Match Day Thread Tottenham Hotspur v NS Mura

Don’t get chippy,
It could be worse.
You could be Celtic.

 

I'm really not that bothered and pretty much couldn't give a toss on a game to game basis. I don't want us to lose but fully expect it to happen regularly. Had it happened tonight, I'd have been surprised, but not overly so.

Our problems transcend tonight and Sunday. It's about much longer term issues and addressing the malaise that pervades the club from the top down. That's what I care about and more and more real fans are realising it.

 

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I thought they were ranked 327th. So by your esitmate, Spurs have done better then I had thought.

 

And these games just put more miles into the legs of players who you want to be fit and firing next Spring in all the other comps.
Not sure I understand the point of this competition. There are League Two teams who would have outclassed your opponents tonight.
What are UEFA hoping to achieve?

 

To serve the interests of clubs outside the major footballing nations...but modern football's about money...and there's **** all in this competition by PL standards.

As for us, Nuno couldn't lose tonight's game. It would have finished him. At which point, it's all about the short term...

...and fair play to him, he's got this club's MO pretty bloody quickly.

 

Who rattled your cage

 

Villa?

 

Young Boys?

 

I thought we started the game well and they couldn't handle it remotely.
The problem was that a number of our players were playing where they should be.
Sounds stupid, doesn't it? Why would that be a problem?

Alli was getting into the box, Lo Celso was drifting around behind the striker and it was working.
Then the former went back to playing left midfield, while the latter shifted onto the right wing.
Scarlett isn't ready yet, Gil had a poor game and Doherty very mediocre, as we've come to expect.

The complacency at the start of the second half was embarrassing and they deserved the goal.
Gil could've headed it away or just blocked it, but he moved out of the way and left Gollini no chance.
Quite concerning that he didn't even manage a dive, though. He's not showing much.

Kane, Son and Moura were obviously going to improve things.
I think that the fact that the side actually made sense when they came on had as much to do with it.
Our system suddenly made sense. Everyone was in position. Hardly surprising that it worked.

 

I think he’s good enough to play games in this competition but just like Kane so far this season he’s getting practically no service.

Getting Dele off the pitch last night helped massively though. We were much more fluid without him losing possession every two mins. It’s a shame Scarlett came off at the same time as I think had just Son and Lucas came on with Dele going off, Scarlett may have had an opportunity made for him. We likely wouldn’t have won by the same margin as when Kane came on but I think there could’ve been a chance for Scarlett to get his first goal last night if Nuno just had a bit more trust in him.

 

By the final whistle, we ended up with something pretty close to our best, current line up, swapping out Hugo for Gollini (who looks no different to Gazzanigga, to my eye) and having Royal/Tanganga at RB, with Reguillon on the left.

Will we see that on Sunday? I hope so, but have no idea...and there's the problem.

 

Lol, nope.

 

If they were 327th in Europe,does that make us about 200th plus?

 

We're 14th. Possibly 13th after last night, if it hasn't been updated yet.
Just to show the difference that consistently qualifying for Europa makes:
West Ham, Leicester, Wolves, Burnley and Everton are 71st to 75th.

 

The highlights from the club's Youtube channel:

I've only posted this because they don't have that juddery, distorted quality that the BT ones do.
Not sure why that is, as we're presumably getting the footage from their cameras. Odd.
Might be something to do with how they've uploaded them to Youtube.

 

https://kassiesa.net/uefa/data/method5/trank2022.html


"Just to show the difference that consistently qualifying for Europa makes:
West Ham, Leicester, Wolves, Burnley and Everton are 71st to 75th."

Indeed.
Which why this competition should at the minimum be regarded as a
ranking pts harvesting exercise (in addition to squad rotation/run-outs) .

 

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Thursday 25th November 5.45pm
Europa Conference League Group Stage
Stadion Ljedski Vrt​

Conte has his first league win at Spurs and now we're back to European football, again.
Leeds was definitely a game of two halves and both the match and training seem quite draining.
That may result in some dramatic rotation, especially given the supposed quality of the opposition.
It's also not really a home game for Mura, as it's being played in Maribor's stadium.
Can the manager provide another win or will we go into the last game needing a victory?

Mura have been in mixed but decent form since our last meeting, winning 1, losing 1 and drawing 3.
They also had the weekend off, as their scheduled match against Olimpija Ljubljana was postponed.
Their European form hasn't been good, though. They lost both meetings with Rennes.
On the plus side for them, they did only lose each match by a single goal.
The home match was a 2-1 loss, while the away game was only 1-0 to the French side.

Here are the highlights of each match from Rennes' Youtube channel, although one has no sound:

Romero, Scarlett and Lo Celso are joined by Bergwijn on the sidelines, as he's ill.
Skipp returns from his domestic suspension.
Skoflek appears to be the only injury for the hosts.

Lineups for each side's last league game:

Spurs: Lloris; Tanganga, Dier, Davies; Royal, Winks, Hojbjerg, Reguilon; Moura, Kane, Son.
Subs: Gollini, Doherty, Sanchez, Rodon, Sessegnon, Ndombele, Alli, Bergwijn, Gil.
League form: WWLLDW.

Mura: Obradovic; Marusko, Karamarko, Karicnik, Pucko; Lorbek, Kozar, Horvat, Kous, Lotric; Marosa.
Subs: Zalokar, K. Cipot, Bucek, Mulajusejnovic, Scernjavic, Sturm, T. Cipot, Ouro, Mandic.
League form: DDWDLD.

Ref: Antonio Emanuel Carvalho Nobre (POR). 33-year-old Liga NOS official. Virtually unknown.

TV: BT Sport 2.

How would you like to line up for this one?
Would you stick with much of the same lineup from the Leeds, tinker a little or change it completely?
Which system and tactics would you use and what are you expecting Mura to go with?

 

Press conference: