It’s a tasty Cup week for Tottenham Hotspur fans and having seen us book our place at Wembley against Brentford in the EFL Cup, on Sunday we are looking to progress through to the fourth round of the FA Cup with a trip to Marine FC’s Rossett Park.
With an incredibly packed fixture list in the first half of the campaign, manager Jose Mourinho has regularly rotated his first team group and I can only imagine we’ll see even more changes for this one, with a number of fringe players and youth used to get some minutes into their legs, whilst resting others.
This is a game we should be looking to win pretty comfortably, even if it’s likely to be a physical affair and we’ll have to dig in at points. Whatever team is put out, any other result simply won’t be acceptable.
We will be missing Gareth Bale and Giovani Lo Celso, but Matt Doherty’s suspension should be up for this one. Given the whack Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg took, I’d imagine he’ll be given this one off as well.
Just got to get the job done.
Previous Article:
Not An Easy Night For Spurs, But A Professional Display Dispatches Brentford – Match Stats
So Dele is a better footballer than, a Bin man, a plumber, and a supermarket worker, surprise surprise
Fek me. What game were you watching some you, we just beat a lot of part timers 5 – 0, as I said proves absolutely nothing.
I am however chuffed with young Devine.
Next round Draw.
Danny next thread please, some have lost it here.
Blimey Niall……..have you just received an outrageous tax demand or something? :- )
I am absolutely appalled to see that the players abandoned the José Mourinho style of play. Spurs with 75% of possession. JM must be ready to bench the lot. I cannot imagine how this will hurt his relationship with Dele Alli. See what happens when he’s on the pitch. Disgusting subordination.
I think it is far too early to come to any sort of conclusion regarding Dele Alli, based on this game. The only thing he will have proven yesterday is that he can boss a game against a team in the 8th tier. There’s still a lot of ground to make up between that and bossing a game at PL level.
The only thing we can say is that Dele took the game seriously and respected the occasion and the opposition. That itself is a positive, as Dele has sometimes been accused in the past of only playing hard when he wanted to. There is an improvement in attitude – which must be noted.
Beyond that, it’s a lot easier to look good when you are playing against vastly inferior footballers, and you are given time and space which you would never get in a PL game.
Going past defenders, picking a pass, having the time to process what is happening – all of that was made easier on the day because of who we were playing. Dele is just not going to get those conditions against better opposition.
So well done to the team for getting the job done, but I would use a lot of caution when using this game as a reason why some players deserve more playing time. It’s just not a very relevant body of work for what’s expected at PL level. At best, it’s a small confidence booster, but nothing more.
Posters have said what I agree with… Dele was effective and we lost a bit of momentum when he was subbed. Vinicus showed again he is a CF by following up all shots and efforts on goal, something dele used to do, and which we have not done in most PL games.
Jose deserves kudos in his manner of interviews prior to the game and choice of players, and their instructions to show respect and effort all 9 mins. COYS
Yes we won convincingly but you would expect that ?
Some good play but why keep dribbling into a packed defence ( Moura ) and Doherty ???
There was little wing play with service to Vinnie in the 2nd half limited .
Thought Fernandes had a good game .
How many times did we test their goalie esp in the 2nd half ?
As to Dele . He has sublime skills but was under little pressure and I felt often was a little arrogant and disrespectful to a group of amateur players . A strutting peacock comes to mind .
Yes he did play some good passes but also made several sloppy ones which against better sides would have resulted in a counter attack .
This match was not really a guide to where some of the players are at present but it was good to see some of the fringe players get to play .
The main thing about the game was it was a textbook case of using the squad properly. The team just strong enough and no stronger, the attitude right and Kane and Son rested. Vicnicius does look the part to me. As Ian Wright said Spurs need someone who can finish as a back up to Kane and he can finish. Its not about the odd spectacular goal like his third, its about being in the right place and putting away the tap ins like his first two. Bearing in mind we don’t normally see the best from a player coming in from abroad until the second season I’m hopeful. I feel sorry for Fernandes, he’s done nothing wrong and in the second half he seemed to be having more touches of the ball than anyone but he’s one foreign player too many. Also good to see some of the young players getting game time once the game was won, exactly what you want to develop them.
Dele is a very good player that showed us why he is a very good player. I know that he can play like that against the very best opposition… I’ve seen it! It’s not losing the plot Niall just to say this. We all know they were part-timers…
All I will say is that I really enjoyed the match and the occasion. And I feel no need to analyse anyone or anything. It was fun!
Yes HT
It was fun, the romance of the FA Cup. But as BS, Alan, and B108, said better than me, you can’t come to an appraisal of Dele on this game, some saw the old Dele back, some saw him as arrogant against a lower team. For people to judge him on this game I think is well wide of the mark.
I personally saw it as a nothing game, which we should’ve won and did.
But it didn’t give us any real insight to how our fringe players would do against say Stoke, or QPR, for example.
I am happy for Marine that they got their day in the sun.
Funnily enough, one of the questions asked of JM in his post match interview was why did we only beat them by 5 goals.
As I was trying to get across HT there was no benefit for us in this game really.
I do respect that you enjoyed it m8.
Each to their own
It was because it was Marine and not say Liverpool Niall, that I don’t feel the need to analyse any of the players or the play itself. Or indeed Dele… It’s why I could just sit back and enjoy it…
Moving on to the Villa match. (Just until the match- thread appears). It is touch and go as to whether this match will go ahead anyway. Due to their Covid outbreak.
But, there is talk that we could play the postponed Fulham match instead. Hopefully we do get to play one or the other. Because our fixture list will start to get ridiculous again, if not.
I think most missed the point I was making in reference to Dele, I wasn’t lauding his performance against Marine as such, the point I was making in my two posts relating to him is that we are missing creativity in our PL performances, it’s almost as if the players are ‘playing by numbers’ most of the time. We are missing what Eriksen gave us at his best, what Dele can offer when on his game, what the likes of Bruno Fernandes, Kevin De Bruyne, Edin Hazard (again in his pomp) provide to their sides. I honestly believe that had we been able to persuade Bruno to join us we would probably be sitting top of the PL now.
TQ …. We’re probably missing what Modric gave us, too. : – )
I got you TQ, and I agree with you.
To me it seems that Jose (with his actions and words) has managed to turn a good few supporters against Dele. Whereby they feel the need to have a dig at him, even when he has played well. And the very little that we have seen of him this season, I can’t personally say that he has been poor in any way. He’s certainly played better than Bale has so far… Or Lucas imo.
What is strange is that I’ve read supporters praise other players for their performance yesterday but then go on to say that we can’t really praise Dele because it was just Marine… Well why doesn’t that go for all of them apart from say, a 16 year old Devine?
“Well why doesn’t that go for all of them apart from say, a 16 year old Devine?”
Why exempt Devine? What’s the big deal that this 16 year old striker got a goal against the likes of this Marine club of amateurs? What the hey? He’s 16 and still hasn’t accomplished squat for us. Sell him to Marine and see if they’ll take him. They probably wouldn’t. After all, the only thing he’s accomplished was against them, and they’re a bunch of chumps. Lol.
There. Now Devine has received a proper introduction to the VS. I don’t understand why this underachiever hasn’t scored against a big club yet. A bit overrated if you ask me. (So you didn’t ask me, so what?)
HT……that’s why I said ‘most’ didn’t get it! :- )
Some fans seem to have a very short memory, we made it to the CL final with players of vision and creativity in the side, including Dele and Eriksen!
The only way we can know if Dele Alli’s play yesterday was indicative of his still having the ability he used to show regularly is to see him play against some of the elite clubs. It wasn’t his choice to have only an 8th level club to play against and it’s to his credit that he played seriously against them. I don’t get to decide when, or if, we will see him playing again against top competition in a Spurs jersey. Personally, I hope we do. At the least I’m curious to see if he still can play that way vs. Pool or Citeh.
It does seem very unfair to me, to now be criticising Dele for showing us what he has been recently criticised for not showing us. Hence, why I blame Jose for turning some supporters against him.
In other words, if he had not played well and not shown a hardworking and pro attitude on the day., then by all means, have a go at him.
I don’t get it. It seems that Dele can’t win, either way.
HT….”it seems that Dele can’t win, either way” very true but at the moment he is the flavour of the month regards fickle fans, it will be somebody else next, it always is!
Marmite, JM, is the that flavour every bloody hr, day, week etc haha. COYS
TQ2Spurs – “We are missing what Eriksen gave us at his best, what Dele can offer when on his game”, but that’s the problem isn’t it ? While Kane and Son seem to have a professionalism and dedication that means they not only maintain their form but improve it year on year a lot of others just don’t have that mentality. We saw it with Eriksen and maybe are now seeing it with Dele where they reach a point and it seems to just become too much for them. In that situation its not about carrying them and hoping they will somehow get back to what they were, its about finding the replacement or changing the shape of the team to best utilise the players we do have. In Dele’s case it may be he needs a change of scene to reinvigorate him, although that didn’t seem to work for Eriksen. But you’ve only got to look at what Hasenhüttl is getting out of Walker-Peters compared to what Pochettino and Mourinho were getting to see it sometimes works.
Jod….I’m really pleased for KWP, he is now with a club where he had the chance (and has taken it) to be their first choice RB, that was never going to be the case at Spurs.
As someone who has had a poor opinion of Dele here it was good to see him playing in the style of Maddison and Grealish even if it was against a team of part-timers. Now if he can reproduce that form consistently against higher class opponents there’s no doubt he would be a great asset to the club
Stan R….simply put, its exactly what we all want, then comes the BUT! only Dele himself can sort it out. COYS.
I’ll be quite surprised if Kane and Son are playing in a Spurs kit in two years time.
Dele himself cannot sort it out if JM refuses to let him do so.
Just a thought for those who think beating a lower league opponent is a foregone conclusion. Leeds, who many on this site were praising to the heavens after they played us, lost 3-0 to Crawley Town. Whoever you are playing the attitude has to be right.
It’s now official that we will play Fulham at home on Wed and not Villa.
It’s bad luck for Parkers team but good news for Spurs…
I agree jod. Which is why I said after the game respect to Marine. Because we did actually have to work quite hard for the 5-0 victory. It was comfortable because our players put a shift in and not just because they were part-timers.