Vital Spurs Debate Section

Match Thread – Can Spurs Ranieri Watford & Get Back To Winning Ways

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With Tottenham Hotspur’s clash against Southampton on Tuesday afternoon ultimately ending in disappointment as we only took a point despite our better control of the game, it’s all eyes to this Saturday’s game away to Watford.

As I type, our visit to Vicarage Road will continue to go ahead as planned despite other matches continuing to fall foul of Coronavirus outbreaks at clubs, but again, until the tests come back on Saturday morning, who manager Antonio Conte has available to select is pretty much an unknown.

We already know Giovani Lo Celso, Steven Bergwijn, Ryan Sessegnon and Cristian Romero will again be missing with their injuries, but we’ll have to wait until the official injury update to find out if anyone has joined them since the weekend.

As for Watford, they apparently have nine out themselves, so it means no reunion with former player Danny Rose who is now on their books.

Form, table position and almost everything else you can think of should suggest a solid three points for us here, but life is rarely that simple.

Watford

Win

Draw

Lose

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  • Allan says:

    HT Appreciate your comments esp the last 8 matches . However we have been huffing and puffing in the last 2 and they have not been pretty to watch .
    Perhaps the packed schedule and Covid are playing a big part in our performances ( similar to other clubs ? )
    Can Conte continue to produce these results with the squad he has since games are still coming thick and fast ?
    My comments relate to the poor transfer delings we have conducted with the associated waste of money .
    As I have mentioned in a previous thread I am optimistic for the future but the club really needs to get it’s transfer policy sorted in order for us to push on .

  • Hot Tottingham says:

    Hi Allan.

    I’m pleased that you referred to the “packed schedule” and “Covid”. And when I wrote about a busy and tough time for Spurs, well this has to be considered. We had 8 players sick with Covid. We have had a lot of matches in a short space of time. And yet we seemed to have coped with it all rather well, imo.

    As for the last two matches not looking so “pretty”, surely this is down to the oppositions tactics more so than Tottenhams failings. Watford simply parked the bus which was difficult to play through. And when the Saints went a man down, they did the same. Both of those teams defended with their entire team behind the ball and did it rather well. It was made tough for us.

    Spurs are not currently the great star team I would like them to be. And yes, we need some fresh blood. But I will once again point to what Conte has done in his short time. And that has made us very tough to beat. It was looking quite easy for us to get beat before he arrived.

    I have been saying for a long time now that I beleive we have a good squad of players. But that for whatever reasons, they have been poor as a unit. As a team. But for me, the improvement in the last 8 PL matches is plain to see and is reflected in the reults.

    Whatever hapeens in the January transfer window (even if we didn’t buy or sell a single soul) I expect us to see yet more improvement. I certainly don’t see us getting worse, under Conte.

    We have a tough few games ahead in the PL and Carabao cup. We may get knocked out of the cup and we may lose to the Gunners and Chelsea also in the PL. But that won’t fully define our season or mean that we have gone backwards. They are two very good teams, after all. But, I feel that we can beat them both. And if we do, then it’ll be more about the players we still have than it will any players that we may now buy. And of course, the boss, Conte! And I have confidence in them.

    I may be proved to be wrong to be so optomistic, of course. But I’m not wrong about not losing in the PL with Conte. And I’m not wrong about the improvements we have seen in a good few of our players and the team as a whole. Hence my positivity for now…

    Up the Spurs!

  • Niall D says:

    Hi HT,
    Trust you had a good new year m8, pretty good post there which outlined many of my own thoughts, from earlier threads, I too thought that we had a decent squad, at least on paper and again stated that there were those whom at one time I may have listed for transfer have now improved.
    I agree that Conte has improved our squad, the stats certainly back it up for distance covered, sprints etc, but there is, work to do and Rome wasn’t built in a day, just as a team will not become title winners in 1/2 a season, as I said in one of the last threads, we are in the conversation for top 4.
    Like many I was a bit annoyed around the Southampton game initially, but later came to realise that in many ways the ref robbed us, with decisions.
    Re yesterday’s game I got little chance to comment, busy defending myself against Jod’s comments.
    I thought we played pretty well, our chances were we’ll made and we had some good solid strikes against a “park the Bus” , team only heroics by their keeper stopped some good efforts going in.
    We much controlled the game and limited their chances to very little, I think one shot, this has happened time and again, with S’oton and Palace having very few chances, tho’I would say we didn’t dominate just as much.
    There are a few players, who need to go, as much for themselves as for Spurs.
    With Conte I can see a plan it will take time and as I said before it may not always be pretty, with our fitness improving so will our possession and chances and with a few, additions we could be in the mix this season for a trophy or a top 4/5.

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