Following on from Sunday’s hard-fought victory over Brighton and Hove Albion, Tottenham Hotspur’s eyes turned back to Europa League Group J action and Thursday’s clash with Ludogorets Razgrad.
With our slip up in the last Europa game, we are in second place in the group just three points behind Royal Antwerp but it’s very much all to play for with the ties that remain, and with no disrespect meant to Thursday’s opponents – they are pointless after two matches – so on paper, this should be a win for us, but not necessarily an easy one given they have scored one more goal during the Group stage so far.
With five fixtures to battle through this month, we can certainly expect manager Jose Mourinho to shuffle the pack up again, but unless any late injury changes things, I think Gareth Bale is guaranteed to start again to get more minutes under his belt and improve his form further.
All eyes to kick off…
Ludogorets...
Win
Draw
Lose
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Most Darude, But Gareth Bales Out Barry Scott’s Dirty Spurs Mistake – Match Stats
Talking of hardworking goalkeepers!?
In that 1st half, Hart could’ve sat down in his area, lit up a spliff, poured himself a glass of wine and watched the game on a laptop!
Well……I didn’t like to comment HT! lol
(Championship) Harry has one goal but should’ve scored 4 or 5!
Rubbish! Take him off, Jose!
Jose must have heard you HT. :- )
Well hindsight is always 20/20, but based on the score and the game so far, I’m sure Jose feels vindicated starting with a strong 11.
Well done HK200. Definitely need an upgrade on Davies, winsky and vinny might as well stayed in Portugal he is shocking
3-1
I’II take that.
Good result away in Europe 20 odd shots 9 on target.
As was Owen Hargreaves said on BT it was a good professional performance.
Bergs did fairly well when he came on.
Kane, Sony, Hoj, Bale did very well.
Roll on Sunday
Funny 123
I thought Davies did OK
Vinny probably needs to find his feet yet. He has had about an hours football with us.
As we saw with Kane and Sonny last week, it’s hard to come on on and hit the ground running.
Particularly when you’re replacing one of the best CF’s in the world.
Want to give him a bit more time and a few more matches.
On Winksy I’ll say nowt.
I agree Niall, you can’t judge Vinicius on one and a bit games, if you did you would have to say his one full game was decent enough.
LASK are doing us a favour, they are 1-0 up at Antwerp with just 5 or so minutes to go.
Yes TQ
A decent result that goes our way at Lask (see what I did there).
But it shows Lask may be no push over either.
Hopefully there are no niggles from tonight’s game and we will have a fully fit team for Sunday.
I don’t think anyone was subbed due to injury so we should be ok. I think we still have 2 home games and 1 away game in the group stage so would be very disappointed if we messed up and didn’t qualify for the knockout stages.
HT
I think Hart missed the goal as he was trying to get out of his smoking jacket and slippers at the time.
We talk about players being fit enough to play 2 games a week… As HT said they do need rest to recover and from various minor injuries sustained. Also the mental pressure of game after game has an effect on them, which affects their physical efforts. Hence players “burnout” as seen in poch’s management years. Players are not robots, drop in individual performances are to be expected.
Spurs got the job done last night, which is what was needed by jose, levy, and fans.
b108 …. I think the biggest mental pressure on all of the top players comes from the practical problems associated with how they will manage to spend all of the money they earn. It must be a nightmare for them! : – )
Geof…. There are also a good many wealth management companies that make a nice living from them as well! :- )
Big difference was the attitude, it wasn’t the greatest performance but were at them from the first minute and could have killed the game off early with better finishing. Jose mixed up his squad a bit more, Kane went off, Son came on. Its probably something he’s going to have to think about, what combinations work, what ones don’t. As I’ve said before, to me while its pretty easy with the front players putting balanced midfields together is much harder with the players we’ve got. Jose’s comments about Lo Celso after the game were interesting, I hadn’t realised he’d missed three pre seasons in a row. No wonder he’s not as fit as he should be. Hopefully the fitness will come because he’s a real talent. Interesting Winks played the whole game and was a bit more like the player that first played for Spurs and England. If Mourinho can get him back to playing his natural game rather than trying to play like Højbjerg he’ll be much more useful to the team.
I really get fed up with this “if a player can’t play twice a week …” rubbish. A player could play every day, just not at the same level. So if team X is playing once week and teams Y and Z are playing twice a week and no one has adequate back ups then as the season wears on team X will get closer to their maximum game on game than either team Y or Z. Which is how Leicester won the title.
In general I am very pleased with the away win, but to be perfectly honest there were times when I thought some of our passing was appalling, but that said a very good professional performance ensued, like OH said afterwards.
Congratulations to “Our Arry” you know the one who according to some a few years ago was only Championship standard, you have to laugh at that, 67 more goals lad to be Spurs all time record goal scorer, ahead of the Maestro Jimmy Greaves, and a Massive Spurs legend where Spurs fans in the future will be talking about you, well played Harry.
Now for WBA on Sunday. COYS
PY …. To be honest I’m still on the fence regarding Kane. He can score with his left foot, his right foot, and his head. He can hold the ball up. He can deliver an assist at will. He can pas the ball with uncanny accuracy. He works tirelessly in defence, midfield, and attack. But, apart from that, what does he offer?
Very good question there Geof, will have to go away and have a think lol! COYS
Exactly Geoff
Can he make a soufflé in a force 9 gale on a destroyer. Can he dance the Argentine Tango.
Can he do 501 in less tha 9 darts.
Jod and others re-playing twice a week 100%, it is the focus /mentality needed and the little strains, lost toenails (yuogh) cuts, tiredness from travel etc that might see a player at 80% rather than 100.
I also think it was clear last season with Leicester who were in and around top 4 until the Covid break.
But when it came back with the likes of ourselves at near full strength Leicester began to falter as they were getting the same niggles and injuries as the rest of us.
Wolves did well enough jogging out virtually the same 11 last year in both the PL and the EL.
As has been pointed out before, There doesn’t seem to be an “EL factor” affecting league form as much anymore. Is that a question of better player fitness, clubs rotating players better; it’s probably hard to pin it down to one thing. IT’s more likely a combination of factors.
Hopefully we can claim 3 good points on Sunday, because our run of league games after WBA is brutal.