Match Day Thread Tottenham Hotspur v CSKA Moscow

Top performance from your boys too. Very nearly there after 2 games .

 

Like Sonny i'd be amazed if Lamela could grow enough facial hair to annoy Spurcat. Unless i missed Spurcat having an issue with dumb hair.

 

An Argentinian Brazilian?

 

Messi has a beard, which means no other Argentine footballer can grow a beard.

 

I think last night was a fantastic away performance in Europe.
No Kane, Rose, Dembele or Dier (all nailed starters) and Walker on the bench...that's half our first team.
N'koudou offered us something very different and Pochettino changed to a plan B by swapping him for Janssen.
The only thing missing from last night was a Janssen goal.
Away from home in CL , especially in places like Russia, are about clean sheets and winning so as far as I am concerned that was a fantastic performance

 

But Messi even with a suit tie and a shave will still be Messi. OS won't stand for that.

 

Great performance away from home in the Champions League, was much needed after our disappointing result against Monaco. The sheer fact we were missing 4 star players and regular starters in Rose, Dier, Dembele and Kane, plus Sissoko while Walker was on the bench, it really does show that we've got incredible depth to the squad now.

Sonny boy to the rescue again! Who needs Harry Kane, eh?

Thought we bossed it from minute 1 to minute 90+. CSKA, for a home side, were incredibly negative in the way they set up and played.

Thought Lamela, Son, Wanyama and Vertonghen had good games, no one was really bad to be fair apart from Alli, who must have misplaced about 10+ passes with some of those coming from silly flicks and tricks that just weren't needed, aside from his great shot that hit the bar, he was anonymous and really does need to pick it up now because I'd say he's most at risk of losing his starting spot in the side.

GK looked awesome when he came on, was going like a knife through butter with their defence, showed that incredible pace that we've lacked under Poch's leadership ever since Lennon was sold. Good to see Winks get more game time, in about 10 days, he's made his first club start, added to his PL tally and made his CL debut, not bad!

Monaco and Leverkusen drawing was also good for us, means no one has a clear lead after two games.

Bring on Sunday! COYS!!!

 

Coming a bit late to the thread but I thought it was an assured, mature away performance last night that helped us negotiate what could have been a very tricky banana skin with 3 points. Not perfect and we could have scored/create more, but we did enough without exhausting ourselves, which at this stage is very important.

We set up slightly differently I thought with Eriksen and Alli a little deeper, almost more of a 4-3-3. GKN had a great cameo but generally I was fairly impressed by the performance considering who we were missing/who was rested. We could have pressed harder and more frequently but I'm glad we were able to win while conserving a bit of energy. We've a long season ahead and are already hit with injuries after all.

Winks will get his chances and at the moment you can't see him not making the most of his time on the pitch. He's going to be one of those underrated yet immensely valuable footballers I think. Uses the ball very well but more about him physically I feel than Tommy Carroll. Younger too of course. Lots of competition but if he can impress Poch then he will get more chances, we know that.

I think the match was almost symptomatic of our entire season so far - we're doing well enough to keep up there despite not ever having our strongest team out by a long shot. If we can get at least a point off City then we've set a great platform to perform for the next few games. Momentum as ever is key.

 

It's striking how well we're doing compared to how our attacking starters from last year are doing: Kane is injured and was disappointing for most of the games he played. Dembélé has hardly played. Eriksen’s been good overall, but not so good the first few games. Lamela’s been good, but perhaps a bit up and down as well. Dier is injured, Alli is definitely struggling with the first rough patch, perhaps, of his career. The players who have excelled have been all our defenders including Davies and Trippier, Son, Wanyama, and some of the reserves, including Winks and N’Koudou.

 

Might have gone to Rooneys transplant surgeon.

 

So far the squad has stepped up when we've needed it. Sterner tests to come though, starting at the weekend. Dier and/or Dembele back for that one would be great timing.

 

I wonder if Pochettino will risk it. If any of the injured players don’t play, it means they won’t go anywhere for international break and will have a lot longer to recover.

 

They can become "injured" after the game as well, you know. <Fergie>

 

Especially if somebody kicks boot into their face! ..

 

Agreed. This is something I want to see much more of. We're on Broadway now, not some sleazy side-alley amateur play scrimping and saving to get itself seen. I want to see more of the United and Chelsea-esque mysterious hamstring strains and 'knocks' that magically occur within 48 hours of international duty. The national team is in a shambles at the minute and has been for the better part of 6 years. We owe the FA nothing. It used to be the case that I encouraged our players to go, even for a friendly, as I saw training with and learning from the country's elite to be massively beneficial. That simply isn't the case anymore as England would probably finish in the bottom half of the table if they were a PL side.

 

I really worried when our players went away with Woy. I honestly thought it would hold them back or even reverse their progress. I thought that before the euro debacle. There is an argument to suggest that Dele, Eric and Harry still haven't recovered from it!

 

There's no question that their confidence took a massive hit, especially Dele and Harry who suffered the brunt of the witch hunt afterwards.

Walker and Rose have brushed it off because they are vastly more experienced than the others and have broad enough shoulders to carry the burden of national humiliation.

 

And because the performance of the full backs was the one plus point

 

I see it as more down to the fact that they were furthest away from Rooney and his magical sphere of freelance influence.

 

Yet always available to receive the square ball from the deep lying midfield playmaker