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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BS …. I think most clubs have strengthened significantly over recent years and therefore have a greater capacity to perform better as a squad. That could be the difference you quite rightly allude to.
Yes, 3 points on Sunday would put us in a brilliant position just before the season really gets serious.
If we win at West Brom on Sunday, or should I say when we win, if other results, Everton lose, L’Pool lose or draw, Foxes lose or draw, we go top, as temporary as it may be, but still top over the International break period. COYS
PY – yes, going top may provide that extra bit of motivation for the players. What a big mood booster that would be.
PY…..Everton losing would mean Manu winning, no thanks, a draw would be good for me! :- )
Sorry PY
For a change I’m not with you. I’m with TQ a draw will do me.
Another thing not wishing the guy bad luck but if Poch does take the Man U job I hope he wins as many trophies with them as he did with us and gets 2 less finals.
Can’t agree re the Wolves and EL analogy actually they did slip up in form at the business end of the season, and arguably this could’ve been down to too many games at the start of the season (euro Qualifiers).
But as was said there are many factors involved international appearances etc..
TQ n ND….sorry old chaps that was my eff up, it should have said Everton to draw with MU, see what writing to fast and excitement does, brain n hands coordination, I think not lol!
As I have said before I really think Poch will not go to MU, way to many big ego’s amongst them, well! that my thought anyway. COYS
Sometimes initially
The Euro Qualifiers can give a team a little advantage, it boosts fitness after pre season when other teams are playing friendlies, a competitive game can help sharpness.
Last season I think this was what happened with Wolves, they had that early boost and, up to Christmas they were top 4 or 5, after the busy Christmas schedule their league form dropped away and funnily enough Leicester who didn’t have any Euro comps to worry about came into the top 3/4 for a while. Just my thoughts on it.
BelgianSpur – Wolves came away with nothing after getting themselves in a good position earlier in the season. Maybe that’s your idea of doing well enough. I’m pretty sure the Wolves manager and players wouldn’t agree.
This discussion regards squad size, amount games blah blah, I think it is all about the sides you play, the types of games they are, at the beginning all that could in general be easy, but then again it could all be really tough, so squad size and its standard matters, so it then comes down to the coach/manager to organise his rotation procedure correctly to suit his squad, I might be just prattling on here but eh! COYS
Good points there PY
But is your personal saying not.
COYS 4 ever 🙂
ND…I have no idea what my personal is saying, whether its not or yeah! lol! COYS
jod – I think every Wolves fan, the board, the manager would have signed up for a 7th place finish and a decent run in the EL (EL quarters) before the season started.
You say Wolves came away with nothing – what exactly did you think was a decent return for a club with the 13th biggest budget in the PL?
By all indicators, they over performed despite having to deal with many games and little rotation. What more did you expect of them? What more was reasonable to expect?
“he 2019–20 season saw EspÃrito Santo’s team achieve a second consecutive seventh place finish in the Premier League (with a record points total for Wolves in the Premier League of 59), and reach the quarter-finals of the UEFA Europa League, the club’s best such performance since being finalists in 1971–72. On 13 September 2020, his contract was extended until summer 2023.”
By all objective standards, a record-breaking season for them.
I would call their performance remarkable – and I think the Wolves manager and players would 100% agree. How could anyone logically argue otherwise?