2016-17 season compass

The CB situation is now of course compounded by the Vertonghen groundhog day injury.
Again, Pochettino will have to earn his squad management money over the next month or so.

 

I don't think we were too disappointed with Wimmer, so we have good back up.

 

Very hard work in the FA Cup tie.
I checked the starting XI against the League Cup one against the Poool, and
yesterday was effectively the same team.

That is a big concern given that N months later, the same set of players still
look so disjointed and no fire in their belly to prove a point.

Any thoughts that Pochettino can wing it with an effective 2nd team in the Europa/FA
Cup ties in order to preserve the best starting XI for PL games, is now out of the window.

I reckon he will ditch the FA Cup if a PL side is drawn next round (highly likely) ,
as the 5th round is in the middle of the two Europa ties against Gent.

 

Unfortunately, I completely agree with you. We've shown no desire to try and win a cup since the League Cup in MP's first season. Was that an accident or did our indifferent league form mean our priorities changed? I guess we'll never know because MP always says that he wants to win tournaments but his team selections suggest otherwise.

Is this an age thing? Are younger supporters as fixated on making it to the CL as we are as a club right now? Do only our older supporters want to win something more than make up the numbers and loads of dosh in the CL?

Is there anyone old enough to remember us winning the cup in '81 that is happy with us 'declaring' in everything but the league?

Is anyone who doesn't recall those games in '81 wanting us to go all-out in the FA cup and EL and see where it takes us?

 

This season I would say that Pochettino had a grand plan, but the squad have not delivered
on their part. As hbic said, the post-match press gig is the first time that the manager has openly
put it out to the squad as to what that performance may mean for them.

But again, how many of that starting XI have been read the riot act now ??


"Is there anyone old enough to remember us winning the cup in '81 that is happy with us 'declaring' in everything but the league?"

I remember the 1981-82 season, and the roller-coaster we had.
However I accept that in the current game, only the biggest/talented PL squads stand
a chance of doing that. Spurs do not have such a squad to come close to repeating that.

But that does not excuse the players yesterday from a poor performance,
Wycombe on FA Cup adrenaline or not.

 

We should at this stage be trying to win all 3 competitions that we are in. I want us to win trophies, The FA Cup is not a burden it is played at the weekend and whilst a small amount of rotation should be considered, we are only 4 more wins from lifting the trophy.

As for the Europa that's a harder slog but not beyond us with clever use of the squad this can also be achieved.

The 3 cup games at the end of Feb, should all be considered of equal importance, and we can pick 3 different teams, that see no one player appear in all 3 but put out 3 equally strong sides.

 

It is, because it causes fixture congestion because the ties are at the weekend
(when league games are normally played) . As it was sadly in 1981-82, so it is now.

 

There are no prem league fixtures scheduled on 5th round day, so only 2 matches would need recscheduling if we were to reach the semi final. (Palace & Leicester away). Yes if we progress in both competitions we will have more games, but so will the goons, City and United if they also progress in both and you would expect that at least one of them will.

 

So we have the Poool away in the PL, followed by the Gent / Fulham / Gent cup ties.
4 games in 14 days in Feb.
Based on the game against Wycombe, I don't trust the weakest squad line-ups to
get a win at Fulham, nor a comfortable lead against Gent away in order to allow a
cruise in the Europa home leg.

Will a strong side have to play in the Gent away leg to try and get a big lead for
the second XI to cruise on ??
Will the second XI front up sufficiently for the final two cup games in order to spare
the PL starting XI ??

 

I think we'll need to be more sensible with rotations for those 3 back to back cup games. As many others have said, there is or at least should not be any need to make wholesale changes. Most modern players - especially youngsters - are fine playing 2 games a week, as long as it isn't for extended periods of time. 5-6 changes per game max is more than enough. We could field a nice mix of XI's that don't compromise too much on quality whilst simultaneously giving the fringe players a chance to shine.

 

Switching the full backs at this time last year worked well. I'm sure Son can replace Kane for the Ghent away game. And Winks can slot in any game and do well. Hopefully Lamela will be back by then, so those changes won't weaken us much. Rotate Eriksen and Alli, Dier and Wanyama (if we've enough centre halves by then). CCV/Wimmer with Toby will be fine I think.

 

Only one pt gained on Chelsky in 5 PL games.
But a superb chance to really wound the Poool (next week is now a 6 pointer for them) .

 

Top 4 is our target, and has been since the opening day of the season. The title is well and truly over.

Out of interest, what is our points comparison to this time last year?

 

Like last season, IMHO the gap to the leaders will act as a "pilot fish"
and pull Spurs to a comfortable top 4 finish rather than the last day dramas
of 2012 and 2013.


"Out of interest, what is our points comparison to this time last year?"

Think it is the same, with GF down by 2-3 and GA down by 1-2.

 

Just checked it. We are currently 5 points better off (P24 W14 D8 L2) this year than we were at this stage last year (P24 W12 D9 L3)

Excellent progress, taking into account the injuries we've endured

 

I only do "like for like" comparisons with last season on this article.
So we are currently looking at a 70 pt finish again.

 

That would be 20 points from 14 games. A really disappointing end to the season.

 

Like for like is useful, but at the same time unreliable. The PL will throw up surprises every single year. Chelsea, Leicester, Southampton are having very different seasons compared to last year, and I'd add that Watford were doing far better this time last year than any of the newly-promoted teams this year. Despite their recent struggles, Liverpool are far better off now than they were a year ago. West Ham have picked up a bit but still lag 8 points behind where they were last year. That's at least 12 fixtures which bear almost no relevance to what happened in their equivalent fixtures last year. Other factors like injuries and suspensions further complicate things.

We are currently averaging just over 2 points per game. I sincerely hope we can keep that up as it would leave us with 78 points.

 

It would.
However not beyond the bounds of possibility (I refer you to the 15/16 pt hauls
in the run-ins in the 2011/2012 seasons) .

 

Nothing to do with reliability.

If Spurs took 3 pts from a fixture last season, they cannot take more than 3 for the
same this season. So assuming all those results are repeated, then the extra points
have to come from the fixtures that Spurs did not win last season.

So to get the minimum 76 pts I think will be needed for 4th place come May, then
as per above, the extra 6 pts will have to come from 8 specific games (which were D5 L3) .