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.
Manchester United...
Win
Draw
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Yes TQ… I think Hojbjerg could be the one to nobble Fernandes and maybe Pogba too. (Or Dier).
As long as they don’t nobble them in the box!
We have been very easy to play through at times which is why the recruitment of Hojbjerg was so welcome, he looked a bit nervy in his first few games but looked very solid and commanded the area in front of the centre backs on Thursday. I think it’s the wider areas we will need to improve now as we have been poor at defending high balls into the box from wide, and through set pieces, for some time.
There seems to be a good feeling at Spurs at the moment, expectation seems to be that we will turn over Man United but the reality has been for some years that we come up short away from home against the bigger teams especially when there is expectation on the team. I am not sure why we should expect anything different today especially with our leaky defence. So far Jose is nought from two away from home against the big teams, the team failed to turn up in either and in both cases Jose was out coached by novice managers and seemingly had no answer.
DH……I never have any expectation of getting anything at OT and can’t really explain why I have feeling we might get something from the game today, I will probably be wide of the mark but we can live in hope can’t we? :- )
TQ …. I subscribe to Optus Sport, which gives me every PL game and some WSL games, too. So tonight I’ll be watching …. Spurs at 19:30, Chelsea at 21:30 and Spurs/United at 23:30. A long night! Thanks for the info, mate, I really appreciate your concern. The WSL is going to an be awesome experience for all the Matildas players. I think we are capable of taking something from Old Trafford tonight.
TQ2Spurs – we must live in hope. You never know. In sport anything can happen.
As far as the PL goes, Spurs have been any worse than any team above or below us in the table. Apart from Villa that is, who have not yet conceded in their 2 games so far.
We have conceded 4 in 3 games. This is no worse than anyone above us bar Villa. However some of them have already played 4 PL matches….
In general this season, we have so far seen a lot of goals being scored in the PL. With the two at the top, (Foxes and Toffees) having already put away 12 each. But Everton have also conceded 5 in 4 and Leicester 4 in 3, the same as Spurs… City have conceded 7 in just 3 games!
I have a theory in this… Without the crowds, defences no longer have 10-20,000 nervy supporters behind the goals, screaming “He’s behind you!” … Could it be that all teams are really badly missing their “12th man”…
Silly thought? Maybe… But, someone’s gotta think outside the box. And it might as well be me… 🙂
Unfinished opening sentence!
Should’ve read;
As far as the PL goes, Spurs haven’t been any worse than any team above or below them in the table, in conceding goals
Great posts HT, JOD, etc – we defo need to defend much better as a unit overall no doubt whatsoever – very easy to lay the blame at the door of individual’s (I am guilty of this) and simply miss the bigger picture – would have been nice if JM could have worked on this over the break already – main problem to this though is most of our defensive players barring maybe Davy and Serge are away on international duty LOL (Doherty, Toby, Dier, Davies, Reguilon, even Tanganga with the U21s, etc)!
It’s not ridiculous to go with only 8 defender’s (basically 4CB’s, 2RB’s and 2 LB’s) in total especially as less than 3 months until the next window opens in January (and not the usual nearly 5 month wait with starting near the beginning of August) but ideally I would have liked a (L)CB but we’ve also still got the highly rated Cirkin and Fagan-Walcott if real needs be – could defo help cover even if only on and off the bench in the EL for example – see how it goes!
For today:
Lloris
Doherty Davy Dier Reguilon
Hoj Winks N’Dombele
Moura Lamela
HK10
Hoj and Winks can help cover for the marauding Doherty and Reguilon and thus try to pin their formidable attacking wide players back and then Lamela can drop back and work hard with N’Dombele to help protect the central midfield area – especially when we lose the ball on an attack and most likely our full/wing backs get caught up field, etc – allowing HK10 and especially Moura to remain as loose as possible further forwards – indeed remember Moura at OT 2 year’s ago now already and when you factor in the way HK10 is assisting on top – could certainly bear fruit!
Not much point risking the likes of Lo Celso and especially Sonny – better they miss 1 big match than then end up missing month’s of footy potentially (recovering/then retraining and regaining full fitness, etc) especially coming into late November and fully in December as I already alluded to earlier in the week given our fixture list in that time – playing 6 of the standard top 7/8 I believe in a straight long run – no letting up indeed!
Geof…..I will be multi-tasking with at least two screens! Leicester v West Ham @ 12 noon, Arsenal v Sheffield United @ 2.00pm and Manu v Spurs @ 4.30pm on screen 1 and Spurs ladies @ 12.30pm followed by Wasps v Exeter Chiefs rugby @ 3.00pm on screen 2. :- )
TQ2Spurs.
You’ll go blind!
No HT………it’s doing something else that makes you blind apparently. Will somebody please pass me my white stick! :- )
I’ve got a Labrador you can borrow!
HT
Don’t forget re conceded goals. At least 2 against us were dodgy pens.
1 at least “the Doherty one” would now not be given according to Football Focus.
And the least said about the Dier pen the better.
But they still count as goals but I would suggest that they (the 2 pens) were not down to bad defending.
Looks like we’re agreed on trying to get a settled defence.
Re the suggestion of Davies slotting in as LCB, did he not do that under Poch for a couple of matches and as I remember he was sound enough.
Hopefully we’ll be solid today and we don’t get J Moss as ref.
That is so….. Both with the dodgy pens and about Davies.
TQ …. Just think how fit we’ll be watching all these players running around!
Some good suggestions ref the starting line up and not risking Son and LO Celso
Concerned about our right flank however .
Also we must not be sloppy in possession and easily pass the ball to the opposition
Didn’t the first Maccabi goal come from a poor pass out of defence ?
Apparently Everton is the only team United have beaten more times than us !!!
If we can keep it tight and disciplined I expect a draw
Niall…..if you believe Roy Keane the Dier handball and resulting penalty was due to poor defending! :- )
Keane does like to be over the top and controversial with his comments. And loves a good row too, with his fellow pundits.
To me what is telling about Keane’s comments a lot of the time, is how the other guys in the studio look and behave… They are either laughing at Keane or looking on in disbelief. Or simply just ignoring his rants…
He’s a fool sometimes but he is quite entertaining.
Now the Foxes have conceded 7 in 4 games! Losing 0-3 to WHU…
What a contrast to their win over City! Nice to see the spammers taking points from them as you know they will be inconsistent themselves in the long run.
TQ
Take your point re Keane.
Mind you he has failed at just about every footballing job he has been given. Since playing.
But I can’t question his footballing achievements as a player.
Just his failure to see that mistakes can be made and his abrasive attitude can be irksome and probably has led to his early contract termination of contract at times.
Seen him smiling once, he must’ve had wind.
Just my opinion
Today’s winning team is:
Lloris (C), Aurier, Dier, Sanchez, Reguilon, Hojbjerg, Sissoko, Ndombele, Lamela, Son, Kane.
Subs: Hart Doherty Toby Davies Winks Dele Lucas