Vital Spurs Debate Section

Match Thread – Spurs Get A European Distraction Following Palace Woes

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It was a very bright and promising start to the 2021/22 campaign for Tottenham Hotspur – if we ignore the Pacos de Ferreira no show – , but the September international break well and truly stunted our momentum with a woeful showing at the weekend against Crystal Palace.

Reduced to ten men, on the wrong end of a 3-0 defeat and we only mustered one shot on target from a total of two attempts – for the first time ever, Harry Kane failed to register even an effort and I don’t believe he had a touch in their half across the 90 either.

But we take a Premier League break again this midweek as we are in Group G Europa Conference League action once more, making the trip to French Ligue 1 side, Rennes.

I have no idea what to expect from Rennes, and after the Palace showing, I’ve no idea what to expect from Spurs either, especially if Nuno Espirito Santo makes numerous changes again which I think we all expect.

With six league games played in their season, it seems Rennes have only won once with a 2-0 defeat to Reims earlier on Sunday, so you’d like to think form wise we are favourites and there has to be a strong reaction from the players to Saturday’s nonsense.

There has to be…

Rennes...

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  • Niall D says:

    Hi BS
    I think you are all getting the wrong end of the stick here.
    Currently, that is currently, Harry Kane, for me is not playing up to his usual standards.
    Now for me I feel there is a right to question why:
    He didn’t appear for training
    Or wasn’t available for the first two games of our season.
    Which means he should’ve been available for four games but he wasn’t.
    This isn’t about how he will do, I will say it for the 3rd or 4th time I hope he kicks on and starts scoring again, I hope, HOPE, that his head hasn’t been turned over the closed season and MAYBE this May have affected his performance for Spurs.
    It’s asking questions, and putting forward suggestions, I’ll take looking silly if he starts scoring.

  • BelgianSpur says:

    Niall – That much we can all agree on, I think. The sooner Kane starts scoring hat tricks for Spurs again, the sooner all of this speculation will go away. May the first hat trick come against Chelsea this weekend!

  • Niall D says:

    Agreed BS
    But as a site we all should have opinions and questions of differing perspectives.
    I may not agree with your opinion but I’m happy to debate and see the arguments put forward.
    It is right and proper that we should question signings, or performances and how we see them.
    For me if we don’t it would be a pretty boring site to be on.
    However I will agree that if HK gets his shooting boots on again I be very happy BTW he doesn’t need to score a hattrick I take a couple of assists. 😉

  • BelgianSpur says:

    I’m not opposed to a good debate, as I’m sure you know by now ;-). We agree on certain things, disagree on others, all in good fun – as long as things are kept respectful.

    I will say this: agree or disagree I have never had any issues with you in that respect. You stand your corner but you keep it clean and on topic.

  • Niall D says:

    Cheers BS
    We are rearly at odds anyways, but you say it as you see it m8.
    I can take that, for me you always put forward a good point for discussion whether I agree or not.
    Good luck chum 👍
    I suppose we’d best get back on topic, re Thursday, I would hope to see the likes of Sess, Gil, even N Dombers get a run out, I’m not getting into the importance of this trophy, that’s another talking point, but I do want squad players to gain experience and game time and (for me) this is the best competition to do this where we could see some quality break through into the main squad.

  • PompeyYid says:

    Well that was a fine debate, well argued all!

    Now Thursday’s game, for me its going to be tough, Rennes ain’t know push overs, but I believe we will beat them by the odd goal. COYS

  • BelgianSpur says:

    I agree, as I said earlier in the thread: perfect opportunity to experiment both with lineups and tactics, as “failure” in the competition would have very little consequences. I hope Nuno shows a bit of ambition for this one.

  • jod says:

    I don’t think Nuno really has a choice about experimenting on Thursday. With a game against Chelsea a few days later and so many players missing he has to go to the fringe players. I do hope we don’t get into a Mourinho style witch hunt with Nuno. He wasn’t my first choice as manager, I’d have gone with Potter. But anyone available was going to be a gamble and to me he is doing a good job given the problems he is having to deal with. The hire and fire policy with managers only really seems to work for Chelsea so the last thing I think we need is yet another new manager next season.

  • TQ2Spurs says:

    I think Rennes are considered the next strongest team in our group after us? This being the case even if we got nothing from the away leg with them due to the difficult circumstances we find ourselves in there will still be ample opportunity to make up for it over the remaing games.

  • wentworth says:

    https://tbrfootball.com/tottenham-fans-rave-over-dembele-strike-as-club-post-throwback-tweet/

    How we miss a decent, strong, attacking midfielder. Could N’Dombele step up? There is no one else.

  • TQ2Spurs says:

    Constantly being linked to Kessie so watching Milan at Anfield. He might be quality but is yet another defensive midfielder, how many do we need before we address the lack of a creative midfielder?

  • TQ2Spurs says:

    2 penalties given for handball in CL games in the first half, both very harsh. City given one after ball hits Leipzig players arm after being headed against it from about one yard by a City player. One given to Liverpool was saved from Salah so some karma there.

  • TQ2Spurs says:

    Just asking in case someone can answer……..we know the 3 players currently in Croatia aren’t allowed into the UK until they have quarantined for 10 days but rules are different from country to country. Is it possible the 3 players could have travelled from Croatia to France for tonight’s game and possibly even stayed there and travelled to the UK on Saturday as planned?

  • jod says:

    TQ2Spurs – If that had been possible I’m pretty sure that’s what we would have done, I suspect every time you change countries the quarantine period starts again. The whole thing is a nightmare with every country having its own rules and FIFA trying to pretend its business as usual even though they have zero influence on national governments. I’m just hoping something sensible is sorted out before the next international break.

  • TQ2Spurs says:

    You never know jod, sometimes the obvious can be easily overlooked, even in big organisations. having looked I believe France have the same quarantine rule as the UK for their red list countries which include Brazil.

  • Geofspurs says:

    Hi TQ/jod …. Given the current global situation it defies logic that any games that mean crossing borders are contemplated in the first place. Money rules!!

  • TQ2Spurs says:

    Hi Geof, yes it certainly does. I guess the game later is a bit of an awkward time for you?

  • Geofspurs says:

    Yes, TQ. I was going to stay up for it but I’ve decided to read for a while, go to sleep, and watch it when I wake up. It’s going to be interesting to see who Nuno selects from our depleted squad! Hope you enjoy the game …. because then I will. lol

  • PompeyYid says:

    Game day, who is up for it? not long now!
    To witness an excellent Spurs performance. COYS

  • TQ2Spurs says:

    Geof….I’m expecting to see Gil on the left, I liked what I saw on his previous outing because you could see him looking up, and picking out Kane in particular with his crosses, which is something we don’t see from others who just hit and hope it finds someone.

    I think we have enough quality to get a result but it’s a better performance than Saturday that I want to see, win, lose or draw. CB is my concern as it was when I expressed my concern at playing Tanganga there, I think I would prefer to see him at RB tonight, and he should play as he is not available on Sunday, and play one of our academy CB’s (Omole/Paskotsi) alongside Rodon. We could even go for a back 3 with Davies, Rodon and Tanganga/Paskotsi/Omole.

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