Match Day Thread Tottenham Hotspur v Barnsley

If he's even just Juan Foyth of the player Toby is, he'll still be good.

Yep, I've grabbed my coat.

 

Live on Super Sport tonight so a late night, work will be difficult tomorrow, so will my exercise regime normally undertake at 04:00. I can never sleep after an exciting football match, perhaps for the sake of the ZZZZZZds I should take up watching l'arse.

 

It means, quite simply, their season went off the rails - i.e. Manchester City finishing fourth in a season where Chelsea, Man Utd and Liverpool failed to even finish in the top four, let alone mount a serious title challenge.

And now I'm going to explain it to you in remarkably simple terms.

Here is a side-by-side comparison of the Man Utd teams that played in the 2009 League Cup final and Champions League final
Foster - Van der Sar
O'Shea - O'Shea
Ferdinand - Ferdinand
Evans - Vidic
Evra - Evra
Oily Rat - Park
Gibson - Anderson
Scholes - Carrick
Nani - Giggs
Tevez - Rooney
Wellbeck - Oily Rat

Long story short, only four players played in both matches

Now let's do a side-by-side comparison of the Man City teams from the 2016 League Cup final and their Champions League semi-finals

Caballero - Hart/Hart
Sagna - Sagna/Sagna
Kompany - Kompany/Kompany
Otamendi - Otamendi/Otamendi
Clichy - Clichy/Clichy
Fernando - Fernando/Fernando
Toure - Fernandinho/Toure
Fernandinho - De Bruyne/Toure
Silva - Silva/De Bruyne
Sterling - Navas/Navas
Aguero - Aguero/Aguero

Hart, De Bruyne and Navas were the only players rested for the former who played in the latter, and that is a massive difference in terms of utilising a squad - because City didn't have squad depth due to the aforementioned lack of suitable cover for several key players, and guess what? Their season went off the rails.

Now let's look at the teams I noted had their seasons derailed by the League Cup final, and why I am using the term "derailed" (and that's a proper use of inverted commas) based on what happened
Spurs 1999 - after winning the final the players eased off for the remainder of the season
Spurs 2002 - Hoddle rested players for several weeks to prepare for the final and our league form suffered
Middlesbrough 2004 - after winning the final the players eased off for the remainder of the season
Spurs 2008 - after winning the final the players eased off for the remainder of the season
Birmingham 2011 - after winning the final the players eased off for the remainder of the season, getting relegated as a result
Liverpool 2012 - after winning the final the players eased off for the remainder of the season
Swansea 2013 - after winning the final the players eased off for the remainder of the season

But let's break it down another way...
Spurs 1999 - won two of nine league matches after the final
Spurs 2002 - won four of of twelve league matches after the final
Middlesbrough 2004 - won five of thirteen league matches after the final
Spurs 2008 - won two of twelve league matches after the final
Birmingham 2011 - won two of twelve league matches after the final
Liverpool 2012 - won four of thirteen league matches after the final
Swansea 2013 - won two of eleven league matches after the final

I think I can sum up the run-in for each of those seasons in one easy to understand picture

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Sadly you have not managed to do either.

If staying on the rails is getting a PL top 4 finish, or being a title
contender right til the end, then being "derailed" is something
that means you fail to do that.

So you are appear to be claiming that winning the League Cup
for said clubs in said seasons is that something.

However the problem is ostensibly N variable.
The winners you cite, may have derailed even without playing
any League Cup games (simply not good enough) .

They may have derailed because of UEFA competition participation
(CL/EL) , alone or in conjunction with a League Cup run.

And there isn't enough raw data form the PL era to show what
you claim is actually statistically significant.

 

Nut case.

 

So you're saying that Manchester City scraping into the top four on goal difference in a season where three of their usual title challengers failed to even manage that doesn't count as a season going off the rails?

Do you honestly believe that, or are you just being a pedantic contrarian for the sake of it?

Go back and read what I said, check the examples I cited, and most importantly use your goddamn brain before you post a response.

 

No.

What I am asking is you whether you are claiming that the
reason the above occurred is wholly/predominantly due to
Citeh winning the League Cup

 

Anyone else imagining the **** storm if we don't win tonight??!!!

 

Beware the Wembley curse

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Quite strong, after all that.

 

Zeki Fryers playing in a Spurs game at Wembley.
Who doubted that would happen?
I think I spot a couple of ex-West Ham youngsters in there, too.

 

Pretty much as expected...other than using our one Dembele match a week on Barnsley instead of the Scammers.

 

Defensively, we look like a gathering of hobbits.

 

I predict that, if we haven't made an utter bollocks of something, TOB will be replacing Dembele

...that means giving him ten minutes or so, Poch, not bring him on as we're running down the clock!

 

Get the job done ASAP, then hopefully Dembele
will be ok for the Spanners and GKN will get a
decent run-out.

 

Any links??

 

Try to feign surprise, but there's people out there looking to put a spin on why Edwards isn't featuring tonight - the short version saying that, because Edwards turned down deadline day loans to Championship and Eredivisie teams, Poch's freezing him out of the team.

In future, Poch, just say you don't want our top prospects getting Charlie Adam'd by a lower league defender. It stops blogs putting two and two together to get green...

 

Crystal Palace have scored their first goal of the 2017-18 season.

 

Can't find a link. Not even the random Saudi channels seem to have one. Anyone?

 

Can't even get any Streamable clips on r/soccer