Spurs approach their third game of the 2022/23 season looking to build on an unbeaten start to the campaign with a tricky home fixture against Wolves on Saturday, 12.30pm kick-off BST.
Mixed news on the injury front sees Oliver Skipp closing in on a return to outdoor training following his foot injury, but this match still comes too soon for him. Moreover, Cristian Romero will be ruled out following an abductor injury he sustained against Chelsea. It is likely that Sanchez will deputise for him, just as he did in his absence last season. In brighter news, Clement Lenglet returns to contention after recovering from an abductor injury of his own.
In contrast to ourselves, our opponents have made a stuttering start to this season, losing at Leeds on the opening day and being held to a 0-0 at home to Fulham last weekend. They will still be without Raul Jimenez, and possibly João Moutinho, who may have to settle for a place on the bench following his return to training.
Out of the 8 matches between the two teams since Wolves’ return to the Premiership in 2018, we’ve beaten them 4 times, whilst they’ve beaten us 3 times in the same time-frame, with all of those wins coming on our turf. Nevertheless, this is arguably the strongest Spurs side they will have faced over the past 4 years, and Conte will be looking for a response to Sunday’s subdued performance from the boys come Saturday afternoon. A tough game, but so is every Premiership fixture – COYS!
this is the sort of match that Spurs must win. Must win if this team is to have what any of us would consider a successful season. No excuses.
Disagree. The only ‘must win’ games are cup games or games that will determine the title at the end of the season. It’s far too early in the season to consider this a ‘must win’.. We can lose this and still win the title with so many games left.
Having said that, it’s pretty obvious that it’s a game we don’t want to drop any points in. I’m sure we all expect a nice win. My prediction is a win that will be good for our GD …. 5 -1.
João Moutinho, by the way.
Good midfielder, Joäo Moutinho. Our good luck if he isn’t able to play. Shifty little midfielder, he knows how to play.
Shyt. João. Sloppy typing. My bad.
Losing Romero for the next few weeks is a very tough blow to our defensive strength. Besides being an incredible defender he brings an element of grit and aggression which really toughens our Spurs up.I know he sometimes makes rash decisions (like pulling hair) but I believe having that intimidation factor is worth it. I read somewhere that the injury he suffered was do to the penalty he took from Cucurella and that the hair tug was something of retribution for that action.
I saw Cucurella and Romero altercations earlier in the game and at the 2 final corners it was 6 of one half a dozen of the other, pushing / pulling . Which is probably the view of mike dean (VAR) and the ref.
No, in hindsight Mike Dean says he should have told Taylor to view the monitor but you are right, Cucurella was blocking Romero and not even bothering about the ball.
Apparently the reports of Romero’s injury are overstated and he will only be out for a couple of weeks at the most.
The whole point of having a squad is you can handle players being missing, if we can’t then the squad isn’t good enough. I’ll reserve judgement until after the games Romero misses.
Last season Wolves and Brighton’s managers both outthought Conte and won at White Hart Lane. A very similar approach to Tuchel last game. It will be interesting to see what happens this time.
I’m with you in calling THFC stadium WHL. I’d like it to be the New WHL. Traditions shouldn’t be tossed aside just in the service of selling naming rights. Our names matter in a strange ontological way. Names provide a sense of identity. WHL is a clear reference to our tradition.
Romero missing out is tough because Lenglet is out as well. This means having to start the likes of Sanchez, who is a liability.
Even when he is having a decent game overall, he’s going to make 1 or 2 mistakes which can come back to haunt us.
I’d rather an average centre back who won’t do anything fancy but won’t make mistakes either, than a player like Sanchez who is capable of outplaying any striker over 90 minutes but is due to have a bad error at some point. In a game of fine margins, those moments matter.
As Geof said, it’s too early to call this “must win” but it’s certainly the type of game we should be winning if we want to have big ambitions this year.
As for Romero/Cucurella, now that we have seen all of the images, it doesn’t look quite as bad on Romero’s part, since Cucurella did stamp on him a bit earlier in the game. It may not fully excuse Romero’s actions but it might explain them to some degree.
Nevertheless, we dodged a bullet there and I hope Romero learns his lessons. I think Conte said a few weeks ago that he wanted players with “warm hearts but cold heads”, but Romero clearly lost his head and could have cost us a point.
BS: As Geof said, it’s too early to call this “must win” but it’s certainly the type of game we should be winning if we want to have big ambitions this year.
Yes, we must win this type of game if we are to have the type of year of which this group is capable. In that sense, we must win this match and others like it. To lose to teams at the level of Wolves is to be at the level of teams like Wolves.
We should be better than that, and we must win matches like this to be at the level at which this group should be.
This would be a huge disappointment to lose. A loss would indicate that we don’t have the team we thought we had entering into this season.
BelgianSpur – Given Romero and Sanchez are right footed while Lenglet is left footed I would be amazed if Conte ever started Lenglet on the right side of the defence, Sanchez would start whether or not Lenglet was fit. If he didn’t have confidence in Sanchez he would have moved him on in the summer. Doesn’t make him the best centre half in the world of course, just better (in Conte’s view) than anyone we could have brought in. The trouble is managers keep ignoring those men with no names and insist on real players.
When Lenglet was announced, the club said it was someone who could play across the back 3.
As you said, Sanchez my be the option by default but I don’t think his place in the squad is as assured as you think.
Alasdair Gold, who seems to have good information on the club most of the time, has said repeatedly that the club would b happy to let Sanchez go if the right offer came in, and that CB remains an area of the squad which the club will cntinue to look at upgrading. Read into that what you like.
A win for me…4-0, retribution! COYS
Geof,
What I meant by saying that tomorrow’s match is a must win is that this is the type of match we must win if the season is to be a success. It’s true, I think, that we could lose the match on the morrow, but it we don’t win–in general–this sort of match, then we aren’t going to live up to our promise this season. We must win this sort of match if we are to move into the upper echelon. In this sense, this–along with other matches against this sort of opposition–is the sort of match we must win if we are to become one of the top teams in the world. Fail to beat at team like this, and we slip back into the Spursy days. So, we must win tomorrow to stay on the path to Glory. Failing to gain three points tomorrow is necessary if the dream is to be taken seriously.
COYS
I take your point but the path to glory continues until it reaches a dead end. We’re nowhere near that point. If we lose this one we will still be talking about the path to glory before the next game.
lol. I suppose one man’s necessity is another man’s preference. I hope the players view tomorrow’s match as something they need to win, and not merely a match they’d like to win. The motivations are not the same, so the play would be unlikely to be the same.
Win the three points, damn it. Don’t think it’s nice to win, the players should demand it of themselves. Win, or lower our sense of identity for the team. A group of “would have been” players is not a winning mentality. And this group is good enough to have a winning mentality. This team must win to build a winning mentality.
That said, the sun will arise Sunday morning, whether or not THFC wins on Saturday. But the sun will not be shining on a winning THFC without a win on Saturday.
Win, seize the damned three point, FFS.
There will be two teams, both with the same attitude. Unless they draw, only one team can win.
Lenglet is fit to play… We will have to wait and see whether or not Conte choses to play him.
If Sanchez does get to play in Romero’s place, (l think he will), then I’m more than ok with that. In the last 3 matches of last season, he did the job admirably. And it was very much as part of the team (and teamwork) that saw us pip Arsenal into the PL’s 4th place spot, and into the CL…
Lenglet and Sanchez may well both play tomorrow…..
This match is of course, not a must-win. It just isn’t!
It is of course, a will-win match! Haha!
THFC 5-0 WWFC!
I’m with you on that, HT.
I’ll always have doubts about Sanchez, until he can go a string of games without a mistake. That’s never happened.
3 games is far too small a sample size.
Depends on what one means with the expression “must win.” No doubt we could lose tomorrow and win the PL for the season, so in that sense it isn’t a “must win”. But, if we cannot win matches of this sort then we won’t win much of anything, and in that sense it is “must win,” because we must win against the likes of Wolverhampton if we are to win much of anything this season.
So, as a class, we must win such matches to be credible contenders. Must we win each and every such match? Probably not. Man Citeh lost a couple and won the PL. But, on the whole, the counts for me as a “must win” match because we must win such matches if we are going to win the league.
Re: Sanchez. I agree, for what it’s worth, with HT that Sanchez is acceptable to play. For the most part he did a pretty decent job in the latter parts of last season. He’s not among my “must worry” group. He’s not first choice, but he belongs on the team and can play well enough. I expect him to be up to the task if he’s called upon on the morrow. He’ll help us win the match of the sort that we must win if we are to be in the top group for the season. Lose matches like this one, and it will be difficult to end up in the top 4.
For fek sake, even the Arsouls look to be genuine contender this season. We must win to end up ahead of them. We cannot afford to lose, that is, we must win. 🙄 🤪
Your second sentence made my point. That’s all I meant!
Whilst I’m not a massive fan of Sanches, as has been said, he can have a mistake in him, particularly positional, but as, HT stated, he did do well ove his, last few games, and was even OK out of position in the friendlies.
With that said, I still am a bit nervous when he tries to carry the ball, always looks like it’s out of control.
I do see a comfortable win for us tomorrow, as, I said on the forum, Wolves, we’re in the same conversation as us last season along with Leicester and W/Ham, nows the time to prove that we’ve pulled away from the pack..
No howlers against the Wolves please. Boom boom. 😄
Need a clean sheet, need our front 3 to do a out better then the last game. Still cracks in the system.
They’re on the pitch and ready to play! now let’s win this sucker, whether we think we should or must. lol,
Don’t like this two man midfield Conte keeps insisting on. Don’t think we’ll see too much of the ball today.
VS: the place where passionate arguments are made over the silliest disagreements. Moments of relief from the places in life where disputes are a matter of life and death.
COYS. win this sucker.