Match Day Thread Tottenham Hotspur v CSKA Moscow

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Wednesday 7th December 7.45pm
Champions League Group Stage
Wembley Stadium​

A poor, disappointing run has been ended in emphatic style with a big win.
Swansea didn't offer much opposition though, so this should be a bigger test.
The Russian season has just hit it's winter break, so CSKA have nothing to save themselves for.
The Europa League would see them return a little early, but not much.
They need a win, while a draw or a win for us would see us finish 3rd, instead.

Our opponents also picked up a big win on Saturday, inflicting a heavy defeat on FC Ural.
CSKA raced to a 4-0 half-time lead, but failed to increase it after the break.
Traore scored twice with Natkho and Chalov adding the others.
The result left their opponents hovering above the relegation zone, while they're up in 3rd.
Roman Pavlyuchenko played the full game for the losing side, if anyone was wondering what he was up to.

Our meeting earlier in the season seemed to really hurt their campaign.
They went on to lose their first league game the following weekend, then lost two of the next three.
Despite failing to pick up a victory in the Champions League, they've recovered somewhat recently.
They're currently unbeaten in five in the league, winning three of them and keeping four clean sheets.

No suspensions for this game, though it seems unlikely that any of our injured players will return.
Alderweireld won't be risked, Lamela and Davies are still out, while there's no news on Janssen.
Roman Eremenko is banned for CSKA for two years, having failed a drugs test before our last game.
He tested positive for cocaine, so that sounds a bit harsh to me, considering other bans.
Couldn't find any reliable injury news for them, unfortunately. A couple of doubtfuls and that was it.

Lineups for each team's last league game:

Spurs: Lloris; Walker, Dier, Vertonghen, Rose; Wanyama, Dembele; Son, Alli, Eriksen; Kane.
Subs: Vorm, Carter-Vickers, Wimmer, Winks, Sissoko, Onomah, N'Koudou.
League form: DDDWLW.

CSKA: Akinfeev; Fernandes, V. Berezutskiy, A. Berezutskiy, Shchennikkov; Tosic, Natcho, Golovin, Milanov; Traore, Chalov.
Subs: Chepchugov, Nababkin, Dzagoev, Gordyushenko, Strandberg.
League form: LDWDWW.

Referee: Nicola Rizzoli (ITA). Italy's top ref, winning the award five times on the trot.

TV: BT Sport 2.

How do we approach this one? Who should play and who needs to be left out at all costs?
What are people looking from in this game and how do we approach the Europa League, if we go through?
Anyone on the fringes that needs to be given time?

 

I would definitely play Toby. Assuming all he needs is match fitness, this game is ideal, for an hour then give CCV a runout. If Davies and Lamela were actually ready, would play them too.

Vorm
Trippier
Alderweireld
Wimmer
KWP (has played left back I think?)
Sissoko
Winks
N'Koudou
Carroll
Onomah
Jansson

A strong bench if it is tight after an hour, but EL is not that much of a prize to me.

 

He certainly has in recent PL2 matches.

 

Pavel Stewartsky

 

For glory. For honour. For Paul Stewart.

 

Wish I could get a game. Hope everyone is rested.

Not good enough to compete for two trophies. Not mentally prepared for that challenge and I would much rather be going for it week in week out in the league.

Vorm
Trippier
Wimmer
Toby
Spurlock
Sissoko
Winks
Onomoah
Carrol
George
Dutch Conor Wickham

 

I'm usually all for going for anything that has a trophy but injuries this season along with our disappointment in the CL just makes me want out of Europe full stop this year. Play a rotated side with perhaps Toby being able to get 45 minutes.

Vorm
Tripps, CCV, Toby, Kev
Sissoko, Winks, Carroll, GKN
Onomah
Janssen

Lopez, KWP, Walkes, Amos, Roles, Shashoua, Harrison

If Edwards is fit now he'd go in over Shashoua, though I remember reading he was out for about 6 weeks roughly a month ago.

 

Oh FFS, we're not a bloody tinpot football club, we're Tottenham Hotspur. What the hell is this half hearted thinking all about ??

Out of Europe ? What are you guys on ?

I repeat, we are Tottenham Hotspur, we don't "do" out of Europe.

Full strength team out for this one

 

I'd go for something like this
Vorm
Trippier, Toby*, Wimmer, Rose
Dier, Winks
Onomah, Sissoko, GKN'K
Janssen

Subs: Lloris, KWP, CCV, Wanyama, Son, Edwards, Kane

On paper that should be more than enough to get a result against CSKA, give some players some match time they have missed out on - and also makes sure Sissoko starts one CL match, so we can turn to him and say we held up our end of the bargain...before a swap deal involving a Celtic player also named Moussa.

 

tongue in cheek, i hope

 

No.

 

We should go all out for the win to qualify for the Europa. When we play the first KO game we should see how we are placed in the league and take it from there.

 

I'll agree with this.

I think this year we should go all out to win the Europa.

We are strong enough and it will be very hard to get top 4.

Just my opinion

 

What's the point in getting back into Europe, in either competition and playing as badly again? Maybe we could practice being controlled in away games? Giving the EL a proper go would be a good learning experience for our young team.

 

Consistently playing in the CL will improve the players, raise the profile of the club and bring in more income. We have all moaned about the advantage that some clubs have had with the extra money. We should do our utmost to make sure that we get that money and not them

 

You've not read many of spurcats posts. He is most animated about our lack of interest in cup competitions. That and MPs lack of a tie.

 

We've not played a half way convincing European campaign since 2010-11. I don't see any improvement season on season. Hugo's not impressed with getting in the CL and being knocked out so easily and neither should he be. At some point we will need to win something if we are to progress as a team and club. Why not the EL?

 

Because full strength in the competition has worked wonders so far, hasn't it?

The team is out of the Champions League and ever since the days of Jol, both the players and managers haven't taken the Europa seriously enough for us to ever realistically win it, if I'd thought the players would really be up for a good run in Europa I'd be inclined to think that going all out for the win tomorrow night would be a great idea but realistically we all know the Europa just isn't a competition the team seem to take seriously, whether we as fans like that or not. Therefore going full strength and risking further injury to key players in what has already been a nightmare season so far with them, in a game that really does have little importance, isn't ideal.

Besides, we need to keep some of the squad players as match fit as possible. Vorm, Trippier, CCV, Wimmer, Winks, GKN, Onomah, Sissoko and even Janssen could all do with 90 minutes. Realistically the next possible game for a bunch to get a good run out will be Villa in the FA Cup which is a month away. We need guys to be as fresh and prepared as possible should any need to be called upon and this is a good opportunity now to do that.

EDIT: I want a trophy more than anyone, I'd sacrifice the elusive fourth place finish for a trophy any day but unfortunately, as I've said, the EL isn't taken seriously enough for one reason or another, so I don't see the point in risking further injury/ fatigue tomorrow night to key players.

 

If Spurs are to become one of England's very top teams then we need to take Europe seriously at ALL levels. The fact that we have not had the squad in recent seasons to compete in all competitions shows that we are not at the very top level yet.
In the recent past we had to be at our extreme best to get a result against the top PL teams, now we have reached a level where we compete with them even when not quite at our best. We have moved up a level.
Now we have a another level to move up and that is to be able to compete in Europe at the same as competing in the PL.
We will only achieve this move by trying to compete and thereby exposing the limitations that need to be fixed.
It's Tuesday, a team playing today ought to be able to recover in time to play on Saturday or Sunday, there is no excuse for not playing a strong team IMO.

EDIT: Or even Wednesday!

 

We should field a strong team in this match as a spurs fan I also want to see us win a trophy this season.when i was growing up we were alays known as a cup side and I loved it when we used to take all cup games seriously magical nights like the euefa cup final at the lane many moons ago still live long in my memory and it annoys me when we play understrength sides in European games . we spent all last season trying our hardest to get champions league football only to throw it away in the group stage this season.go for it I say let's win something this season I'd rather win a cup than qualify for the champions league and win nothing.I think we can put one or 2 youngsters in or bring them on to gain experience when the game is already won but let's at least have a bloody good go at it.COYS