please log in to view this image Thursday 10th March 6pm Signal Iduna Park Europa League Round of 16 Two teams in similar positions face off for a place in the last eight. Both sides come into the game on the back of massive domestic ties. Spurs drew 2-2 with Arsenal and Dortmund held Bayern to a goalless draw. It leaves both clubs sitting five points off the top of their respective leagues in second place. It'll be interesting to see how each coach approaches this one. It's definitely getting to the point now where this competition has to be taken very seriously. Whether that will lead to full strength sides being selected remains to be seen. Our hosts are having a very impressive season. They've only lost three domestic games and their two Europa group losses came after they'd already qualified. They've won 18 league games from 25 fixtures and are currently 16 points clear of third place Hertha. They're also set to face the Berlin side in the semi-final of their domestic cup next month. A comfortable 3-0 aggregate win over Porto got them through the last round of the Europa. Dortmund's squad is extremely talented. Leading goalscorer Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang is the current African Footballer of the Year. The Gabonese striker already has 32 goals to his name and is being watched by the usual suspects. They have a host of very good midfielders available to support him, too. Reus, Mkhitaryan and Kagawa are generally their best attacking options. Gundogan, Sahin, Bender, Wiegl and others offer depth further back. Their entire defence are capped internationals, including the likes of Hummels and Subotic. Durm and Schmelzer appear to be their favoured fullbacks at the moment. This is going to be a massive test for the squad, no matter who we select. They're a dangerous, well organised side and Champions League sides will be hoping to avoid them next season. It should show us what we'll need to do to compete in that competition ourselves, if we get there. Lineups for each club's last league game: Spurs: Lloris; Walker, Alderweireld, Wimmer, Rose; Dembele, Dier; Lamela, Eriksen, Alli; Kane. Subs: Vorm, Davies, Trippier, Carroll, Chadli, Mason, Son. League form: WWWWLD. Dortmund: Burki; Piszczek, Bender, Hummels; Durm, Weigl, Gundogun, Schmelzer; Mkhitaryan, Aubameyang, Reus. Subs: Weidenfeller, Ginter, Subotic, Sahin, Leitner, Ramos, Castro. League form: DWWWWD. Referee: Cüneyt Çakýr (Turkey). This thread will be used for both legs and I'll try to update it after the first one. How should Pochettino approach this game? Should he pick a full-strength side or risk rotation, with the league in mind? Who should replace Dele Alli, who misses out with a controversial suspension?
Hard call this..we need to beat Villa. I'd be less miffed if we lost this but won Sunday. We must win Sunday even if it means resting our best players. I understand the Spursy possibility of messing both games up though!
Given the enforced changes for Alli and Rose we'd be wise to play Walker against Dortmund and Trippier against Villa.
I'd go as full strength as possible I think. If we win then we'll be well up there as favourites. I'd prefer Walker at right back against Reus as his extra pace should help him over Trippier. I'd have Son start as well as Lamela with Eriksen in between. Kane up front too.
We should stop stalking this Europa Thingama-jig now, I mean right now, in order to concentrate on winning the Premier League. I say this because we're just as responsible for taking Leicester for granted as most other clubs. We gifted them 4 points this season, other clubs more. I'm not saying Leicester are not playing well., believe me they are, but. Most managers have been caught out idling with their pants rolled down close to their ankles by Tinkerman with only nine games left to play. Had Pochettino played full strength teams in either of the PL meetings with the Foxes, Spurs would be in 'pole position' with licence to play tighter football in this Europa Thingama-jig game tomorrow. Winning the Premiership should be the priority.
^ Well said. The EL is like asbestos. It seems like a good idea, but in reality it's a killer. Has any English team fared well in it without it having an adverse effect on their league performance? Another 7 games to win it plus 9 PL games in the next 2 and a bit more months is too much without sensible squad rotation - which means playing a 2nd team in the EL.
Mythbusting: Does European football effect league performance. http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/35146716 No. Everyone likes to use European football as the scapegoat, teams lose even if they have a week off, its only when you lose after you have played in Europe, that it must be the reason you lost.
If we didn't have the league to play for and we were going for 4th place..I would want us to go all out for this. However, we are playing for the league...I want us to go all out for that. I don't see the Europa as asbestos..it wouldn't be asbestos if it paid well. I can't get my head around Thursday/Sunday when Wednesday/Saturday is fine. Its mass hysteria and slightly mental. Almost like its become a valid excuse in European football. Don't see why, especially when we want Wednesday/Saturday European football.
Away goals are everything in the Ropey league, attack, attack, attack. A 3-3 draw tonight would be just fine.
Anyone else think that Tripper's delivery is so good it might be worth playing him further forward like HR did for Bale? I'd like to see Tripper and Walker in the same side.
These kind of wise after the event comments are always easy to make and are never convincing IMO. The writer tries to give the impression he knows more than, in this case Pochettino, without ever having made a decision in anger. Sorry Bajan there was nothing 'under strength' about our team facing Leicester in both PL games. We lost by a single goal at WHL in a game we dominated and a draw away. If's don't win anything and making decisions without the prior knowledge in the heat of battle is quite different from hindsight 20/20 vision. We are second and Leicester first and that tells me that very few have found a way to beat Leicester this season and Spurs have also been difficult to beat. The EL is a major European cup that we fought long and hard last season to be part of, it would be a major success to win it. Winning the PL requires a team that faces all these challenges and comes through, we are much closer than any of us dreamed and that is due to the decisions made by Pochettino so he's not done bad so far, has he!
That's actually a bloody good idea because aside from the crossing, they'll also be up against Reus who's bloody fantastic (unless he's injured?) and so doubling up on him and allowing Tripps the freedom of being a bit further forward could really work well. I'd go with: Hugo Walker, Toby, Big Kev, Davies Dembele, Mason Tripps, Eriksen, Son Kane Vorm, CCV, Bentaleb, Carroll, Chadli, Lamela, Onomah I'd be lying if I predicted us to win this one, Dortmund are world class opposition and the biggest European side we've faced since Real Madrid when we were in the Champions League so it's going to be really tough, especially with no Dier and Alli who've been key to our successful style this season, plus the form and pace of Aubameyang is frightening. If we can leave with an away goal that'll be great. I definitely won't be too disappointed at a 2-1 scoreline in Dortmund's favour because I always fancy us against anyone at the Lane, especially on a European night.
The biggest tie in the EL for years and haven't heard once the pundits say something like "this is the second in the PL v the second in the Bundesliga" or something similar to suggest it's hugeness.
Description of Spurs from the Dortmund manager seems odd to me: Asked about Tottenham, Dortmund boss Thomas Tuchel said: "They are a hard-working, highly defensive team who have earned their place for many years as one of the best sides in their league. I suppose he is referring to our closing down habit but I always see that as offensive rather than defensive?
Course they won't, Sky for instance still barely even recognise us as title challengers. Twice in the past couple of weeks, once on their twitter and then on the TV, they were talking about the title race and had photos of Ranieri, Pellegrini and Wenger then spoke about their sides' chances while there was nothing of Pochettino and Spurs. While it can be annoying that we're just being completely disregarded, I also somewhat enjoy it because aside from obvious Spurs-related reasons, I'd now really love to win the Prem, because Sky would then have no choice whatsoever but to sing our praise and you just know their leaders would be gritting their teeth at having to give us credit.
We'll show him how defensive we are tonight when Trippier hits a 30-yarder, Wimmer goes all van Basten and Toby's header rips through their net.
No problem SoS, I don't want them to notice us until a few seconds after the final game of the season. They will never sing our praises. If we did go on to win it Sky would go something like 'It's been a very strange season where nobody wanted to win it, Spurs just went about their normal business and watched everyone else drop away' . In the eyes of Sky, Spurs will never win it, everyone else will lose it. C'est la vie et pas de problem. Nous nous lancons, vers la gloire, OK. (appologies to David Byrne)
