2016-17 season compass

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T

The RDBD

Well-Known Member
Jun 2, 2011
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Spurta
I posted this in response to several recent comments about how the Spurs fixture schedules have
and may come to pass ...


- Champions League

UEFA group stages mean 6 games.
Reaching the KO stages means playing two less games than the equivalent
stage of the Europa League.

The PL game following a CL fixture is mainly played on Saturday, with
the exception usually being a game against a "Sky 4" team (in which case
TV scheduling meaning Sunday) .


- FA cup

There are 5 games max for a PL team to reach the final.
As the round fixtures are played on a weekend, progressing further in the FA
Cup by definition will increase the PL fixture backlog.


- League cup

There are 4 games max in the first half of the season, 3 games max in
the second half. To reach the final means the finalists will be one PL
game behind the league at that point.


In recent seasons, Spurs have usually used Europa group stages and the
League cup to rotate the squad, and to bed in new signings made in the
summer. In 2013/2014, Spurs have had a full set of League cup fixtures.

However, the standard of the CL means that the past luxury of the Europa
is no longer an option for squad rotation. So staying in the League Cup
until the new year may be more important than usual for keeping the squad
sharp.

The PL fixture backlog caused by the FA cup starts around the time that
the CL KO stages begin. UEFA tournaments at least have a regular "rhythm" of
UEFA then PL games that the squad can get used to. The PL backlog from the
FA cup has to be fitted in on an ad-hoc basis.


So how do people think Pochettino should be managing the 2016-17 season ??

A "one game at a time" mantra seems naive when you already know where the
pressure points will be. We know from 2010-11 that playing the strongest XI
in PL and CL games can cause the PL campaign to grind to a slow painful halt
during the final third of the season.

Is the FA cup the real "problem child" in a season, while the League Cup
offers both valuable squad game time and a chance of silverware when the
season fixtures are not yet congested ??
 
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Based on provisional info out there, the worst additional fixture schedule for the
first half of the season would be :

CL Group stage, matchday one 13–14/09/16
League Cup Round 3 w/c 19/09/16
CL Group stage, matchday two 27–28/09/16
CL Group stage, matchday three 18–19/10/16
League Cup Round 4 w/c 24/10/16
CL Group stage, matchday four 01–02/11/16
CL Group stage, matchday five 22–23/11/16
League Cup Round 5 w/c 28/11/16
CL Group stage, matchday six 06–07/12/16

So the weekly fixtures per week up to that point would be :

1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 2, 2, 2, 1, 1, 2, 2, 2, 1, 1, 2, 2, 2
 
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Unless there is an injury plague by August, I am expecting the boys to set
themselves a target of 10 PL points min before the first batch of 2 games per
week comes.
 
First four games before CL :

A - Everton
H - Palace
H - Liverpool
A - Stoke

Dembele will not be available.
A minimum of 8 pts achievable from those fixtures ??
 
November

5: Arsenal (a)
19: West Ham United (h)
26: Chelsea (a)

Jeez !!! :(

We fought hard to take 5 from 9 from those games last season, and they were spaced out.
 
Leicester continue to have all the luck. They are at home after all six of their CL group fixtures. Arsenal have four but we only have two. Obviously the fixtures are quite random and the PL did not agree to our request to play our last two games away from WHL
 
paultheplug said:
Leicester continue to have all the luck. They are at home after all six of their CL group fixtures. Arsenal have four but we only have two. Obviously the fixtures are quite random and the PL did not agree to our request to play our last two games away from WHL
Click to expand...

Indeed.
Using the 2010-11 season and Spurs likely being in CL pot 3 as a guide, this would be the
fixture roster for the CL weeks :

CL pot 4 (a) , Sunderland (h)
CL pot 2 (h) , Man City (h)
CL pot 1 (a) , Bournemouth (a)
CL pot 1 (h) , Arsenal (a)
CL pot 2 (h) , Chelsea (a)
CL pot 4 (a) , Man Utd (a)

We already know that the opponents from CL pots 1/2 will be quality, whoever they are.
 
If we can keep our squad together, and don't do too badly with injuries, the sky's the limit. I say that purely based on how young and how good our squad was last year. They will improve next year, not a little but a lot.

As to how to treat the season, I expect once again we won't rotate 5-6 players for the front four spots, 3 for the two midfield spots, etc.

Failing that, I think that both domestic cups are poison chalices. How well we do next season should relate inversely to how well we do in the cups. This year's period of good form owed an important something to an early exit from the League Cup. IMO. We went downhill immediately after a couple of weeks of fixture congestion involving the FA cup.
 
redwhiteandermblue said:
I think that both domestic cups are poison chalices. How well we do next season should relate inversely to how well we do in the cups. This year's period of good form owed an important something to an early exit from the League Cup. IMO. We went downhill immediately after a couple of weeks of fixture congestion involving the FA cup.
Click to expand...

As I said in the main post, the FA Cup is painful to the PL campaign.
The League Cup you can get done and dusted with nominal fixture congestion, and in the first
half of next season the squad as a whole would be grateful for the games.
 
The RDBD said:
As I said in the main post, the FA Cup is painful to the PL campaign.
The League Cup you can get done and dusted with nominal fixture congestion, and in the first
half of next season the squad as a whole would be grateful for the games.
Click to expand...
The issue with the league Cup is that, more often than not, the winning team switches off for the remainder of the season - and considering there's well over a dozen league fixtures remaining, it's regularly seen teams plummet down the league (or in Birmingham's case, out of it)
 
humanbeingincroydon said:
The issue with the league Cup is that, more often than not, the winning team switches off for the remainder of the season - and considering there's well over a dozen league fixtures remaining, it's regularly seen teams plummet down the league (or in Birmingham's case, out of it)
Click to expand...

I don't think that is the case for those who are PL contenders, as the League Cup is hardly
"resting on your laurels" material. Such teams usually still have CL involvement too.
 
The RDBD said:
I don't think that is the case for those who are PL contenders, as the League Cup is hardly
"resting on your laurels" material. Such teams usually still have CL involvement too.
Click to expand...
In past seasons it's certainly harmed teams chasing top four, with Liverpool and Man City both tailing off afterwards (although in City's case they weren't helped by announcing Pellegrini would be off at the end of the season)
 
Poch meets the man who succeeded him at Southampton in the first match of the season at Everton, it could only happen at Spurs.
 
The RDBD said:
Spurs.

If Spurs hadn't poached Pochettino, then all their key players wouldn't have joined
Man Utd or the Poool. And they wouldn't have signed Koeman, who if he wasn't their
manager then he could not have been poached by Everton.
Click to expand...
Doesn't that mean it's all down to AVB then? If he hadn't been sacked we wouldn't have had to sack Sherwood and so Poch would never haave been in the frame.
 
PowerSpurs said:
Doesn't that mean it's all down to AVB then? If he hadn't been sacked we wouldn't have had to sack Sherwood and so Poch would never haave been in the frame.
Click to expand...
Shouldn't that technically mean it was Baldini's fault? By expecting AVB to integrate seven new players into the squad at the same time, a task that most managers find damn near impossible (which in turn exposed AVB's lack of nous) that derailed the entire 2013-4 season pretty much from the start.

BLAMECEPTION
 
humanbeingincroydon said:
Shouldn't that technically mean it was Baldini's fault?
Click to expand...

Shouldn't it be Arrys' fault ?? By not qualifying for the CL in 2012 ...

Anyway, however far back you go / spin it, whatever the chain of events are they will lead to an excuse
for Soton fans to blame and hate Spurs for their current plight. :)
 
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