Match Day Thread Tottenham Hotspur v AS Monaco

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Wednesday 14th September 7.45pm
Champions League Group Stage
Wembley Stadium​

A good win against Stoke with an impressive scoreline and now it's time for our return to the Champions League.
All reports suggest that we're due a record attendance for this one, so it'll be interesting to see what the atmosphere's like.
Could be a tester for our eventual move to the new stadium, even though it's not going very far.
Lots of clubs seem to struggle with it, with West Ham being the latest example.

We go into this one having won two and drawn two of our opening fixtures.
Things haven't flowed that well, but we've still been picking up points and look hard to beat.
Only two goals conceded and neither from open play, so more of that solidity will be welcome.
Scoring as freely as we did against Stoke would be nice, too.

Monaco's start has been even more impressive, though.
They've won three of their four Ligue 1 games, including a 3-1 win over PSG, drawing the other.
The Champions League qualifiers threw up some tough fixtures for them, too.
Fenerbahce and Villarreal were dispatched and they come into this game following a 4-1 away win.

Unusually for a European game, we actually do have fixtures from last season to examine.
Our game at White Hart Lane in the Europa League group stage went very well for us.
Erik Lamela struck a first-half hat-trick, before Stephan El Shaarawy pulled one back for the visitors.
Tom Carroll's first senior goal killed any thoughts of a comeback and the game finished 4-1.

The away trip, which came earlier in the season, saw familiar goalscorers but a less familiar scoreline.
Lamela opened the scoring in the first half and we looked pretty comfortable, but failed to extend the lead.
El Shaarawy was introduced in the second-half and he nicked a late equaliser.
Bit of a sickener and a lesson to learn, too.

Dembele's ban wouldn't apply to this game, but it has now ended anyway, thankfully.
Rose looks likely to miss out again via injury, but we don't appear to have any other problem in that area.
Neither side have any bans and Monaco appear to have few injury issues.

Lineups for each side's last league game:

Spurs: Lloris; Walker, Alderweireld, Vertonghen, Davies; Dier, Wanyama; Eriksen, Alli, Son; Kane.
Subs: Vorm, Trippier, Carter-Vickers, Sissoko, Winks, Lamela, Janssen.

Monaco: De Sanctis; Raggi, Glik, De Jesus Nascimento, Sidibe; Dirar, Fabinho, Bakayoko, Traore; Silva, Germain.
Subs: Badiashile, N'Doram, Toure, Boschilia, Jean, Moutinho, Falcao.

Referee: No idea. Can't find it anywhere.

Son's performance against Stoke and Dembele's return to eligibility make predicting this selection tough.
Should they both be selected and if so, at whose expense?
Any other changes you'd make, either to the starting XI or the match-day squad?

 

Played for both: Glenn Hoddle, Jurgen Klinsmann, Dimitar Berbatov, Emmanuel Adebayor*

 

What's the asterisk for?

 

Saying that Adebayor played implies he put in some actual effort.

 

Glenn Hoddle

(Stewie never made it to the south of France - Blackpool was more up his street)

 

Lloris
Walker - Toby - Vert - Davies
Dier - Dembele
Lamela - Alli - Eriksen
Kane

Get this one done and dusted ASAP. Then Son et al can have a run-out.

 

The referee is Gianluca Rocchi from Italy.

 

Just looked him up and I saw the word controversial a lot.
Lots of cards, penalties and dubious decisions.
Once sent off Ranieri, of all people.

Sounds like we need a disciplined performance and to avoid any dissent.
He's not an easy going official.

 

That should be the <standard> behaviour for any Spurs side in UEFA competitions.
We know the deal when it comes to non-PL refs.

 

Judging by this, he should change his name to Marco Clattenburghi: http://worldreferee.com/referee/gianluca_rocchi

 

Son looked full of confidence at the weekend and played his best football in last season in the EL, where the slower and less physical style of the play gives him a bit more time to make decisions. I'd also put Dembele straight back into the mix as we need him up to speed asap. There was an interview in the ES with Sissoko in which the player clearly stated that he wasn't yet fully fit, so I'd go with:


Lloris
Walker Toby Jan Davies
Dembele Dier
Lamela Eriksen Son
Kane

No offence to Sunderland and the Gills, but I'd rather we rotated in those games and got our CL campaign off with a massive statement of intent.

 

This group is no gimme. We need to field a pretty much full strength team until we qualify for the K/O round (confidence!). I want lots of 90,000 crowds too!

 

Lots of 73,708 crowds would be a huge laugh though (73707 + 1 for those WUM ITKs) .

 

Yeah similar to what CK said, strongest side for this match is a must. Most should be OK to play Saturday as well, we can then go for a full rotation against the Gills.

Hugo
Walker, Toby, Jan, Davies
Dier, Dembele
Lamela, Eriksen, Alli
Kane

Vorm, Tripps, CCV, Wanyama, Sissoko, Son, Janssen

There's an argument to keep Son in for this match due to Saturday's performance, plus is Dembele OK to start and play for say 75+ minutes at full tempo? Tough to say, 6 games out plus he barely played for Belgium so he could be rusty, maybe stick Son in, with Alli dropping back and then bring Moussa on at around 55 mins? That could then dust the cobwebs and have him nearly 100% ready to face Sunderland.

 

Monaco's early season form is impressive and I hope Spurs planners have taken note of this.

 

I have a spare JUNIOR ticket for the game due to someone being unable to attend. It is in the second row of block 522 (i.e. its the second row of the upper tier and should have a cracking view). Its face value is £17.50 but I would be very happy to let it go to someone who will enjoy it. If you know of a young person who might fancy it, then please post on this thread and I'll get back to you to make arrangements to hand it on at the stadium.

Thanks.

 

I think we play Sunderland on Sunday, so plenty of rest.

 

Euro hangover SD?

 

Monaco are on a roll of good early season form, not only beating PSG but decent CL wins too. Even Falcao is scoring and playing well. This will be a tough game, so hope the lads bring their A game.

COYS!!!

 

Cavani?