Tottenham Hotspur’s first team didn’t quite manage to reach the dizzy heights of Burnley as we limped over the line in our last clash with Fulham, but back to back victories for the first time since November certainly shouldn’t be sniffed at.
Manager Jose Mourinho has already confirmed he will again be rotating the pack ahead of the next run of fixtures the club has which again sees us on the Sunday/Thursday schedule but you’d like to hope we will persist with the front three of Sonny, Harry and Bale for obvious reasons.
Palace themselves will make the trip with boosted spirits as they are on a run of three without defeat, and this weekend they should be able to welcome back Wilfried Zaha after his five game spell on the sidelines with a hamstring injury.
For us, the game still comes too early for Giovani Lo Celso but we may be able to welcome him back to the bench for the Europa game. Serge Aurier will likely face a late fitness test after his calf tightened up against Burnley, but otherwise we should be good to go.
Now we play the ‘which Spurs will turn up’ game…
TK ….There is one lesson from the past. It suggests what we should avoid in the future.
Niall D – “agree that we do have a Stadium second to none. And it is also a magnet for other sports and indeed functions and entertainment. However all this is not much use, if we can’t grace the pitch with the best players and compete in the best competitions on it”. That’s not actually true is it ? People didn’t want to hold a world title fight at the ground because of where Spurs were in the table. Nor was it a factor in the decision to hold rugby games there. There’s the ground as a football stadium, there’s the ground as a venue for other sports and entertainment. One does not affect the other.
Jod
Maybe I’m totally wrong here, but is this “not” Firstly a football stadium primarily for Tottenham to play premiership games in. All I want as a Spurs supporter is to have the best players at our club and top flight football at our club, perhaps I’m wrong.
Whilst those other sporting and non sporting occasions are indeed welcome, if only at least for the revenue.
For me compared to having Spurs playing in the CL and at the top of the Premiership, these other occasions would be very much secondary.
What I’m trying to say is that hopefully this will be a long trem gain for us, but right now and over the previous few seasons because of the new stadium our team has, IMO, suffered a bit from a lack of recruitment of top players.
We’re 10th in the league but guess what Celene Dion is playing here next week Brill.
Maybe it’s me.
I woke up this morning and gave thanks to God that he made Piers Morgan a rabid Gooner. May he never see the light.
TK…who’s he? lol! COYS
I second that TK, he is nothing more than a blight on society.
Thumbs up, TQ2!
I heard that the word “blighter” was invented for people like Piers Morgan. True blight on our species. Frigging Gooner.
Prawn sandwich addict.
Who is he, PY? he’s best mates and party hog with Prince Andrew. lol.
At last, now that we are picking the proper team, and playing “Spurs football” we are at last scoring goals and winning. It’s taken a long time but at last we are getting it right.
Maybe I’m totally wrong here but it seems to me holding other events at the stadium generates revenue that can be fed back into the football team. Revenue we otherwise would not have and generated regardless of what sort of season we have. Oh and I’d love to know how you divert borrowed money from spending on infrastructure to buying players without breaching FFP rules. Maybe its you ? definitely its you.
I’m so happy you’re well and back and active, Frank. But I’m worried at seeing such positivity from you. lol.
I agree, though, it’s always good to see the a Spurs team remembering that Spurs are best served hot. I, too, detest our team playing with cold Spurs. We are the HOTSpurs. The Tottenham HOTSpurs. We ride like a cavalry in hot pursuit of the opposing team and we play with HOTSpurs. We are not plodding and retreating foot plodders. That is getting it right.
We put to the sword the blighter Piers Morgans of the world.
Re Frank’s comments 100% agree good post.
TK a bit worried tho for Thurs nite, what do we do?
Do we go strong for the first half, hopefully score a couple then get Kane, Sonny offksi around 50 mins, do we play a “weaker team” with squad players in the hope of getting a result, leaving the big guns rested for the weekend.
Also on the back of many of our comments, I sort of don’t want to lose momentum.
Confused. Com.
Niall……I think we could start with Lamela, Bergwijn, Dele and Vinicius up top but it’s deeper midfield that concerns me, I don’t think Sissoko and Winks are good enough as a pair but we can’t afford to keep flogging Hojbjerg and I would rather save Ndombele for the gooner game if there is any doubt over his fitness. Back four is likely to be Dier plus one of Sanchez/Toby, Davies, and either Doherty or Tanganga. I have a feeling Aurier will be saved for Sunday but he could play in which case Doherty will play Sunday.
Thursday night? good question. one problem for me in trying to answer it is that I don’t know all that much about Dinamo Zagreb. I start with an assumption that THFC should be the better team, if for no other reason than our league is the better league, but on a given match…. well, we all know that anything can happen,
But, some thoughts: The combination of Kane, Bale, and Son is just starting to jell, and it looks to have immense potential to be amazing. I’d hate to separate them at this point, but I’d also hate for Kane or Bale to play a full 90 minutes. Whether they all should start, or whether some should come in a substitutes is beyond my pay scale at this point. Suffice it to say that any opportunity for them to find-tune their playing as a unit is welcomed. And, I was pleasantly surprised by how well Lucas Moura fit into this scheme of things at the no. 10 slot. the best we’ve seen of him at Spurs to date, and I’d like to see more of that. Unfortunately, there are limits on substitutions, so the answer of how to get them time together on the pitch while not pushing our luck on keeping them on the pitch too much–especially with the piers morgan gooners waiting at emirates for us. we want something approaching fresh legs to put the HOTSpurs to them. Nothing is more important each year to me than putting the Spurs and the sword to the Gooners. Winning a trophy and losing twice in a season to the Gooners wouldn’t be a good year for me. lol.
Yes, I know I’m waffling, but at least I’m laying out the quandary we all already know.
The other part of the quandary, obviously, is that we have other players who must get on the pitch if they are to be ready and able when called upon. What good will Bergwijn be if he hasn’t played. At Dele? The man is just coming into the player he was when he was brilliant. Should he play the no. 10 instead of Moura? There surely is a case to be made for that. And if Dele starts and disappoints, and we need to bring on Moura, that uses a substitution that we may regret if Bale or Kane needs to be subbed off. Difficult job, manager. LOL. I wish we had a better one. LOL.
Doherty? He played the best he hast last match. Start him again? Aurier always is an unknown. Looks good at times, but a time-bomb waiting to make an idiotic error in the box at just the wrong time.
Our most glaring weaknesses are well known and obvious–the back line is our Achilles heal and we desperately need to sell some beer at the brewery known as TH fooball stadium to pay for some fresh blood at the back. 4 King Ledley surely has work to be done to teach this lot. I’m not confident in any of them at this point.
As to GK? which Lloris will we see? the one who cannot pass the ball out to the midfield like a premier league GK? or the GK who captained the winning WC team? I’m less happy every month with Lloris. Back four and GK all need replacements. The front 3 or 4? They are world class. I’m not sure any club in the world has equal, although Bale could fold at any moment, I suppose.
There you have it. I don’t really have any obvious answers about which players to put on the pitch. But this I do know: Which ever group we put on the pitch should remember that we play with HOTSpurs. HOT Spurs. We don’t have bus drivers at a lorry stop, looking for a safe place to park the bus. If you want to stop the opposition from attacking us, we need to keep them terrified of our attack. A good defence requires a good and active attack. Football starts with getting goals and worrying the opposition about our attack. Defense is built on attack. Push the ball up. Attack with the ball. Scare the opponents.
To sit back is to surrender, and surrender is playing with Spurs that are cold.
So, set the team up to scare Zagreb. Beat them by multiple goals. Then we can relax on the return match. And a big attacking win on Thursday is just the psychological lift that will carry us into Emirates with the will to ride with HOTSpurs and vanquish the team of Piers Morgan’s Gooner idiots.
Lots to motive the next couple of matches. Sweep the board and put on a big push for the top 4. It’s in our hands. In in our feet. In spite of the burden of out ego maniac manager.
Sorry about the typos in my post. I’m glued to the keyboard writing a lecture about Plato’s story of the creation of the visible world by the demiurge in the Timaeus as a way to understand the relevance of mathematical theories in contemporary theories of modern physics. It surely is a curiosity that the leading theories in contemporary physics seem to be pure mathematics and say little to nothing about anything that can be observed. I’m winding down a laboratory I’ve been directing in cognitive science, so there is hope yet that I may regain sanity.
I come on here to release the madness that my work forces on me. I should have become a plumber. Einstein said he should have become a locksmith.
OUCH! my work is my way of taking my mind off of the important things in life, like worrying about how THFC is playing. We all do different things to relax. LOL.
Thanks for your patience m8s.
TQ some good suggestions there as this would keep those squad players on board.
But as with some of TK’s points, we are just starting to jell and much the same, would hate to split up a winning side, I thought many of our defence were just starting to get it together and Lloris did have a decent game. As TK says a quandary.
TK……..you will be interested to know that Piers Morgan has resigned from his morning TV job after Ofcom received over 41,000 complaints about his comments regarding the Duchess of Sussex. 🙂
I hadn’t heard this. LOL. thanks for the news. I remember when he was on CNN in America at 9pm five nights a week. what a git. and one night on CNN he went on about his love for Arsenal . As I’m writing this CNN just showed him storming off the set. Grossly offensive character. Arsenal and he deserve one another. The world deserves better.
I actually like it when the main men get 15-20 minutes at the end of these games as it maintains their match fitness and continues and strengthens the partnerships without wearing them out.
I agree, I like to see the main men kept sharp but not worn out. but there’s a danger in using up the substitutions in a match. never know when someone will turn an ankle and need to come off. Rotations are a tricky business. and a crucial business.