’t a massive traipse across Europe and a couple of hours will get the team there. Could be difficult enough away game but hopeful of a decent home result.
Hot Tottingham – “So, Dele and Bale in the team (or even Vini and Lamela) would be equal to a 16 year-old Scarlett and a 17 year old John, in place of Son and Kane?”, in terms of scoring goals against quality opposition ? The gap is nowhere near as wide as you seem to imagine, unfortunately. The whole point of football is to score goals, without that the rest becomes irrelevant. Of course if you start a game at home 4-1 ahead against the lowest ranked team left in the composition and then draw conclusions from the result then you’ll basically believe whatever you want to believe, the football equivalent of a Trump supporter. Even then 2 of the 4 goals came from Vinicius, who as I’ve already said is the only one I’d call a natural finisher outside Son and Kane.