Just when you thought Tom Carroll couldn't look less imposing, when he speaks he sounds like he's eight years old. The attacking trio looks well balanced: if Townsend hugs the line on one flank and pulls their defenders out of position, that frees up space for Son and Alli through the middle, as well as Lamela cutting in from the other flank. Hope to see Winks, Onomah and N'Jie get some minutes, too.
Our referee for tonight is Adrien Jaccottet, a Swiss lawyer who was in an a capella group and once stood as a Green Liberal candidate. Seriously, I'm not making that **** up.
I like starting Son up front. No time like the present to see if he’ll work out there. What’s happened to Pritchard? I thought he was back. I can understand why Dier and Alderweireld start, but I would rather they had been rested anyway. It looks like we’re going to ask them to play four games in 10 days, and that’s just too much. I would have gambled on starting Fazio and Winks--or perhaps Onomah, with Alli moving back to partner Carroll--and figure the rest of the lineup is good enough. (edit) Hey, Clinton’s making his first appearance! I was starting to wonder if we would ever see him. On balance I like the team as well, especially if we bring off Dier and Alderweireld at half time.
I was saying similar even when the lineups were announced for the Sunderland game - but since Lamela and Townsend changed the game when they came on, they both deserve to start this one. There's some pretty unexpected scores going around right now: Ajax/Celtic is currently 2-2 after Celtic led twice, Molde are 3-1 in up against Fenerbahce in Istanbul, Rapid Vienna are 2-1 up against Villarreal, while Dortmund are currently 1-1 with Krasnodar. Marseilles and Napoli utterly flattened their opponents, though.
Excited to see what Trippier, Wimmer and Carroll can do. Also good to see Rose back. Son's performance against Sunderland left me far from convinced that he can lead the line but they ain't exactly Bayern. Would've liked to see Fazio and Vorm get minutes in as I don't see any point in starting Hugo and Toby. Anyways, it's been a shower of ****e from English teams in Europe so far this season so let's see if the mighty Spurs can show them how it's done.
Penalty to Qarabag. Looked exceptionally soft, but Trippier gave the guy the chance. 1-0. Richard. Decent penalty.
Well so far this season we've given away 2 penalties and the fouls have been committed by 2 of our 3 defensive summer signings...
Bloody Lamela... (Thought I'd get this in early to enhance the likelihood that he'll now score a hat trick).
The most frustrating thing about Lamela is that he gets caught in possession way too much. He doesn't get his head up enough
They came to defend anyway. Now they're a goal up, it's going to be 10 behind the ball for the rest of the game. I can't see us having the guile to pass through them, we have to get behind them from the wings.
Lamela has been desperately poor so far... Nobody is exactly standing out so far, apart from maybe Carroll, and Alli, but Lamela is worst of a bad bunch so far.
