We have the safe Watford Newcastle and Leicester at home and the relegated West Brom away. If we cant muster 7 points from that we don't deserve Champions League
I didn't think we played brilliantly against Stoke either Lloris worries me...not exactly a mistake tonight but he should have been stronger onto that penalty, the guy has zero fire in him. A few weeks ago he gave Stoke a goal Annoying
Yeah true. I don't think Kane coming back nowhere near fit has helped things. Been a passenger since he's returned, the AMs were working fine without him in the games he missed, was no need to rush him back other than pure greed for the golden boot. Silly by Poch to have allowed it to be honest. As for Hugo, I won't be too pissed at not saving the pen, I've always felt a striker should score a penalty so if a keeper saves it it deserves massive respect. He still looked shaky today though which is worrying. Vorm has to start the semi, will be an injustice to him if he doesn't seeing as he's played all the FA Cup games and not done much wrong.
I pop on for a read, not a member, saw his comments last week and thought 'is that the same person', read some more and thought...'thats him', gotta tell the lads and Maggie.
Is it possible Spurs fingers will be firmly removed for the United game or another "Spursy" performance? Da,da daaaaa!
I wouldn't be so worried but it reminds me of playing West Brom, Southampton (both with nothing to play for) and Newcastle (already relegated) in our last 4 matches 2 years ago ... we got 1 point from those 3 games scored 3 conceded 8
What last night taught us: - Aurier is possibly worse than Kyle Naughton. Clumsy muppet in his own box and contributes almost nothing going forward. We're also yet to see the 'tremendous pace' every commentator claims he has. - Wanyama isn't sharp enough for the SF. Looking much more like himself but he was blowing out his arse by the 80th minute and considering much of the game was played at a leisurely stroll I found that worrying. - Kane is miles away from full fitness and is probably playing through considerable pain in his obsessive quest to overhaul Salah. - Jan, Ben and Eriksen are simply ****ed. Not remotely surprising as the three of them - especially the Belgian and the Dane - have played far too many minutes this season. Our lack of left-sided CB cover was apparent the moment we sold Wimmer so why was nothing done about it? Did Poch go into the season expecting Jan to play 50+ games?? - Moura clearly isn't ready for regular games. Looks sharp, fights and has a wicked shot on him. But not on the same wavelength as his team mates. I find with certain players (Aurier & Sissoko typically) I force myself to notice and comment on every semi-decent thing they do. It's probably a cognitive dissonance thing where my subconscious is trying to reconcile the fact that they are professional footballers earning a fortune per week, with the contrasting evidence unfolding in front of my eyes. I don't find that with Lucas. There is a very good player in there and I'm excited to see him in action next season. - Hugo looks totally lost. Spilled the ball 2 or 3 times that sharper forwards would've punished and a couple of dodgy punches. Distribution seemed more measured and thought out but when your captain is also the most nervous man on the pitch it doesn't bode well. Anyways delighted for Chris and the Seagulls (80's rock band anyone?). They have a fiendishly difficult run-in and the reaction of their fans at full time showed how valuable every point is at this stage. 1 more point should be more than enough for a 2nd season in the PL
I'm a little less pessimistic. I think that one of the main problems with the performance last night was the Wanyama/Sissoko partnership. One is in a terrible vein of form and is lacking fitness. The other has his uses but isn't a constructive player capable of running a game. We just didn't get a Mauricio Pochettino level of control in the game. I've been somewhat critical of Eric Dier in recent weeks. He hasn't been the force that he was in 2015/16 when he was bullying teams. However, he's a much better passer of the ball than many give him credit for. I would prefer hs constructive game to the current version of Big Vic. In the same way, Sissoko runs with the ball well enough but he's no Mousa Dembele. Our better partnership has had a rest and will be back on Saturday. If there's a position that you can play the whole season without burning out, then it's centre back or goalkeeper. Jan will be fine with a few days to recover. Who we play alongside him is a bit more of a concern. Davinson Sanchez has been hot or cold recently with some real lapses in concentration - slashing at clearances or missing them completely. Continuing with Toby might make some sense but Sanchez pace gives us so much, especially as our other defenders are not the fastest. I'm struggling to make a choice but don't want a 3 at the back. The key to beating this United team is to make them defend. Apart from De Gea, they're not particularly good at it. Putting in Lucas Moura was understandable but it produced the result that picking January purchases often does, in that they don't gel as part of the collective. Just look at Alexis Sanchez at United. This is particularly so in relation to us because we're a drilled unit that's been together for seassons. Christian Eriksen knows where Dele's going to be. It's same with Erik Lamela, Harry and Sonny. Last night was just ****iing weird. Harry played but was a shadow of himself. Moura impressed in patches but not in a joined up way. So, in the second half, we ended up with Sonny as the focal point, where he nearly always struggles. it was the same at Chelsea in the first half. This is especially the case away from home. Harry dropped into a position he is capable of playing but has little experience of and continued to look half fit and a bit lost and the entire thing became lacking in focus and we petered out when we normally become stronger. As I see it, there are 2 issues. Firstly, is Harry Kane fit enough to play like Harry Kane for at least an hour? If not, he should be benched and we can bring him on if we need to. I don't know the answer but have very little doubt that he'll start. Second up, is Hugo too much of a liability right now? MP could pick Mitch on the basis that he's played the cup games domestically and avoid the issue. That isn't very like him and I also expect Hugo to start. If they do, I'm hoping that they're the right decisions.
Well, that was so poor in the 2nd half I did what all good Yiddos do and watched The history of the Jews on BBC4. That was a Pochettino line-up with an eye on the FA Cup SFs, when the PL top 4 slot is not done and dusted. Ironically, he selected the MF engine that was proven twice away in the FA Cup this season to be too slow slow, sideways slow. Things have a feel of 2012 now for me (NOT GOOD) .
Standard decent BBC4 documentary fare. Yesterday was about the 100 year period in Europe prior to Adolf (the climate that led to first inklings of Zionism and the stage being built for what would come in Germany) .
Last night proved that we need Winks back as soon as humanly possible, because the Wanyama/Sissoko pivot was about as creative as the script for a Friday the 13th sequel - because if the ball is hardly getting forward to Eriksen et al, how the hell are they supposed to create any chances?
That is the big concern, whether we reach the FA Cup final or not. All about Pochettino applying proper player management now, whatever happens this weekend.
A Winks/ Wanyama pivot struggled against Rochdale. Winks will end up passing back to Hugo 95% of the game, considering Hugo’s current confidence situation, that’d be a nightmare waiting to happen. For me, my solution for the rest of the season if we’re looking to rest Dembele due to the fact he can’t handle more than one game a week is to drop Alli deeper. Have Lamela/ Lucas come into the three and go from there. As for next season, I won’t be against binning off Dembele as some outlets are suggesting. Magnificent player but we can’t rely on someone who’s too injury prone and unable to complete more than one game a week. Solutions for next season: Drop Alli deeper on a permanent basis, with Onomah and Winks his deputies. Go all out for one of Seri, Andre Gomes, Doucoure or someone else of that ilk. I said on the Prem board the other day that although we’d never be able to afford him, Pogba would probably be great for us under Poch. Wonder if Utd fancy letting him go on the cheap, or a swap deal for Rose/ Dembele?... hell even both, they’re so injury prone they’d probably never play much for Utd anyway!
There's difficulties over extending his contract and concern regarding Mousa's ability to play competitively at PL level for the length of contract that he wants. There's an ITK on Spurs Community who says that this is all very amicable and all outcomes are still possible. Ideally, he'd give us one more season having signed a further extension, so that we get a transfer fee for him and not have to buy in a summer with a World Cup. I'm still of the opinion that Josh Onomah could still be his long-term replacement [I know he's still a long way off but there are real similarities] and if we move Mousa and Moussa on this summer, that might be more likely; even if we buy immediate replacements. However, he's likely to be worth a lot more this summer, hopefully after a good World Cup. If he wants to go to a top Italian side as is rumoured, then this summer is the time. If he wants the Chinese Yen, then another season might not make too much of a difference to him. I guess a lot depends upon our finances and how much we could write off him leaving for a reduced fee or even on a free. That's got to come down to the stadium sponsorship issue and also how much we could change our MO. Can we become a club that keeps a fast depreciating asset for a gain on the pitch that won't last that long? It would be like buying Gareth Bale on a smaller scale. A gain on the pitch but a real blow to the pocket.
The biggest issue at CM is that there is no-one there taking risks other than Dembele. He'll at least attempt audacious dribbles to carry the ball forward and take numerous opposition players out of the equation which creates space for the front 4 to exploit. The solution to the problem isn't necessarily to go looking for a carbon copy of Dembele as he is pretty much unique in world football. Pogba incidentally is nowhere near as good on the ball but makes up for it by having more pace and athleticism. Doucoure looks decent but is still miles off of Dembele's quality and Andre Gomes has barely kicked a ball in 3 seasons now. Too much of a risk. The more sensible solution is surely to look for a Winks upgrade rather than a Dembele replacement. But I'm hitting a dead end here too.
