One point in the favour of this experiment is that it should show us what issues our squad has. My opinion is that we'll see a problem in central midfield and our fullbacks won't be attacking enough. Scarlett may end up isolated and lacking service, but I don't think he's ready for this yet, either. If things don't go well, then we'll have a better idea of what we need to do in January. Will we do it? Probably not. We'll have no excuses about not knowing what was needed, though.
18 minute press conference with Espirito Santo and Bergwijn: Lots of questions about Bruce. Seems to have quite a lot of respect for him.
Vitesse have raised their capacity for this match and it's sold out. It'll be their largest attendance since they played Ajax in 2014.
There is a very big continuity gap (ability + experience playing alongside each other etc) between : 1. the PL strongest starting XI, 2. the strongest starting XI that can be fielded from the rest of the squad. IMHO that gap is the biggest it is has been for several years, and severely hampers the ability of the squad to comfortably end up top of the ECL group + beat the League Cup opponents to date. However that is what the coaches and manager are there for (to make that gap as small as possible) .
Without Sessegnon and Doherty, I don't think we can play 3 at the back. Gollini, Tanganga, Sanchez, Rodon, Davies, Winks, Lo Celso, Alli, Bergwijn, Gil and Scarlett and no one to get us of trouble on the bench. That team should be good enough to get a decent result tomorrow night, they should all be motivated to play well to put pressure on those left behind, whether that midfield can get enough control will probably be the key issue and that may be the problem.
Same prize for winning either of the domestic pots but without ridiculous travel, playing on ploughed fields and a minimum 7 extra fixtures. In any event, I think once settled and the new signings have adjusted, our strongest XI is a top 6 side. But it will struggle to be that if it is used twice a week. As I've said since day 1, this clown conference league should be used for blooding youngsters and keeping squad players match fit, nothing more.
No it isn’t, winning this qualifies you to the Europa, same as FA but not Carabou. Prize money is also a lot more for this than domestics, a team like ours could earn around £13m+ by winning the comp when factoring in prize money throughout the rounds and winning group games, not a staggering amount in comparison to the other European competitions but when you get about a total of £1m-ish for winning the Carabou and around just over double for the FA, it’s significantly worthwhile to the club to at least give it a go. I’m all for giving the youth and good squad players game time, though I’m against leaving the first XI players all at home, especially knowing full well the second XI struggles against half decent teams.
Rotating the entire side doesn't exactly assuage the feeling our plan for the ESL is to get 12 points in the group stage: win the home ties, draw the away ones Obviously that would be enough for us to go through...but only if we actually get the twelve points, and I get the feeling we're going to see the lineup tomorrow and wonder if we're going to do that
While there certainly have been differing approaches to sub-CL European football, it does seem like the usual is to put enough of an effort in to hurt Spurs' PL standing, but not enough to win the European competition. Not to be critical. Resting all the starters does at least have the virtue of not being the worst of both worlds.
I think any and all trophies are worth winning in our position. We've not won a trophy in 13 years, only won 2 in the Premier League era and have only won 3 in the past 37 years. So I would not talk down this trophy, particularly as we will not challenge for, let alone qualify for next seasons CL. However we are playing every 3 or 4 days (apart from the next international break) until early January. We can not run the whole squad into the ground and not have any of the squad players completely off the pace when we need them due to injuries and suspensions. I think it is a good idea to keep players fresh for Sunday...after the Arsenal, Chelsea and Palace London Derby fiascos Nuno is aware that he and the players owe us this Sunday...another car crash performance will simply increase the pressure on him.
I have to say that whilst I want us to take the competition seriously if you offered me a win over the spammers in exchange for a win tonight then I would take it because as I have said before I know and work with loads of them, they are all the worst sort of winners, and I am working Sunday night with a whole bunch so to make my nights work more bearable I would willingly take the hit tonight! But knowing us we will just lose both!
The Spanners finished above us and won this fixture last season. Preventing a repeat of the latter is at the minimum another opportunity for Nuno to try and make a "statement of intent" for the PL campaign (it will be similarly so for the Man Utd game) .
Is it an early kick off? Celtic and Leicester both kicked off at half 3. Spurs game isn’t that early is it?
I have a horrible feeling that we're going to see the return of the 4-3-3 and the invisible midfield tonight. I will not be happy if I'm right.
Wait does that mean when City win the league cup, we'll qualify for the Conference League even though we finished 8th? Well why didn't you say so sooner!!!