No Crackerman !, I don't think I'm being at all harsh. If I had my way, he'd have gone a few weeks ago., already.
Yup I know. I guess it was more of a rhetorical question out of frustration. I should be used to this after 25+ years!
Kane's finally on for Chadli. Hopefully our attacks will have better hold up play now and more of a focal point.
Really disappointing second half. Their tactical switch seemed to completely stump us and we ran out of both steam and ideas. Tough to go there and win, plus we face the nightmare scenario of extra-time and penalties, right before a cup final. I'd be tempted to rest the whole first XI completely and see what the others can do.
Thats put us in a right situation now. Not good enough to put the tie to bed with a strong team - who do we risk taking away next Thursday?
That was Eriksen's worst game for us in a Spurs shirt. Totally anonymous. Lamela and Paulinho were generally awful as well
We should have put them away when we had them on the ropes. As usual, we didn't, and will probably pay the price next week.
Seems to me that unless we play our strongest eleven, we seem to come unstuck and run out of ideas and stability. Mason came on late, as did Kane and Lamela so they had no way of getting into the game or influencing it (though I hasten to add that I doubt Lamela would have done much over 90 minutes). I never thought I'd say that Rose is our best left back but on recent performances, I think he is, especially going forward as Davies looks a little lightweight at times. Fazio still gives me nightmares although he looked better today. Paulinho always seems to make decent runs but there's never anything at the end of it. Another show pony by all accounts. As someone pointed out earlier, Eriksen had a poor game by his standards. Perhaps tired from a long run in the first team? He can be forgiven considering his recent contributions in other games. Soldado scored but yet again, always seems to pick the wrong runs and when he does, messes up his chances. Such a positive and fluid first 45 was replaced by a disjointed and nervous second. Typical Spurs. We have a tough trip away which does leave doubt hanging over how much we commit to the UEFA now. i say we just go for it and se what happens as we have a fairly fit squad but we must pick Mason, Kane and Rose for that game.
Salah played well against us again. We missed a trick not signing him. Fazio was good but only because Gomez is as slow as him. I think Dier might have played better against him with the extra pace
On the bright side, in qualifying I think Fiorentina won all their away games and had a win, a draw and a loss at home, so perhaps they are like us and play better away.
If it didn't run against our motto, I'd do it. I'm tempted even though it does. Fiorentina have the away goal they need. They're one of the best teams in Serie A defensively, meaning they're one of the best defensive teams period. It just doesn't look very likely, even with our first team.
Yes I echo the disappointment expressed by others but I agree with flaspur we have to just go for it if we start getting cute about sending a 'second team' we risk getting knocked out of the Uefa and losing the Capitol 1 in the space of days and seeing our season crumble from the after effects. We just have to go all out to win in Italy they look very beatable and providing we get decent officials there is every reason to be optimistic.
Maybe it's Soldado scoring, maybe it's the booze, maybe it's our cup funal song(we'll probably get stick for it but I'm delighted the idea has made a return) but I thought we did well tonight. Seeing the line up I was all prepared to give Pochettino stick if we didn't get the result but we started brilliantly. The manager's not totally off the hook as I Townsend instead of Eriksen was poor but Soldado and Paulinho were the big calls and it almost paid off with us looking like killing the game off in the opening half hour. I just loved Soldado's weird falling overhead(sort of) kick we which was just connected with so sweetly. Townsend was brilliant down the right and really shouldn't have been subbed, if anything moved to the left to replace Chadli who was lively but missed 2 absolute sitters. Not an ideal scoreline but we bossed most of the match and just couldn't find the second goal. That referee was shocking though, not a clue.
They've given up the third fewest goals in Serie A, though saying Italian teams are good at defending is probably old-fashioned of me. In any case, we've become fairly good at scoring them. I would have played an all-first choice team today. Now I can't make up my mind what we should do next week. One moment it's all first choice. The next it's zero first choice. Don't even put them on the plane. That would be daring, in a way. For no particular reasons I think a team of Soldado, Townsend, Paulinho, Chadli, Stambouli, Capoue, Yedlin, Chiriches, Fazio and Davies will fluke its way to a 2-2, and a stronger team will lose on pens.
I would guess you are around my age (50+) With the score the way it is i would go with a few second choice players and see how it goes (save the best for a top 4 push), if you had kept the lead i would think a first choice team to ensure progression would have been the best bet
First 30 minutes aside, it was a real drab of a match last night. We looked great in that first half hour though, Fiorentina were struggling big time especially with Townsend's runs and I thought we'd get a couple of goals to get a good lead going into the second half. Soldado's finish was superb and a nice confidence booster to him, though the demon inside tells me we'll have to wait another 7 or 8 games for another goal from him, hope I'm wrong. After that 30 minutes the game just turned into a borefest in my opinion and it was inevitable Fiorentina would grab a ****ty goal to draw level. Atmosphere was pretty flat too which may not have helped things but I think some players had their minds on the Chelsea game next weekend and therefore didn't want to put the best of shifts in. Thought Vertonghen had a good game though, made some very good tackles inside the box and got the game going from the back, a shame a lot of the others couldn't have followed suit. I want to progress in Europa but unfortunately wouldn't want many of the first team squad risked for the away leg, the Chelsea game is our biggest of the season and I want the strongest, fittest squad available, nothing beats silverware.
