A Pulis Palace means one thing, bus parking. Really need the attacking players on form so they can open them up.
I think this is an important game for Sherwood. A key advantage of him over AVB is that he will go for it in these kinds of games, where AVB seemed to struggle
Yeah agree. This fixture has become even more important by the fact it really is must win now. It's so tight, 8 points separate 1st to 6th. Tim will go into it with the right attitude and look to bombard them so to speak, just hope Pulis hasn't worked his park the bus magic with Palace just yet!
The only real choices I can think of are whether to start Chadli and Capoue. Always change a losing game. I'd start both, sit Bentaleb, and--assuming Soldado is hurt, which I'm uncertain about--start Chadli on the left, where he's generally been good, and move Eiriksen up to play behind Ade. Playing Capoue should also allow Dembele to get forward more, where he's been starting to be effective. I think that's a good team. Bring on the returning players late, with Townsend auditioning for the left wing spot, and Holtby for number 10. Probably sub Bentaleb for Capoue or Dembele as well.
Given we had a match postponed a couple of seasons ago when the police murdered Mark Duggan, it's best to assume that today's ludicrous verdict may cause us to have to rearrange this match for a later date as well.
From what I've seen of stoke under pulis, they've definitely become tighter defensively. However, he hasn't had any transfer windows where he's signed his own players. Therefore I don't see this being anything like playing stoke as he hasn't got those type of players to be able to set them up that way. It'll be a disciplined palace team for sure, but the challenge shouldn't be as hard as playing stoke a couple of years ago, IMO.
Good point, (don't worry I knew you meant Palace lol), Shawcross and Huth at Stoke under Pulis were one of the best partnerships in the League and dare I say for a period in Europe too. I presume Gabbidon and Mariappa will be the pairing at Palace, although they done great at the Etihad, we'll need shooting if we can't get through them two, even if Pulis is working his defensive magic on them.
We will need to get past Mile Jedinak first, and don't laugh, hes one of the most consistently (good) defensive mids!
I think that it is an important match for Sherwood because it's the first time that he's had the squad on the training field for a full week.
Lawro's Prediction for Tottenham Hotspur v Crystal Palace New Tottenham boss Tim Sherwood has kept his promise because Spurs have become more attack-minded in the last few weeks. I saw them win at Old Trafford on New Year's Day and they were better than Manchester United in that game, although they were rather fortunate that keeper Hugo Lloris got away with his foul on Ashley Young inside the area. We have seen how competitive Crystal Palace have been under Tony Pulis and I don't think there is a harder working team than them in the Premier League. For Spurs, a lot depends on whether Sherwood can keep Emmanuel Adebayor playing well but I would back them to get three more points here. Lawro's prediction: Tottenham Hotspur 2-0 Crystal Palace Lawro's 2013-14 Predictions
Premier League London Derbies 1992-2014 ahead of Spurs v Palace... please log in to view this image Premier League London Derbies Season 2013-14
Sherwood: "On team news – Andros, Gylfi, Lewis and Jermain are all back in contention." Our bench should be looking a little healthier, then.
