With a disappointing turn in our Premier League form of late, Tottenham Hotspur can give themselves a little distraction on Wednesday evening as we go into battle against Championship side Stoke City in the EFL Cup quarter final.
Travelling up to the Midlands probably won’t be a walk in the park for us as Stoke are in reasonably good form this year, sitting just outside the Play-Off spots as I type, but this is absolutely a game we should be looking to win to push us one step closer to a day out at Wembley.
Injury wise, it seems Giovani Lo Celso might be a doubt for this one, but in any event I would think manager Jose Mourinho would again take the opportunity to rotate folks around for this one.
Whatever team is put out should be good enough to take victory, even if it’s not entirely comfortable.
Then we can enjoy whatever version of Christmas we actually get, and then we do it all again for the second half of the season.
Stay safe folks and I wish you all a very Merry Christmas!
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From the “sublime” to the ridiculous. From top to dropping like a stone down the table in 9 days and worse to come with Man. C. and Villa with games in hand. I can just about cope with winning in a boring way but losing boringly is really hard to take. In fact, I have switched off in disgust on several occasions. Anyway, tomorrow is another chance to create some exciting football on a cold, windy, wet night in the Midlands. It will be interesting to see if Jose has forgiven Bergwijn, Aurier, Winks and Dele or will the humiliation continue. I will be so glad when he gets his usual pay off and we can start again with a progressive, modern, attacking coach who can motivate our star players and bring some joy to our football.
WW, hope you are well.
My question to your getting a new coach….Who?
Have a great Xmas mate. COYs
Why have good attacking players with pace, to pin opposition back, bit jose makes them sit back and catch them on counter, you can do this in certain games but not as a start of a game tactics
Whilst I’m in no way defending JM, particularly after last week.
We have just seen how, Poch’s mentor faired against Man U at the weekend, so much for his attacking style which much like Poch he refused to change even tho he was 3 or 4 down.
It ain’t much good losing stylishly either, just ask any Leeds fan.
I want a balance in our team, where we maybe hit around 8 or 10 shots on target, convert 2 or 3 but defend solidly when needed.
That’s all Santa.
Danny thanks for nearly all the threads and talking points this last year.
Merry Christmas to you and all.
That’s all Santa.
Just latching to this post so thanks Niall and thanks to every other Vital Spur who has expressed the same appreciation in this (and other threads) but simply put, if it wasn’t for you lot (particularly in light of everything that’s happened this year) I wouldn’t be here. I do hugely appreciate it!
Let’s hope this recent mini blip is just that and 2021 brings more smiles on absolutely every level possible, and not just football, after 2020 – the saving grace probably being the season so far apart from the last week.
Have a great Christmas everyone (whether a believer or not) and stay safe and sensible, as I’m sure you all will.
Thanks Danny for the threads and hope you have a good and happy festive period
With Brentford knocking out Newcastle, with a bit of luck in the draw our path to the final could potentially only consist of lower league teams.
Fingers crossed.
I love your optimism BS but we have to get past one of those lower league teams first and they have already knocked out 2 PL sides including Villa away. Even if we get past Stoke we will have to face either Brentford (who have also knocked out multiple PL sides), Man City, or one of Everton/United in the semis so at best only 1 in 3 chance of getting the weaker side.
Pep seems to love winning the league cup to provide a springboard for the rest of the season, they are going to be difficult to de-throne again this year and United are a different beast to the one we thrashed earlier. Everton are also proving difficult to beat so it doesn’t make a lot of difference which one gets through tonight.
BS, hope all is well with yourself and your family.
Regards your post, one step at a time eh! lets see if we can win in the Wet n Windy Potteries tonight before we even consider the draw. LOL!
Have a great Xmas mate.
Does anyone else here use cricfree?
TQ, to answer that question…what is cricfree lol! dynasaur awaiting answer lol! COYS
PY, it’s one of those ways of watching footie we aren’t supposed to mention, the videos haven’t played for me for over a week now and I was just wondering if anyone else has had the same problem.
OK TQ thanks I wont mention it, ssssh! COYS
Interesting to hear people’s thoughts on the team we should play tonight. Most people I have spoken to say we should go strong. Personally with the number of games coming up I think we should play closer to a Europa League squad with maybe one or two exceptions. Qualifying for The Champions League next season has to be the priority (I am sure Daniel Levey would agree) especially with the financial position football clubs are in at the moment. Yes a League Cup would be nice but winning it would not attract quality players to the club, nor would it keep players at the club who may wish to look elsewhere. Champions League football would. From what I hear Stoke are riddled with injuries and have no fit goalkeeper so come on Jose, trust your squad and let them off the leash. COYS
Donny, a thumbs up from me there. COYS
You’re right DH, following the summer transfer window we all (I think) agreed that we have a strong squad with decent cover for every position so it shouldn’t matter which 11 start this game. I think success will depend more on the intent shown by both the players and the manager.
Kieran Trippier has been suspended for 10 weeks and fined £70k for alleged betting rules infringements, I wonder if this as any connection to him being sold by the club?
Danny W… as posters have said … thanks for your efforts on match threads, keep them going 🙂
We need another tactical formation.. 4231 the system players know very well from poch days. This will give us back line / 2 cover in front, r & L back attacking runs strength in mf control, striker up top. So depending how the game is going jose can switch tactical and gain a surprise advantgage and win !
Stoke will attack .. or defend, and counter, I doubt they have the players who can do as liverpool & Leicester did
Jose has said we will take them seriously and I hope players do as well, no arrogant just turn up and play attitudes. COYS
It seems the Trippier issue relates to passing on information regarding his potential transfer to Atletico.
DH 100% re team selection.
It would give the squad players something to focus on and would largely rest the “Premier league”
team. Was listening to an item on Talk Sport re Gareth Bale, almost asking the question when is he going to set the Premier league alight.
It rightly said he was injured and hadnt played in around a year now he’s fit but not match fit, so when does he start playing, how about tonight for starters.
Looks like 4231 block!
Such a soft goal to give away
Oh well, fairly comfortable for a change.
Good win in the end, vinny can’t get a look in,
Anyone like the green Jersey?
I don’t mind it, better than some I’ve seen.
Well, that was another grim performance against a sadly, depleted Stoke team.Thank goodness I didn’t have to pay to go there. We scored three but the football was awful. Terrible passing…it’s as though the players have never met or trained together. Lots of backward passing (Winks). Nothing in midfield especially after Dele had been humiliated yet again. ( Bergwijn and Aurier will be humiliated now after poor performances recently.) Will Doherty be the next? Will he dare humiliate Bale?
We played in a ghastly, camouflage kit recently bought from Army Surplus Stores. At least, we couldn’t be seen by the opposition. (Actually we couldn’t be seen by our own players!) Jose looked bored to tears as usual with no motivational encouragement.
Total waste of yet another evening when hopes were high. So fed up with watching this boring rubbish.What an utter shambles we have become.
We did the job while resting some key players on a nasty evening in Stoke. And we dominated possession for a change and could have won by a larger margin if VAR had been operating. I must say there’s a Scrooge-like touch of Bah Humbug about your comment Wentworth.
PS Are you watching the Everton-Man U game. How about that for some grim performances?
Stan R, your post pretty spot on there mate, happy Xmas to you and your kin. COYS
The same to you Pompey and others here. Hope you and others of the faith had a Happy Chanukah too. Next year with some silverware please God!