Having started the New Year in the perfect fashion, Tottenham Hotspur had the chance to take a step closer to Wembley Stadium this week, with the EFL Cup semi-final clash against Brentford.
Welcoming the Championship side to White Hart Lane for the game, this could be the proverbial banana skin tie, as they cannot be underestimated and they are a good footballing side to boot. Having missed out on the Play-Off route last year, they sit in fourth place in the second tier table and have only lost three league games in 2020/21.
Given manager Jose Mourinho will make changes again for this one, the only real question on the lips of fans is which Spurs side will turn up?
If we are complacent, we could be in trouble. Play how we know we can and we should blow them away, but given how our standards have slipped at points this year, few would begrudge fans being a little nervous about this one.
For those not in the know. The match is on the BBC iPlayer, 7-45.
Team:
Lloris (C), Aurier, Sanchez, Dier, Reguilon, Hojbjerg, Sissoko, Ndombele, Lucas, Son, Kane.
Subs:
Hart Toby Davies Tanganga Winks White Dele Bergwijn Vinicius
Interesting team news that Sanchez is included !!
Considering there has been much criticism of his overall ability at defending and passing I thought Rodon might have started .
Is Rodon registered ?
Jose must see something in Sanchez considering the transfer talk whether true or otherwise .
I was positively impressed watching Sanchez for Colombia in South American matches. He seemed more certain of his positioning that he does much of the time recently with Spurs.
HT
Totally agree with your Brazil memories, I was just really getting into football around that time,
Loved Pelec, Jarsinio, Revelinio etc
But also really remember the Holland team of 74, loved them as much.
Unfortunately beaten by the workman like Germans.
So when kids now look at history all they will see is Brazil won in 1970 West Germany 1974.
Doesn’t tell the real story.
That’s what I was saying about team histories. Sad really.
I enjoyed that!
Manchester ? and Wembley, here we come!
Up the Spurs!
Job done. Could have been tricky if their goal had been given. Only 12 attempts on goal is a concern for me against inferior opposition but caution now rules OK.
Blimey Sissoko . One for the Hall of Fame ? Typical Sonny goal.
Brentford didn’t offer much and it was so pleasing to see us still pressing after going 2 -0 up .
Well done to the team and long may this style of play continue .
Hope we can do it in the final .
M y Man of the Match?
Pierre Tanguy Moussa-Dier. I thought he was fantastic!
And a big shout out to Son too….. And Harry and Hugo… And Jose.
And I’d like to thank Levy for making this all possible…… Did I mention God and me mum?!
Probably the best game Sissoko has played for us, Tanguy was very good too and didn’t appear to struggle at all playing the full 90. Aurier is a frustration for me, I lost count of the number of times the ball was played out wide to him where he could have put in a first time cross to 2 or 3 players in the box and every time he dwelt on the ball and ended up being surrounded and had to play backwards.
Fairly comfortable in the end but respect to Brentford for giving us a decent game.
I like Aurier. And I think he played well against Brentford’s very good left wing-back.
I would have preferred to be seeing KWP still at Spurs and ahead of Serge…. But Jose wanted him out and Doherty in….. I’m still not sure why…
HT
KWP has developed into a really useful full back .
Saw his performance vs Liverpool where he looked compact and tidy . Coped well with their fast attack esp Mane
I think Southampton feel that they got a good deal .
Allan…..I think it has worked out well for both so I don’t have any complaints.
A win is a win, and a job done by spurs. Sissoko the best goal of his life, and well done moussa, must have seen bale score a similar header and said I can do that 🙂
Brentford Nylons from years ago, I remember that as well… lol.
Anyway a cup final qualified for, and jose fulfilling part of his brief from Levy, now 25 April v one of the mancs.and Jose to do a master class of management on how to win a final and trophy. The 4231 shape seems to be getting better now. COYS
Good result
Decent performance.
We looked pretty slick at times.
For me though Sissoko got (mom) I thought either Hoj or N Dombers.
Brentford were lucky not to lose a player earlier in the game. They are a good team but a bit nieve at times.
Thought HK 10 was off the mark a bit tonite, can’t be great all the time.
Aurier did well, re Doherty, I still think the best is yet to come from him.
Spurs are on their way to Wembley. Well the year does end in a one.
You could see why Lucas isn’t getting many starts, don’t know what’s happened to him but didn’t offer any goal threat (either scoring or assisting) during his time on the pitch. Is it again down to having to play deeper to help out our defence?
Morning all, well we did it, we won, final here we come, though it will be a completely different prospect.
Sat there watching it as all of the rest of you, and it was as I expected, as I wrote about earlier, I/we went through every string of emotions over the whole 90mins, Jesus! I was knackered at the end lol!
Thought Sissoko had a good game, esp after him scoring, what a shock!
N’Dombele lasted the full 95mins, a shocker lol! but he had a good game as well.
Though most of them had good, controlling, don’t break a sweat games, the two above I believe stood out the most.
Now on to the next “tough” game v Marine. COYS
Workmanlike performance. Two good goals…neat Sissoko header from a great cross and super smash from Sonny. They were so unlucky with their VAR millimetre offside…could have made a difference. Still a lot of backwards and sideways passing. Love watching N’Dombele’s ball control…why do we not have another one or two with his close skills?
We still need the old Bale up front to complement Son and Kane ..so much pressure on those two to always score. Lucas and Bergwijn are just runners now and offer very little in scoring.
Transfer window is deadly quiet. Do we not need some strengthening anywhere? Right back for example?
Come on WW, give them a chance….the window has only been open 2 days! 🙂
We’ll that’s it, Sissoko has got his goal out of the way for the next 12 months :-).
Not a bad game, but not exactly dominant either. Just a controlled, professional performance.
On the positive side, we took the game seriously , got our result and we’re off to a final.
3 things I didn’t like so much:
1. TQ2Spurs mentioned Moura’s invisible night, and I will go further. I am on record on VS to say that “Ajax miracle” aside, I fail to see what Moura has given us in the last 2 or 3 years. Hugely disappointing return in terms of goals and assists, despite the talent.
Last night was yet another example of this. It’s obviously nice to have depth, but if the club decided that we have too many wide players at the club, he’d be the first one out for me. Nice guy, talented footballer, but I feel others offer more.
2. I don’t really like the fact that Reguilon started. I feel that he should have been punished more harshly after the whole Christmas dinner debacle. I understand that given the fixture congestion, we need everyone, and I also understand that we needed to take last night seriously – I understand all of the arguments in favour of playing him.
I just think that it sends a bad message. If you’re a good enough player that your team needs you to win, essentially you can behave like you want and the consequences will be limited. I felt he (and the 2 others) should have been suspended by the club for a month.
3. I don’t think it would have made a difference even if the goal had stood, given that we were clearly the better team, and the goal was ruled out by VAR anyways. But what do we have to do to defend set pieces correctly? It’s beyond the stage of ridiculous now.
As I said in another thread, defending set pieces are about 2 things: concentration and desire. We can’t keep giving away these chances like that. And that has nothing to do with tactics. Very disappointing to say the least, even if VAR came to the rescue in the end.
Lucas is mainly a defender now, good at chasing back and harassing opponents. His speed also provides a threat in breakaways. As such I still think he makes a useful contribution. Incidentally it was good to note that Jose was not happy with our ball retention and choice of passes. I agree. Still too many long punts upfield going nowhere and passes putting our man in trouble. Hopefully he will now work on this and we will go from strength to strength.
Stan, I hope your right with your thoughts/actions for the future by JM, am with you…here’s hoping. COYS
In Lucas, Lamela and Bergwijn we have 3 players who have decent pace, decent work rates but whose main contributions right now are being good team players and running and defending for the team.
All 3 are capable of the odd goal, but all 3 have failed to consistently score or assist for us (I did have higher hopes for Bergwijn at first, but his last few games/inconsistent finishing have raised some doubts).
In the end, it seems we have 3 players who are all playing the same role in the squad, with only Bale offering something different.
Again, I value our depth right now, but I feel lots of our financial resources are tied to 3 players who offer basically the same characteristics.
Would our squad be better served, or would we have better tactical flexibility, by having someone in the squad who is perhaps less keen as a runner/defender, but more of a goal threat?
Having said that, would such a player even get in a JM team? Not sure either.
BS….surely we have that in Dele but he doesn’t suit Jose’s playing style.
Dele in top form, I agree 100% is a goal threat.
But even before JM was appointed, Dele hadn’t been that goal threat in a while. Dele from 2015-2017, sure. Dele from 2018 onwards, I’m not so sure.
Regardless of Jose’s playing style, he has gone off the boil for a while now and the loss if form predates Jose.
I also question whether he can play out wide/across all 3 AM positions as the others can.
Apologies TQ. I had forgotten we always leave everything until the last minute blue cross deals. Levy currently emptying his piggy bank and counting the loose change.