Match Day Thread Tottenham Hotspur v Southampton

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Wednesday 1st January 3pm
Premier League
St Mary's Stadium​

Another game of two halves against Norwich, though one which we failed to finish off once level.
Encouraging displays from some of our less used players, but a poor team performance on the whole.
It'll be a stern test for Mourinho to keep the positives and remove the negatives from that one.
Facing a rejuvenated Southampton won't help matters, either.
Can the manager overcome the packed fixture list and nick a win or will the Saints make us sinners?

Ralph Hassenhuttl's first full season at Southampton has been very hit and miss, so far.
A mixed start lead to a deep trough of form, involving a 9-0 home humiliation to Leicester in October.
They dropped to 19th in the table and it looked like the Austrian's number might be up soon.
An unlucky draw with Arsenal started to turn things around though and they've picked up since then.
Wins against fellow strugglers Watford, Norwich and Villa were followed by a victory at Stamford Bridge.

It hasn't all gone their win in recent weeks, as losses to Newcastle and West Ham demonstrate.
Their performances have improved notably though and their position in the table has shown that.
They're up to 15th now and in amongst a packed central mob, rather than eyeing relegation spots.
Their awful goal difference is a scar from their previous performances, but they're looking up the division.
A win here would put them in an extremely comfortable position.

Our meeting at St. Mary's last season was rather symptomatic of the end of our campaign.
Harry Kane gave us the lead midway through the first half and we looked to be strolling to a win.
A lackadaisical second half display let them back into it, then threw it away completely.
Valery leveled it up near the end, then a Ward-Prowse free-kick took all three points for the home side.
A rather familiar scene during the last 10 months of Pochettino's reign, unfortunately:

The home game this season had a similar theme, but a quite different ending.
Ndombele put us into the lead early on, before defensive errors put us back under it again.
Aurier picked up two quick yellows and was dismissed, then Lloris dawdled and allowed Ings to level it up.
A fantastically worked break put us ahead again before the break, but it was largely defensive after that.
They didn't create much and failed to make the most of what they did create though, so it finished 2-1:

No official injury news yet, but Davies and Lloris are still out.
Son completes his suspension with this match, while Winks and Sissoko are available again after theirs.
Long and Valery miss out for the hosts, who have no suspensions.

Lineups for each side's last league game:

Spurs: Gazzaniga; Foyth, Alderweireld, Vertonghen; Aurier, Eriksen, Lo Celso, Ndombele, Sessegnon; Alli, Kane.
Subs: Vorm, Sanchez, Tanganga, Dier, Skipp, Lamela, Moura.
League form: LWWLWD.

Southampton: McCarthy; Soares, Stephens, Bednarek, Bertrand; Redmond, Ward-Prowse, Hojbjerg, Boufal; Ings, Adams.
Subs: Gunn, Yoshida, Vestergaard, Romeu, Armstrong, Smallbone, Djenepo.
League form: WLLWWD.

Ref: Mike "****ing" Dean. VAR: Anthony Taylor.

TV: BT Sport 1.

How would you like to line up for this one and what would you change from the Norwich game?
Would you stick with much of the same lineup, make a few changes or go for a wholesale switch?
Which system and tactics would you use and what are you expecting Southampton to go with?

 

Paul Stewart played in red and white stripes- twice!

 

Gazza
Foyth, Dave, Jan, Sess
Skipp, Tanguy
Lucas, Dele, Gio
Kane

 

Both sides can't keep a clean sheet.
I would concentrate on defence and tell the defenders not to go further than 25 yards away from the goal line- the ball over the top kills us every time and we have no pace at the back.

Gazza
Sissoko, Foyth, Toby, Sanchez, Tangana, CCV, Jan, Sessegnon,
N'Dombele
Kane.

 

Gazza
Foyth Dave Toby Jan
Sissoko Tanguy Gio/Sess
Lucas Kane Dele

 

I'll even STFU about Dier, if we can have done with Aurier and three in the middle....Please?

 

Come to think of it, tempted to see Eriksen over Dele for this. Dele’s more or less played every minute and he didn’t look all that vs Norwich, whilst Eriksen had a blinder, probably worth keeping him in and not running Dele into the ground.

 

It's time for Operation Mindfuck

Gazzaniga; Foyth, Sanchez, Vertonghen, Cirkin; Skipp, Ndombele; Lo Celso, Dele, Sessegnon; Kane

 

Bold but interesting shout. He’s travelled with the first team for one or two games recently.

 

It's been reported that he's been training with the first team since last month, which happens to have coincided with Danny Rose being Unpersoned (again)

 

Until we sort out the situation at FB and DM, to my mind we have to play a conservative defense and a 3-man midfield, with one of those midfielders a more attacking player making runs from deep (Lo Celso or Sess can do this well), and the other two working their socks off. The back 4 can and should stay back at all times as we are currently offering the resistance of a damp paper bag when on the back foot. I was in favour of using wing-backs until recently, but Aurier's crossing is shambolic and sadly Sessegnon's attempts on Saturday also left much to be desired. So screw the idea of FBs and let's just play 4 CBs across the back and be done with it.

 

I think that's pretty much what Mauricio Pochettino had in mind when he signed Lo Celso and Ndombele. We'd be playing a 4-3-3 with those two being our more deep lying creative forces (there's no doubt that we hoped to get Eriksen out in the summer) and getting the ball forward much faster than we had been doing.

If you put Son - Kane - Lucas in front of that then we become a team with pace on the counter, who shouldn't get out-muscled in midfield. If we'd got 2 new full backs with pace, you can easily switch in Dele or Lamela for Sonny/Lucas without losing too much.

What we don't have is any central midfielder suited to playing how Mourinho wants AND fit enough to do it. We're just overrun, week in and week out...the Bournemouth experiment excluded. Whatever happened to that?

 

While an 8-1-1 would be one answer to Spurs' perpetual defensive frailty, I'd take a slightly different approach.

There's one club in the PL averaging three points a game, two clubs averaging two points a game, and 17 averaging near enough to one point a game as to lump them all together. Whichever one of them manages to take three points most often will probably finish fourth.

As bad as leaking goals is, it's better to leak goals than not to score them, since you only get three points if one goes past the other keeper.

I was encouraged all three major signings played last week, two of them in two of the spots that have been underperforming. In the long term, I'd like lo Celso to join Ndombele at CM, and Sessegnon to stay at LB. Give it time for them to adjust to the system, and for the system to adjust to them. Getting the best available fit players on the pitch was a key to CL success last year, I thought.

For this game I agree Dele might need a rest, so it would be good to play Eriksen, and possibly Sissoko as well. Medium term, I'd seriously consider Sissoko at RB.

 

Tanguy will be sporting a new look for the match tomorrow. Think he may have lost a bet, he’s shaved his head and on Aurier’s Insta story it seems Aurier and Eriksen are mocking him for it.

 

Tanguy will get the last laugh when he beats the first man with a cross at the first time of asking...

 

Danny Rose has picked up an injury and will miss tomorrow's game. Just telling you so that you can work out how little you care about that.

Still no return date for Ben Davies, which is a massive concern.

And Hugo's return date has been set to 'some time in February, probably nearer the end'.

 

Cirkin to start against at Boro?

 

Happily. Or Georgiou, who I believe is back from Ipswich?

 

Georgiou mainly plays like a winger these days

Also worth noting that, unless extensions are confirmed, George Marsh's loan at Orient expires today and Jack Roles' loan at Cambridge expires on Sunday

 

So the good news is that we're not playing Dier/Sissoko or Winks/Sissoko...