Not exactly fresh from our stomping 7-2 victory over Maccabi Haifa on Thursday night, Tottenham Hotspur are back in action on Sunday as we make the trip to Old Trafford to face Manchester United.
We can again expect changes from manager Jose Mourinho given our ridiculous fixture list but for a variety of reasons, I imagine we’ll go pretty strong against United, especially as we are then going into the October international break and aren’t back in action until the 17th of the month.
We then just pray that international managers show a bit more sense than usual when it comes to our players.
Going into the break, getting that second Premier League win of the 2020/21 campaign, you’d have to acknowledge it as a very good start to the year given the minutes played and the progression we have made in Europe and the EFL Cup.
We’d have all taken that kind of start when we realised how cramped our fixtures would be over this period and we might even have Son Heung-Min back on the bench which would be a further boost.
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HT….I wouldn’t necessarily agree that Jose is just building for immediate success, although this is cleary desirable, apart from Hart and Bale the new signings are largely early to mid 20’s in age so do offer us the possibility of longer term success also.
That’s right TQ. But I’m thinking more about the younger players at the club that he is not using at all… Sessegnon being one and others loaned out or some still at the club…
But I did say that we won’t really know (for sure) until it’s all played out…
You know my views on Sessegnon HT, and I’m not so sure Clarke is going to make it at the highest level either. I fear they are both going to be expensive mistakes. I wish I could be more positive about them as I would love us to have some young precocious talent for the future.
TQ …. I agree with you there. If this team works I think the players could have a few seasons together.
EJ, where are you? We finally buy a striker and just after winning a match 7-2, and you are nowhere to be seen since before that match…..
I hope you are well….
Bu the way, I called Vinicius a “striker” and not CF, because that’s what the club are calling him… : – )
I’m not really that confident about tomorrow’s match. It often follows that we falter after a couple of very good results and usually when our fans start to get over-confident with the team…
But because I will never predict a Spurs loss. I’m gong for a 2-2 draw….. Better than nowt!
But, a Spurs win will do…..
Should’ve been ‘sign a striker’… Not buy….. We could, of course still get Josh for the cost of a pair of Nike trainers and a years supply of chip paper!
Hi HT – how you doing matey first of all, really appreciate the shout-out there – very kind your concern indeed!
Thursday night was really tired after being up from early and then watching the job being done finally LOL – yesterday was busy between keeping up with all the political/economic stuff as well as about us on Newsnow, etc and even though been reading everything on here – just not had a chance to post yet unfortunately!
Extremely happy with Vini obviously – just hope he can replicate last season’s form at Benfica especially, all be it in a much tougher set of circumstances (Prem, London/UK, etc) and going up against HK10 no less! Great to have him as cover for sure but even possibly playing up front regularly with HK10 dropping back and then having also Sonny and Bale added into the equation also – mouth watering indeed all of this especially with others like Lo Celso, Dele, Moura, Bergs, Lamela (and even N’Dombele from CM) to call upon also!
So much so that young Sessegnon and Clarke will surely have to go out on loan for sure – 2 mainish buys from last summer indeed – although Sess should and will eventually in future develop into a LB – here’s hoping a top one at that!
Would really, really love another CB – indeed cannot lie – Skriniar (just like with JM and the club in general apparently) tops the list but would take Rudiger – has a lot going for him (Prem proven, German international, big, tall, strong, quick, good anticipation, composed on the ball, etc, etc, etc and apparently got experience playing as a LCB especially in a 3) – so on a year’s loan (£100K apparenly a week similar to what Vert’s was on) with option to buy if at all possible – I’d take him with not too much concern really (shame about last Dec at THS/WHL with the alleged racism incident, but hopefully if he does come – put it all behind us) – only thing is just cannot fathom why FL is doing this – he’s their best CB IMHO and on top all the “agent” Rudiger talk over the summer with regards to Werner and Havertz, etc so finding all the current speculation as well as FL’s stance on him not playing very strange indeed!
Looking forward to the trimming of the squad finally – unfortunate but necessary – sell CCV and Rose obviously but also probably Gazzaniga as well especially given he takes up a foreigner spot as 3rd choice from the looks of things – we could easily bring in Whiteman or even more likely Austin (so send Whiteman out on loan) and still have good 3rd choice cover – Austin is up and coming, been selected for England U-21s before and was already loaned out last season for a while – so I’d give him a shot as 3rd choice now. Also by selling Gazza brings in vital funds and can’t see him being happy being 3rd choice, not after being 2nd choice last season and getting a good taste of regular action due to Hugo’s longish injury last Autumn/Winter!
Foyth appears to be going on loan with an option to buy – makes sense unfortunately as not in JM’s plans at all but reading we’re getting a loan fee of 1.5m Euros (his wages fully paid also of course), then a full 15m Euros (I’m assuming) buy option and possibly 3m Euros add-ons as well and you’d expect Levy to insert a sell on clause finally given he’s only 22 and bound to improve – sounds a decent deal all taken in especially as he only cost around 10m Euros 3 years ago and never really progressed – great to make a good potential profit especially when this is the case.
As for tomorrow’s game – they’re starting to get results together and have some great/amazing players (De Gea, Maguire, Bissaka, Pogba, De Beek, Fernandes, Greenwood, Rashford, Martial, etc) – so basically similar to us – great match potentially – hard to call – but given they are at home and without any major injury worries (that I know of at least – where as for us no Bale and most likely no Sonny and even no Vini LOL – so massive 3 omissions already) so for me they have the edge especially as further we have also already played 3 games in the last 7 days as well (so how fit and recovered are most of our main guys – too many to mention given this last week’s exertions) – thus I’m guessing all things considered to get a draw and a point would not be the worst result at all but if we could try and actually sneak 3 points like we did with Carabao qualification against Chelski on Tuesday night – would be the icing on this week’s cake for sure (forgetting that last min pen against Newcastle obviously LOL)!
What a result that would be going into the international break and then JM being able to work with quite a few players in that time especially the likes of : Bale, Sonny, Vini, Dele, N’Dombele, Lo Celso, Sissoko, Moura, Lamela, Davy, Hart, etc, etc, etc – that’s a lot of top talent to look to get fully fit and firing for the return of the Prem in 2 weeks …………!
Is anyone watching the Leeds v Man City game. One of the best games I’ve seen for a long time. That is how football should be played, not the mind numbing anti-football that Jose serves up
Got to admit – if everything goes as I wrote above we’ll actually have an exact 25 man squad of 3 GK’s and 22 outfielders with 17 foreigners technically so bang-on quota (at least as regards EL because of Davies, of course in Prem only 16 because here Davies counts as home-grown – I don’t make the bloody rules LOL)!
Lloris, Hart, Austin, Davy, Toby, Dier, Tanganga, Doherty, Aurier, Reguilon, Davies, Hojbjerg, N’Dombele, Winks, Sissoko, Fernandes, Lo Celso, Dele, Sonny, Bergs, Bale, Moura, Lamela, HK10, Vinicius!
Also lurking LOL are the likes of Cirkin, White and maybe even Fagan-Walcott on top!
If we got in a CB which I’d want – we’d have to make way for him so that either means Aurier goes or Fernandes pretty much has to be sent back because can’t see anyone else budging – thus this makes me now think that we’ll probably not make anymore signings this window and only concentrate on outgoings for the final 2 days.
The reason I want a CB is for 1 we very simply cannot even buy a clean sheet for starters – 7 games, not exactly against top opposition and still conceded in every single one! OF course the blame does not solely lie with the CB’s – but they are the main defensive unit apart from the GK so you have to question them at least in part when we keep leaking goals constantly and it’s been a problem for 2 year’s now at least – basically coinciding with Vert’s especially but Toby also falling away and off their peak, etc! Even with Dier converting there nothing has really changed so far – 1 can only hope that it does do eventually!
I’ll take it on the chin for now until January and see how we do in the coming 3 months but ideally we should have replaced Vert’s properly already this window and Toby ain’t getting any younger, fitter or better either – so longer term we need to start looking for a replacement possibly for him also!
Even Davy who I was praising the other day and saying was probably our best CB currently all things considered (age, experience, build, pace, etc) had a relative stinker against the Haifa and they were very poor overall – so worrying from Davy for sure – just hope once he gets going properly into this season and against much better opposition it will force him to be much more focused and on top of his game – we defo need him to discover some top form and finally come good regularly and show why we forked out £42m for him – which for us already and on a CB on top – is a humongous investment no less and indeed!
Anyway great window for sure – ridiculous almost – indeed if a CB had come in would have been as near to perfect as you could basically get – so not going to complain really – if a CB is needed which I think will be the case – we can address it fully and properly from January for sure!
For now roll-on and bring it on until then LOL!
EL show us where you mentioned in your post our new STR
EL, all your post are ifs an buts, covering the same thing, no need for a 2000 character post. Who are you trying to impress.
123 – are you really asking me to go back through weeks of threads to find my posts where I mentioned him just to prove I’m not lying – why the hell would I be lying for LOL?! I said he would be my no.1 target ideally but did not think we could afford him but still hoped it could/might happen somehow AND it only just bloody well did LOL!
123 at the moment in a large part it is all if’s and but’s – it’s the transfer window – just giving my views on such and some stuff can be repetitive I’ve accepted that already and as TQ said a while back ago – there’s only so much to discuss after all! Perhaps I’m being repetitive to re-enforce whatever point it is I’m making at that specific time!
We’ll be settled by Monday night 11pm and then a lot of the ifs and buts speculation will be sorted and thus gone- will be good in a lot ways – settle down to the footy pretty much 100% with what we have no distractions (which is now looking to be a pretty tasty squad I might add)!
BTW not trying to impress anyone at all – just giving my views like everyone else on here – indeed what would I get out of impressing anyone on here for example anyway?! Zilch LOL!
We desperately needed a centre forward, we’d like a left sided central defender. There’s no way Spurs will pay Milan what they are asking for Skriniar. Most likely scenario is we play with what we’ve got until the mid season window and then take another look. While a left sided CB would be useful I’m not convinced it would solve the defensive problems. To me its more about how we defend as a team, we are just too casual.
Now its about shipping out the players we want to go on loan and want to sell. Hopefully that will be done with same professionalism as the way we brought players in. One player I doubt we’ll be able to shift is Rose. No one seems interested and the player seems happy to just run down his contract, collect his money and walk away. A bit sad really when you remember the player he was.
Geof……if you are reading, looks like you are unlucky today as the City v Spurs and Birmingham v Chelsea womens games are both on TV here today so won’t be available on the FA Player. The Spurs game is available on BBC iPlayer, don’t know if you could use a VPN and connect through a UK server so you could access it?
The way I’m reading it with Jose’s apparent need for a new CB is that he may well want to switch to a back three this season. Either as the more regular option or at least as a viable alternative to mostly using 2 CB’s, as we have seen with Jose at Spurs, more often than not.
We have seen him experiment with 3 CB’s. He did this in pre-season. He has also started many games with 2 CB’s but with Davies making it a back three when in possession. With (Last season), Aurier playing mainly in an advanced position as an attacking wing back.
Now Jose has two very attack-minded and capable wing-backs in Reguilon and Doherty. And with those two, when playing in the same team, I can’t see Jose playing one sitting back and one more advanced, as we have so often seen with Davies and Aurier. (A kind of lopsided affair with the left and right backs).
Reguilon and Doherty when playing at their previous clubs have spent more time attacking than defending it would seem. I haven’t seen much of Reguilon but Doherty seemed to play very advanced, most of the time (last season) with Wolves. And, in the highlights I have watched with Reg at Real he reminded me of a young Bale when attacking the left-wing. (Bale as a winger but not LB).
Now, Skriniar at Inter, as I believe, had been mostly playing as the central one in a back three.
There has also been talk of Rudiger possibly coming in on loan from Chelsea as an alternative. To me these two (right-footed CB’s) are of a similar ilk and will not be seen as a Jan replacement, for sure. If anything, I believe that Jose is looking for a younger but still well experienced alternative to Toby. Not to replace any one of our existing CB’s for now, but as an alternative too them all as well as when making it a back 3…
But, if we fail to bring in either of these two or another CB, I believe that we could well see Davies playing as a left CB sometimes, with Reguilon playing as an advanced wing-back… Or, even Bale!?…
Jose will be looking to open up his options in this respect. And it’s not about replacing anyone as far as I believe, but more about an advance in his defensive tactics.
It is possible imo, that our defensive weaknesses have not been so much about individual players but more to do with Jose not having settled on his defence tactically and with not having an ideal balance. Not with this lopsided tactic that we have been seeing so much of… A strong central CB in a back three of CB’s, and two out and out wing backs being mainly advanced when in possession, could well readdress this tactical imbalance. We’ll see….
As for today.
Both Son and Dele are in the squad. But perhaps more interestingly, Vinicius is also travelling. I think Lo Celso may be injured.
I’ll pick a possible starting line-up anyway. But will Son play so soon after his injury. Is Dele Staying? (I do hope so). Should Ndombele play as our midfield creator or will Jose go for a more defensive set-up?
Hugo
Aurier Sanchez Dier Reguilon
Winks Hojbjerg
Lucas Dele? Son?
Kane
Up the Spurs!
I think Jod is right,we defend badly as a team. Time and again the back four is exposed due to a lack of cover/discipline in midfield. I think we need two holding midfield players otherwise the goals will continue to be leaked. It’s all down to Jose, so far he has shown that he is completely unable to solve the problem.
I also agree with jod… I’ve been saying something similar for a while now. It’s why I wrote all that in my long post this morning. About Jose needing more balance to his team and with his defensive tactics… I actually think Jose is looking to be very attack minded with some of the players he has brought in. But is also needing to strengthen his defence with more a certain style of player, rather than what we might see as much ‘better’ players than we already have… More tactical options. And a better balanced squad….
I’m looking forward to it panning out because I can see some very good stuff on the horizon… (If I’m to be positive). : – )
If we could get someone to nobble Fernandes (Bruno) before the game we might have a chance. :- )
Don’t ask me why but I have a feeling we are going to get something from the game today.