Fresh from our clinical, albeit not great, display against Sheffield United, the fixtures for Tottenham Hotspur have given us a small, but much needed break, and we aren’t in action again until next Monday where attentions again turn to a possible trip to Wembley.
Our next opponents are Championship team Wycombe Wanderers in the fourth round of the FA Cup and although the struggling side are bottom of the second tier table, the pattern this year for manager Jose Mourinho’s select XI has been to struggle against the strugglers.
As I type, the only injury I’m aware of is the long standing issue with Giovani Lo Celso and even if a knock or two was picked up in the last match, the week’s break here should do the trick, so it again becomes about how much Mourinho wants to tinker with an eye to the fixtures ahead.
Let’s be honest though, banana skin or not, this is another of those games fe4w won’t expect us to win and win comfortably at that. Let’s hope we’ve got our shooting boots on again.
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Clinical Spurs Take The Points From A Dogged United- Match Stats
It’s a tough time for Liverpool, they have United in the cup this weekend then they have to play us followed by Wet Spam who are in a good moment. It doesn’t look good for them, I wonder if they are suffering burnout from their last few seasons of high intensity football?
Plus of course they miss the influence of Van Dijk!
TQ, that is true, but that’s in their defense, but what about their attackers who are not scoring the much needed goals at the other end.
As Geof eluded to say, it might be a good time to play them. COYS
PY – regarding Ings, do you see him staying at Southampton forever? Where could he go which is both a step up for him in his career, and a place where he’d be guaranteed to start?
The only places (in the PL) which are clearly bigger clubs are Spurs, City, United, Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, and possibly Leicester and Everton. Wouldn’t he be a second fiddle at any of those clubs too? Every single one of those clubs has an established striker who would get the lion’s share of minutes ahead of Ings.
I think Ings is going to have to accept the idea that he can either be the main man at a smaller club, in which case staying where he is isn’t a bad idea, or accepting that any bigger club will have competition for places… It looks like he is refusing to sign a new contract, so his mind is set on moving on. Being a second fiddle seems on the cards wherever he’d go, so why not us?
Afternoon BS, I have no idea where he would go for CL other than Celtic or Rangers lol, I am in complete agreement about him being 2nd fiddle in any of the Top 6 Prem clubs, I was only using us as an example.
The only other clubs he would see, my opinion, as a step up is maybe Wolves or Wham, but even then Scum aren’t far behind them, to be perfectly honest I have no bloody idea.
You could be right though, that he will have accepted the idea, that to play at a Big 6 club he will have to compete for a place, because as you said at a smaller club he is guaranteed to be the main man. COYS
I know he’s injured right now, but Jimenez is a pretty big fish at Wolves… Not sure Ings would even start for them.
Would West Ham realistically be a step up from Southampton? If they were willing to break the bank for him in wages, I could see some appeal. But if Ings wants to experience European football, West Ham are no guarantee/no safer bets than Southampton…
BS, agree there with both comments regards Wolves or Wham, I was just trying lol!
Regards Scum you are right, it brings us back to what we are saying, to go to a Top 6 Club he will have to realise “I am going to have to compete for a place in the staring line up” so its in his court. COYS
I just think the Liverpool result is yet another reminder that this is a very weird season, and it puts our “dropped points” into perspective. We’re not the only ones dropping points, every team has had a wobble at some point so far. I think the important thing is going to be peaking at the right time.
Re the Ings discussion,
I was just wondering, with all the speculation re Harry Kane leaving in the summer.
I was just thinking perhaps that we could be preparing for this.
There is strong talk that Harry is gone this year what ever happens.
If that were to happen we could have our replacement already there.
I know we have Vinny.
Just throwing a stone in the water 😉
ND….the normal summer, Sky, Media make it up as you go bullshit, HK is leaving.
Our Arry isn’t going anywhere, but and its a big but, if he does it will not be to another Prem Club, imagine the hate and bile he would get, letting his own fans down, so not for me, as he is a home grown Spurs fan, maybe leave for a big Euro Club though if he feels so inclined.
If he stays at Spurs he will become our all time record goal scorer, thus a Total Legend remembered for all time.
Your ripples are very small haha. COYS
Hi PY…….yes, it’s hard to understand with their forward line-up but they have now gone 4 PL games and had over 80 shots on goal without scoring since their last goal!
BS don’t use our dropped points and use it into perspective that liverpool dropped points against smaller teams its OK if we do.
Also klopp couldn’t have an easier game next in the league to get on track, and yes its mighty spurs, who seem only to delighted to gift liverpool easy 3 points yet again, pool are weak and wounded, they are there for the taken just like last time and in CL. COYS
123, love your confidence.
Maybe, this is our time, L’Fools are ripe for the plucking, so why not us, after all they have a tough FA Cup fixture away a MU next on their list, just saying.
As for our gift of 3 easy points to them, they only got their win at shitfield because we made an error at the last minute, up until then they got very lucky on at least 3 occasions during the 2nd half, so the game, on another day would have been all over before they scored. COYS
123spurs – first of all, don’t tell me what I can and can’t do.
Second, if you want to bury yourself in your narrow-minded view of things, that’s your prerogative. For those curious enough to look around them, they’ll see that plenty of other big teams are dropping points.
I know it won’t suit your narrative that “it’s only us because of evil Jose” but frankly, I don’t care.
As far as the Liverpool game, and games against the “top 6 ” in general:
Arsenal have taken 6 points from a possible 15 against top 6 clubs this season. United, 3 points from 15. Chelsea, 2, from 15. While Arsenal and Chelsea are struggling, United are currently top despite this record vs the top 6.
At the other end of the spectrum, we’ve taken 10 from 15, City, 11 from 18 and Liverpool, 11 from 15.
This tells 2 things:
1. There is no reason why we can’t give Liverpool a good game, given that Jose has made us perform very well against big teams this year.
2. That result alone will mean very little in the end. It’s 1 game out of 38. Man U have a shameful return of 3 points in 5 games vs top 6 teams, yet top the table. Why? Because games against the top 6 weigh very little compared to the large majority of games vs. smaller teams.
Can we please just stop looking for silly stories where there are none?
“Can we please just stop looking for silly stories where there are none?”
But BS, that’s one of the major motives from coming on this site. As for looking for something where there are none–this cannot be known until the looking fails to find any, no?
Nightmare scenario for Leicester, and the reason why I was reluctant to call Leicester a title contender: Vardy needs surgery and will miss several weeks due to injury.
We’ll see how the team manage without him, but the drop-off to his replacement (Iheanacho) is steep.
It wouldn’t surprise me to see Leicester struggle for goals for a few weeks, and drop down the table some.
They have the option of utilising the TW to get them out of trouble …. maybe?
The loss of De Bruyne could have a similar consequence for City.
as could the loss of Kane for Spurs.
Except Kane isn’t injured, unlike the other 2…
BS & TQ, only a few moments ago I was thinking along the same lines as both of you, regards Vardy and De-Bruyne.
Lets be honest the way this seasons Prem is going, it is in our hands to take it by the scruff of the neck and try and make it happen, who knows it might just happen, am I dreaming? I don’t care am loving it, the dream that is. lol! COYS
As always the transfer talk has little to do with reality. Start of with the £150m Spurs are losing because of the ground being shut, others aren’t much better off. Its OK if you are City and can just pump in oil money but for the rest of us the enthusiasm for mid season transfers is likely to be muted. Then there is the foreign player rule which everyone seems to ignore. We have already hit the limits on this and what is the point in signing a player you can’t actually play ? The other thing is the players we are linked with. I’ve said before that you only buy a player for three reasons, he’s better than the players you have, he gives you something different that you think you need or he’s a young player you think you can develop. Look at the players we are linked with and ask if any of them fit any of those criteria.
And yet, just like in every window, I can just about guarantee some team will prove you wrong, jod.
BS
I think your comments re Liverpool are just about on the nail.
Hence the reason why I raised the score in an earlier post.
We came very close against them last time and but for a deflected goal and a last minute effort which should have been disallowed, we could’ve came away with something.
Yes there are those who will go on about their possession in that game.
But we set out that way, as you and I have said many times this season, it is wide open for about 7 teams this year and anyone of them has a decent shout for the title.
By way of a mount of games played we are really only at Christmas for a normal year, so plenty of football to be played.
What I do know is that we’re better off points wise than last year, and we’re still in the mix.
With the injuries sustained at Leicester and Man C also Liverpool,
we’ll see just how well they get on having to deal with those big profile injuries.
Not forgetting that’s what we had, and more, last year.
Kane, Sonny, Lloris all mainstays all injured.
But regardless it is an interesting year.
Very true, jod. I quite agree.
Jod makes some good points. Poch was reportedly declining the signing of players because they were not better than players we had. Going back to when Harry Redknapp left and Levy said he wanted the club to go in another direction…. Bringing through a younger manager AVB / Poch and young players to the 1st team, which saw HK10, Dele, Dier, Ericsen and others take their places in the squad.
Perhaps the days of spurs buying well established “mega players” at the peak (or just past) of their playing years, thus giving 2 or 3 years or so of useful service, will be rarely seen now, as witnessed with Bale. COYS
I should maybe add that if you have a thin squad you might sign a player who isn’t actually better simply because you think you are short and need reinforcements. But with the current squad I don’t think that’s an issue.
I would throw in another reason for signing players……that is to replace the sick notes who are rarely available to play, Lamela currently the obvious example.
TQ …. I doubt that would happen unless the unwanted players were shown the door first.
Hi Geof…..shouldn’t the fact that he is rarely available to play make him unwanted?
Hey TQ … I agree. I thought you meant we could bring in a replacement BEFORE moving the player on. But I realise that you didn’t mean that at all, so …. my bad! : – )
You can’t show a player the door. If he’s got a contract its got to be paid, if no one wants him or he doesn’t want to leave there’s absolutely nothing the club can do except keep paying him. I’m not sure why so many fans seem to struggle with this concept.
Jod…..are you not aware of the term ‘figure of speech’?
Anyway…..everyone can be shown the door, contract or otherwise, it’s just a case of how you achieve it in any particular circumstance.