Following on from Tottenham Hotspur’s disappointing draw with Wolverhampton Wanderers, Wednesday evening’s Premier League clash sees us welcome Fulham to White Hart Lane.
With manager Jose Mourinho directly blaming the squad for the lack of attacking prowess and insisting that defending the one goal lead for 89 minutes was not his instruction, the only inevitable outcome against Fulham is that we will see a very attacking starting line up, who will play on the front foot and in a more Spurs like way – as the players won’t ignore him for a second time…would they?
On an injury front, Giovani Lo Celso is yet to be given a return date following his injury, but whatever Gareth Bale felt in the Crystal Palace clash that led to his non-appearance after the half time break, it’s expected he’ll be fine for this one, so should return to the substitutes bench.
Update – Bale has been ruled out for the next few weeks with a calf strain, so probably four or so matches.
Let’s hope we get ourselves back on track in this one as whilst Fulham won’t be a walk in the park, there should be an expectation that this is one we comfortably win.
Fulham
Win
Draw
Lose
Previous Article:
Advantage Spurs, Until We Sit Back & Defend – Match Stats
Will Scott Parker, Park-a-da-Bus? Will Jose Mourinho drive his bus straight through it?
Can Ndombele last more than an hour or so? Will Lamela get injured? Does Jose love Dele like a Father? Does Dele listen to him, like a good and faithful son?
Is Bale on a golf course somewhere? Are Vinicius and Lucas with him?
Can Harry and Son ever shine again? Will Hugo turn up drunk? Is Doing really Daring… Is the Pope a Catholic? Is Poch Argentinian? Is the Pope Argentinian too?
Too many questions. Not enough answers……..
I think I’ll get drunk today! I’ll celebrate a win before the match, just in case we lose?
In these strange times, I find it helps to think outside the box!
What am I on?!
Jod – that is not how Jose won titles at Chelsea. He was no where near as defensively minded as he is now. When his teams got ahead they tended to steadily wear teams down and the usually got a second goal. Look at how many goals they scored. Yes they were cautious at times but nothing like Spurs are now. He doesn’t want to take even the slightest risks anymore and we are seeing the results. Dull football that is not producing results.
HT
Love it m8, was like an episode of the two Ronnie’s” Phantom raspberry blower”
DH
I’m also nearly sure his Real Madrid team had the highest goal ratio of any top team for a season in recent history. But that ain’t helping us at present.
We have at present the two top Premiership goal scorers at our club, why not use em to score goals.
It has been said he sort of inherited that initial league winning Chelsea team, with Duff and Robben running down the wings, but he changed them to a more defensive unit the next season.
But not as bad as we are now.
Fulham game off. A relief for everyone particularly Mourinho. Having parked the bus and then throwing all his chosen players under it, Mourinho must be counting his blessings. If Fulham had beaten us, his job would surely have been under the microscope. He now has a chance to rethink before we meet the rampaging, attacking Leeds outfit on Saturday. Hopefully this game will provide some excitement and entertainment. Certainly, a relief to be Spurs free tonight after so much boring and miserable football. Roll on Saturday.
Match Postponed!
Apparently, Captain Hugo is drunk. And the rest have done a runner!
As for Fulham? They were well up for it, knowing we are shite!
I paid for a month of Amazon Prime to watch this!
Still, there are plenty of movies I can watch on Prime instead! Get some proper entertainment for me money!
Game is off.
Beat me to it HT…….couldn’t you have just got a 1 month free trial?
Well, we can’t use this game to continue the Jose debate since this it has now been postponed. Probably just as well as it will give time for some of our injured players to recover and perhaps for the Jose debate to cool down. The exchanges about Jose’s performance have become as acrimonious as those in the Brexit debate with the Jexiteers on one side and the Jose Remainers on the other. Let’s hope we also get some results and a deal in the new year that might put an end to hostilities
Oh well, look on the bright side, I’ll have time to cook myself a succulent rib-eye steak with all the trimmings instead of microwaving a pasta meal! 🙂
TQ… Initially I got a weeks trial for 99p to watch our 1st match on it this month. And I was gonna cancel after that. But I chose to keep it for a full month, take advantage of watching a few games and get some Free Prime Amazon deliveries for Xmas…
I can cancel it whenever I want…
Stan. The Jose debate may be on rest for the next couple of days. But when we get taught a footballing lesson by Leeds and we are outplayed and outscored by them, it’ll certainly be back into full swing.
Then, when we get beaten by the (Brentford) Nylons and embarrassed my the Marine Boys, there’ll be no real argument for the man to stay…
And we can get MP back before he signs on the dotted line and sells his soul to PSG!
Game cancelled as others have said, I’ll have to find something else to do tonight.
Hope everyone has a great New Year and I’ll raise a glass to all VS’ers – see you in 2021!
Happy New Year Danny et al, let’s face it, it has to be better than this past one eventually.
HT….I’ve heard that the deal to take Poch to PSG is all but done, I wouldn’t be against giving Thomas Tuchel a go, after all, he did pretty well at Dortmund with a similar playing style to Poch and is a proven winner which seems to carry a lot of weight with some.
Fek me TQ
If he’s so good why did PSG get rid.
Managing in France is like managing in Scotland there only are about 2 teams.
How many top European clubs have sacked Mourinho?
Niall, the owners of PSG expect a lot for the zillions they pump into the club, they won their CL group and are only 1 point off the top of their league but had 1 bad result losing at home to Lyon 0-1 which panicked the owners.
I too have a Amazon Prime but am pleased the decision to watch has been taken out my hands. I don’t think I could taken another night of Spurs funneling back, passing sideways and back and seeing Jose slumped in his seat looking grumpy. Yes , I would have watched but to turn off for a third time in disgust was a strong possibility. There is absolutely no excuse for this dreadful, dismal football with a strong defence, N’Dombele pulling the strings and two of the best strikers in the world. Unforgiveable Mourinho. We are a proud club with a great footballing history. If you do not like Spurs, go back in to retirement and look for a boring club…you have become a Sam Allardyce and an embarrassment.
TQ
It doesn’t matter how much they spent at PSG.
It doesnt automatically make the league good.
Arguably there are around 4 teams who can in reality win it.
The league doesn’t hold a candle to the prem.
Niall….there are only 3 or 4 teams likely to win the Spanish league, it used to be only 2, did that make Pep a poor manager?
TK – of course you can separate the mana and the manager. Some of the things being held against Jose Mourinho – boring football, negative tactics etc can all be said about someone like Maurizio Sarri too. Yet Sarri doesn’t get the quarter of the abuse thrown at him. Why? The man.
Once you start talking about insecurity etc – that has nothing to do with football. That just screams of a personal dislike of the man, which some fans will never overcome.
When I read HT’s words about him:
“We all know he is a proven success. But then he becomes all too soon a failure. A failure to stay put. His players quickly lose their motivation. And the supporters get bored and angry…”
The same could be said of just about any manager! MP was a success… until he wasn’t. Even he eventually wore out his welcome with some of the fan base and got the sack, under 5 years. Hazard the shell of his former self in his second season? How was Eriksen’s form under MP in the final months?
Again, it is merely a case of holding things against Jose only, when in fact they could be said of just about any manager after some time?
Is it merely a question of managers having a shelf life no matter what? Regardless of the manager, it seems to me that every single manager has to face the reality that his messages go stale after a while.
And for the managers who did last a long time, Alex Ferguson’s solution to this was just to change the players.
Again, I am all for holding Mourinho accountable while he’s here. But the amount of negativity and abuse he is getting on the back of a couple of disappointing results is disgusting to me. How fickle, entitled are we as a fan base?
TQ2Spurs – If you don’t like Mourinho’s personality, I doubt you’ll like Tuchel’s. Here’s an article about him which you might enjoy:
https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/55436136
Borussia Dortmund chief executive Hans-Joachim Watzke once said this about Tuchel: “Thomas is a difficult person, but a fantastic trainer.”
In the last few months he has publicly criticised his sporting director and PSG management for failing to back him, amongst other things.
He’s a gifted coach but a demanding one.
BS….it’s interesting that it seems it all started to go wrong after their defeat in the CL final, something familiar there!
While there appears to be some comparison to Jose in terms of temprament/demanding nature it seems his falling outs are more with the club hierachy over backing rather than the players which is quite different to Jose’s history.
The article does end with the following paragraph:
His time at PSG may be over but Tuchel’s reputation as a coach means he will be in demand over the next few weeks and months. There’s no doubt that one day he will manage in the Premier League.