please log in to view this image Sunday 25th October 2.05pm Vitality Stadium Premier League An appalling midweek performance followed a disappointing draw, so the pressure's on for this one. The team's still unbeaten in the league since the opening day loss, but there have been too many draws and poor cup results. Some wasteful finishing and a lack of overall threat has been costly. Mason returned to the bench against Anderlecht and Dier's ban is over, so the manager has a couple of additional options. Chadli has joined Fazio, Son, Bentaleb, Pritchard and Carroll in the treatment room, though. I expect minor changes from the side that started against Liverpool. Lineups for the last league game: Spurs: Lloris; Walker, Alderweireld, Vertonghen, Rose; Alli, Dembele; Lamela, Eriksen, Chadli; Kane. Subs: Vorm, Trippier, Wimmer, Davies, Winks, Townsend, N'Jie. League form: DWWWDD Bournemouth: Federici; Francis, Cook, Distin, Daniels; Smith, Gosling, Surman, Ritchie; O'Kane; Murray. Subs: Bennett, Cargill, MacDonald, Pugh, King, Kermorgant, Tomlin. League form: DLWLDL Referee: Roger East. He's been up and down the tiers this season, from League 2 to the Prem. Bournemouth have their own injury problems and Artur Boric pulled out of their last game in the warm-up. That left them with no keeper on the bench and their backup was kept pretty busy by City. I believe that we looked at Federici in the past. Didn't go after him this summer, despite being on a free, though. It looks fairly likely that Adam Smith will make his first start in a Spurs game for this one. He came on once for us at the end of the 2011/12 season in a 2-0 victory over Fulham. Nice to see another one of our youth products getting Premier League games, even if it's against us. How should our midfield shape up now with the absence of Chadli? Should the Dier/Dembele partnership continue in the middle and should Alli play deep or further forward? If Alli does return to his previous place, should Dembele play out wide again? We appear to be running out of options.
Lloris Walker Vertongon Toby Rose Dier mason Alli Erikson Lamela Kane That's my choice If Son is ready to return I would start him instead of Lamela
Any midfield without Chadli has a better shape, We should win, I expect us to win, even if we perform to a low standard. Bournemouth are struggling with injuries, Danny Wilson is out injured and their squad is mostly of championship standard, however we're due a defeat and Bournemouth are due some luck, so taking away any confidence, this season is the most unpredictable of any premier league season, that a defeat wouldn't be a shock.
We need to start scoring more goals, it would be nice to see us score more than one goal in a game more often.
We certainly need to mark the fullbacks in this game: Adam Smith and Charlie Daniels are both former Spurs players, so common sense dictates one of them is going to score if we're as lax at the back as we were in Belgium.
Tony Pulis and West Brom will join us on 14 points if they beat Norwich and we lose against Bournemouth, but hopefully that won't happen.
City pulled Bournemouth to pieces with pace so I really hope we go with N'Jie, even if he hasn't be totally convincing in the last couple of games. I'd go for: Lloris Walker, Toby, Jan, Rose Alli, Dier N'Jie, Lamela, Eriksen Kane
I put this solely down to the fact that too much pressure and expectation is firmly on Kane's shoulders. No matter how the club spins it, neither N'Jie nor Son are strikers per se and this is the net result. If we actually bought another proper frontman in summer, some of these tighter draws may have been converted into wins if we had more options. Right now we don't. So like a broken record, I find myself back to that old point again. History repeats itself as always at Spurs. Sigh!
Bournemouth were annihilated by City's pace a couple of weeks back, but that's the one this lineup is missing in attacking positions (barring Walker and Rose on the overlap) Or maybe I'm just expecting a frustrating first half due to Dembele's conservative passing?
Good to see Mason back, even if it's only on the bench, He was one of our best performers up until his injury and adds some much-needed craft and tempo to the central areas. After Anderlecht, I'm dreading to see the DierBele partnership in "action" (I use that word very loosely) again. I would've much preferred Alli next to Dier and Njie further up. Lamela, Eriksen and Alli up there screams 'NARROW' at all who look at it. As PNP mentioned, Rose and Walker need to have big games today for this to work.
The lineup seems to be saying it's Alli and Dier in central midfield, with Dembele further up the pitch...although is that really much of an improvement?
That's not how they've portrayed it on the BBC I wouldn't mind using Dembele as a ball boy to be fair. He holds the ball well and releases it quickly to short distances. He also doesn't mind having his back to the action for large stretches of time.
Who has Davies upset? Is he injured? He has been superior to Rose almost in every aspect and his speed doesn't make up for being a defensive liability. Just have to look at our results this season and see who was playing to know who should be first choice LB.
Seems to be one of the few streams showing our game: http://www.streamsarena.eu/streams/stream13.html
1-0 Bournemouth. Ritchie. I was just about to post about anything coming in from their left wing being a problem. You can see that the sunlight's low and nobody can see properly. Really poor marking and failure to close down. Perfect start for the opposition.
