please log in to view this image Tuesday 16th September 8pm Champions League Group Stage Tottenham Hotspur Stadium Dragusin, Kulusevski, Takai and Maddison are all long-term injured. Bissouma and Solanke are probably still out, too. Neither side has any suspensions. Lineups for each side's last league game: Spurs: Vicario; Porro, Romero, van de Ven, Spence; Palhinha, Bentancur; Kudus, Sarr, Simons; Tel. Subs: Kinsky, Danso, Davies, Udogie, Bentancur, Johnson, Odobert, Richarlison, Kolo Muani. Villarreal: Luiz Jr; Mourino, Foyth, Veiga, Cardona; Buchanan, Partey, Parejo, Moleiro; Pepe, Mikautadze. Subs: Conde, Tenas, Alti, Marin, Navarro, Pedraza, Gueye, Comesana, Akhomach, Solomon, Oluwaseyi, Perez. Ref: Rade Obrenovič (SVN). VAR: Alen Borošak (SVN). Young, Slovenian officials. They were in charge for our loss in Alkmaar last season. We played ****. TV: Amazon Prime. How would you like to line up for this one and how do you think we actually will line up?
The absolute state of our team when we last played in the CL, for that horrific draw v Milan. The whole back line and midfield is diabolical.
Ah that one, thought I had expunged it from the memory! The joy of picking the one mid week game in the season we attended only for that rubbish to be served up... . First shot on target in the 90+ minute I believe ???
You could improve that team by simply changing for the formation, nevermind the personnel. Emerson and Perisic at wingback with Porro on the bench? Really? Conte had absolutely given up by that point. Shameful.
I was watching it on TV and fell asleep somewhere around the 70th minute, and that was despite drinking a coffee at half time. Abominable performance.
One thing I will never understand about Conte's system is when he never had Romero in the middle of the back three At Chelsea he had Luiz in the centre and at Inter it was De Vrij, both playing as a libero flanked by one CB who stayed back (Cahill and Skriniar respectively) and one more mobile player (Azpilcueta and Bastoni) So with us he had Eric Dier in the centre and two mobile CBs in Romero and Davies, even though literally swapping Romero and Dier would have given him the exact same setup as before
I hope it’s something like Vic Porro Romero VdV Spence Bentancur Palinha Xavi Kudus Richy Johnson I want to see Xavi in a midfield spot rather than on the wing and I think Bentancur and Richy will start as they didn’t at the weekend, and hope both will benefit from being fresher. Sarr and Bergvall both good options for energy and quality from the bench. Sounds like RKM won’t start to me, but I reckon will get some minutes. I don’t think Frank throws Udogie into this from fresh, more likely to start at the weekend IMO.
Looking at that team, it is exactly what Amorim is trying to do at United. Goalkeeper who isn't good enough to play the ball out. Left back playing as a makeshift CB because of...the system. Two DMs because of...the system. Two wide midfielders who aren't especially comfortable with being there because of...the system. All hopefully covered up by a superb front line.
"He could be totally innocent. I’m convinced that he is prepared to play vs Tottenham. We are really happy that Thomas is with us for his football ability, and his presence as a human" - Marcelino Hope we give them a drubbing
Yeah I think I’d go with that team too, albeit I think I’d be tempted to start Udogie for either Spence or Porro. I really liked Frank’s comments after the West Ham game where he spoke about giving Bentancur a full 90 mins off and trying to save Richarlison for as much as he could due to their travels. Too many times we’ve had managers not really looking out for the players’ fitness levels, Jose and Conte ran the likes of Kane, Son and Hojbjerg into the ground, Ange ran everyone into the ground and it now seems like we’ve potentially got someone who, where possible, will give players a bit of a rest. It adds pressure now to Bentancur and Richarlison to put in good performances tonight but then with the squad we’re building they’d need too anyway. All four of our main CMs have started the season really well so it should make them all desperate to impress because whoever’s on the bench will be ready to come in.
Yeah it’s really healthy competition at the moment. Helps that Frank will tinker as well depending on the opposition so naturally the minutes get a bit more spread out. Still think we need to address LB in January if we can, I don’t like the idea of VdV being our backup LB if others got injured. I guess there’s Ben Davies as well.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/cy85x9ywnjxo Lucas Bergvall conspicuously (and ridiculously) absent. Piss-poor journalism as usual from the BBC.
