please log in to view this image Thursday 18th February 6pm Stadio Artemio Franchi Europa League Round of 32 Time for a replay of last season's fixture from the same round of the same competition. The ties are reversed and there's no League Cup Final to play right afterward, so let's hope for a better result. For those with slightly dodgy memories, the first leg ended 1-1 at WHL and we lost 2-0 away. Soldado had a mare in Italy, allowing Mario Gomez to dive his way through to the next round. We go to Florence with our hosts in fine form, despite a rough patch last month. They're currently 3rd in the table, though there's a gap of 7 points to second and another point to the top. Their cup form isn't quite as impressive. Not sure if this indicates a focus on the league. They were eliminated at the first hurdle in the Coppa Italia by Serie A new boys Carpi (no, me neither). Basel won their Europa League group, but they comfortably took 2nd, doubling the points of the remaining sides. None of their goalscorers from the meetings in our last campaign are still with the club, but there are some familiar faces. Recent West Ham forward Mauro Zarate joined in January, as did Leicester loanee Yohan Benalouane. The French centre-back featured in our recent FA Cup double-header before heading to Italy. Former West Brom midfielder Borja Valero, Bolton defender Marcos Alonso and Blackburn striker Nikola Kalinic are also in the squad. I haven't seen Fiorentina play this season, so I've no idea what to expect from them. They appear to have a lot of experienced players and they're Italian though, so I suspect that they'll know every trick in the book. Josip Ilicic and Kalinic are their top goalscorers with 12 and 11. The name that stands out to me though is Jakub Blaszczykowski. Polish winger with a load of caps who joined from Dortmund. Lineups for the last League game: Spurs: Lloris; Walker, Alderweireld, Wimmer, Rose; Dier, Dembele; Son, Eriksen, Alli; Kane. Subs: Vorm, Trippier, Davies, Mason, Carroll, Chadli, Lamela. League form: LWWWWW. Fiorentina: Tatarusanu; Roncaglia, Gonzalo, Astori, Alonso; Vecino, Valero; Tello, Ilicic, Bernarderschi; Kalinic. Subs: Tomovic, Costa, Zarate, Blaszczykowski, Pasqual, Lezzerini, Kone, Babacar, Sepe. League form: LWDWDW. I'll be leaving this thread up for both legs, as virtually none of the information is going to change. I'll draw a line under the first leg with some sort of update, though. Looks like the full squad traveled, barring Lloris who has a minor knock and may miss the FA Cup game, too. With that in mind, how many changes would you risk making? Should Pochettino do his usual and only switch the fullbacks plus one or two others? If not, then would you do more or less, now that the league and FA Cup are getting serious?
Poch and said that Onomah and CCV are in the squad (presume McGee will be too), I have a feeling CCV may make a starting debut seeing as we're pretty light at CB. Wimmer should be fine to play a number of games as he'll be pretty fresh in comparison to others, so I can see him partnering CCV, big game for the young lad if he does make the start, Fiorentina are a very good team, albeit I've read they've got some sort of injury crisis at the moment. Grabbing an away goal would be great. Team I'd go for: Vorm Tripps, CCV, Wimmer, Davies Mason, Bentaleb Lamela, Carroll, Chadli Son McGee, Walker, Rose, Dier, Onomah, Alli, Kane Couldn't see either Eriksen or Dembele in any of the pics shown on the OS of the lads training so maybe they've been left at home. Couldn't see Bentaleb either as it goes but surely he'll feature tomorrow?
No sign of Bentaleb in this clip, but Dembele and Eriksen are definitely there: http://www.tottenhamhotspur.com/spurs-tv/features/italian-job!/ There's a slo-mo clip from yesterday's training and it looks like roughly the same group: Lloris is there though and so is Bentaleb. Odd.
Would go with this except maybe onomah for Son. That's still a strong team who you hope would be able to get a result. It's a difficult one as if they play well then I'd really like them to all play on Sunday as well and then the following Thursday to finish the job hopefully. Would love us to be able to rest nearly the whole of the team that started on Sunday and keep them playing just the league matches (unless we get a lot further in the Europa league). I've always been a big advocate of always playing your best 11 and taking each competition seriously but like most of us I never thought we would have a chance of winning the league so want us to go for it 100% and not risk burning our best players out or getting unnecessary injuries.
Sorry, just noticed you were originally referring to the link posted under Italian Job in Spurs TV features although that's not loading up on my browser, has it been taken down now or is my laptop just having a spasm?
The link's not working for me now, either. Odd. Top video on Spurs TV. Direct links seem to break, which is bloody typical, frankly.
I'm usually more or less on board with SOS' team selections and this fixture is no exception. My only concern is the almost pathological lack of pace in that line-up, which I think is crucial as the away side playing against an Italian team. So I'd prefer Onomah instead of Carroll and push Lamela into the #10 position where I think he is deadly in Europe. Would love to see CCV get some game time as we really do need to rotate our CB's carefully in Jan's absence. Although I have a feeling we may see a similar situation to the Leicester game where Dier drops back into defense and Nabil takes up the DM role. Vorm Frodo CCV Wimmer Davies Bentaleb Mason Onomah Lamela Chadli Son
Having been on something of an island wanting us to play reserves in cups earlier, I ought to stay on the island and advocate playing a strong team now. It's been working for us, so why change? There may be a benefit in making players feel every minute is hard-earned. There's every temptation to keep the first team in rhythm by playing them only in the FA cup, no doubt. Squawka has FIrorentina at #8 and us at #9 in the top five leagues: the two highest teams in the Europa, for whatever that's worth. Benalouane has to be the first player to play four cup games against Spurs in a year--with two different teams, at least. Going out of two cups in a week has never looked, and probably will never look, so appealing. But I think the wiser strategy may be to simply try to keep the winning streak going by all possible means. It's much easier to knock a team off stride than to get it back on track. I'm sure it's caught the announcers' eyes as well. McManaman's attempts to pronounce that one may be epic.
Thinking things through a bit more, my feeling is that we'll see a pretty strong team tomorrow night, followed by numerous changes for the FA Cup match. If Poch was prepared to rest 7-8 players in the tie against Leicester (twice), I don't see why he wouldn't do the same against Palace. The outcome of this first leg will determine the strength of the team for the match next week, after which I expect a few more changes against Swansea and then absolute full strength against the scum in claret and scum in red.
I know we shouldn't count our chickens before they hatch but actually it would benefit us to go as far as possible in the Europa Cup to help with our UEFA co-efficient for next years Champions League. We are currently ranked 22nd, just a fraction behind Olympiakos. We should avoid being seeded 4th for the group stages but there is a very slight chance we could be in the 2nd seeds if a few more of the traditionally bigger teams struggle to qualify (Chelsea, Man Utd, Valencia, Sevilla and Schalke are possibly going to struggle this year). Also, we are catching up with Man Ure which should be motivation itself. http://www.uefa.com/memberassociations/uefarankings/club/
I'm always of the belief we should try and win every competition we're in, admittedly I do prefer seeing a more rotated side in cup competitions in the earlier stages but winning a trophy brings so much joy, if Poch goes full strength against Fiorentina x 2, Palace and then Swansea I can completely understand, even if I may **** myself at the thought of a higher risk of injury to Toby/ Kane/ Dier etc!
Any Covent Garden regulars on here? Only gone and agreed to go out for a meal later on today in the area but I'm hoping to find a pub to catch at least the first half, I've looked online this morning and seen the Freemason's Arms which is apparently a big footballing pub, anyone know what it's like or any other recommendations on where to go? I never usually make plans to coincide with a Spurs game, bloody typical!
"http://www.uefa.com/memberassociations/uefarankings/club/" When it comes to UEFA stuff , Bert is your man. Wanna see where we are / will be : http://kassiesa.home.xs4all.nl/bert/uefa/data/method4/trank2016.html http://kassiesa.home.xs4all.nl/bert/uefa/data/method4/trank2017.html
"Having been on something of an island wanting us to play reserves in cups earlier, I ought to stay on the island and advocate playing a strong team now. It's been working for us, so why change?" For starters, we have no second replacement CB ready to front up (Pochettino not managing the Fazio/CCV scenarios that well) . The Vertonghen injury has made that more relevant.
Someone pointed out we have a key advantage in Shakespearian nicknames (Hotspur vs. Viola from "Twelfth Night"). But, that being the case, who should we play vs. Fiorentina? I’m even more worried about Wimmer, actually. He’s gone from a seat on the bench to playing twice a week. I guess his backup is Davies. But having our rotating fullback take a busman’s holiday at CB may not be wise, even though we did exactly that with our DB. Speaking of reasons not to play a strong lineup (from a Viola on CFC): "Facundo Roncaglia, who's basically nonchalant violence personified. He's actually a reasonably good defender, the type who basically man-marks his opponent out of the match. He does have a history of violence on the pitch, though, and the absurd tackles are kind of his thing." The thought of losing anyone, let alone a completely irreplaceable player like Kane, Dier or Alderweireld, to a random nutter in the Europa is not comforting.
"The thought of losing anyone, let alone a completely irreplaceable player like Kane, Dier or Alderweireld, to a random nutter in the Europa is not comforting." This is the risk, and will increase with the number of cup games still to play. As I said elsewhere, use these 3 cup games also as an opportunity to get particular players match-fit with a view to having a strong (but not strongest) starting XI capable of being rolled out in the future cup games without risking key PL personnel.
