Not an issue, as the Premier League has a maximum of five Champions League places next season - and since last Thursday there's nobody causing problems by trying to fit six into five.
Well that is actually the scenario I set out on here last week.... Trouble is, I'm seriously low on confidence around us getting more than a couple more points
The knock on effect is potentially massive. It’s one thing losing Toby, regardless of where we finish up. But to think that some other players that we want to keep might well want to call it a day, is unthinkable. If Chelsea or Liverpool don’t finish 4th or above, they’ll pay enough to keep their players. But if we don’t, I don’t think even an £850m new stadium is gonna be enough.
Surely the PL will now change the Toon fixture to KO at 19:45 rather than 20:00 (so Spurs do not have a 15 min time gap after the Chelsky game) .
Me too. It’s sucks to sound so negative, but I feel it’s realistic at the moment based on what we’ve seen in recent games. But my take on the next 2 games is as follows. Benitez uses his experience to contain us with a tactical master class like mourinho did in the FA cup, resulting in another performance just like yesterday and at Brighton, where we huff and puff trying to find Kane, to no avail. Not saying we’ll lose the game, but I certainly see us struggling to win. And Leicester to potentially pull off another result against us. I know they’ve been **** recently, but they’ve already beaten us this season, to put to bed the hammering they got at the end of the last campaign. I see another counter attacking performance, with that **** Vardy trying to prove he’s better than Kane just before the World Cup. They will all be enjoying the last game with nothing to play for except to finish the season on a high for their travelling fans. We could be in a very difficult position psychologically, and the nerves could well be showing. I just hope we’re not relying on other teams for results. It’s in our hands and we need to turn up like we have actually done a few times this season when it really mattered. Liverpool, chelsea, United, Real Madrid. We are capable. But at the moment, I think that results in us dropping Kane. Something I never thought i’d say a month or two ago.
Great to see the media jumping all over Salah for diving!!!! Fooled you!!! Of course not, anymore than they want to embarrass the recently crowned sports-writers POTS for punching out at an opponent. And yes, of course, whilst Salah escaped sanction the other day, Slimani wasn't so fortunate. Both as blatant and deserving as each other....
The only thing that might be in our favour (unlike against Brom) is that neither needs a win, so might settle for a point. But problem is we will still need a minimum of 4 pts to be sure, unless Pool screw up in there last game. Nervous as ****!! And you're right that Harry needs to be benched. In fact maybe rested altogether for Weds.
We really need to use the system we used against Bournemouth after Kane went off injured, as that seemed to motivate the players to actually work for every chance instead of what we've seen for the past few games where they're playing as if it's somebody else's job to create and score goals.
Spot on! Having a half fit Kane either on the pitch or the bench is just a distraction. Oh ****, I can't last the week at this rate.... Where a feckin' DeLorean when you need one!!
This. You can bet Newcastle will already be planning to have Lascelles and Dummet mark Kane out the game between them. Sticking someone like Son up there and playing like we did in Kane’s absence would throw a massive spanner in the works. Especially if they use their training sessions this week in preparation for only dealing with Kane. We had so much more pace, movement and energy in those games he missed. It was refreshing, and you could clearly see that teams didn’t have the experience of dealing with us playing like that. Thinking about it, I don’t know why we reverted back to old ways so quickly, and why we’ve persisted so much based on what we’ve seen over the last few games. Surely Poch must be now thinking about catching our opposition off guard and mixing it up a bit?
The reality is Lucas isn’t going to feature for any more than 15mins a game (if he’s lucky) for the rest of this season. No idea why, but we signed him in January and it’s now May and he’s barely played. Makes you wonder if something isn’t quite right to be honest. Does it really take 4 months to get up to speed? Maybe. But to only get a few minutes every now and again? Hmm. What is more likely is that Sissoko will come into DM at some point over the next 2 games, as Dembele is injured. Although Sissoko is much improved, he still offers us very little. If he does play, Aurier must be no where near the team, as that weakens us further in 2 crucial games. Vertonghen could miss Wednesday, so a 4231 with Toby and Sanchez could well be what we see against Newcastle, and possibly against Leicester. No doubt Ben will come back in for Rose, too. As for the front 4, I expect 1 change against Newcastle. I doubt Kane will be dropped, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s son, Eriksen and Alli behind him. Think we’ll start like this: Hugo Trippier Sanchez Toby Davies Dier Wanyama/Sissoko Son Alli Eriksen Kane. Expecting a long night.
You're probably right on all of that. Ironically, considering we need a win, my worst fear is an absent Vertonghen. It was no coincidence that defence started floundering after he went off. The Lucas situation is bizarre. If we had another player burning it up in that role I'd say fair enough, stay on the bench and get s full preseason in. But both Sonny and Dele are running on empty and Lamela is not having any impact whatsoever. I've certainly warmed to Sissoko, but he clearly couldnt hit the proverbial bovines posterior with a large bladed implement, so provides no dependable attacking option. FFS! This is doin' my head in and it's still only Sunday
A quick visit to Transfermarkt indicates what the issue is, as this is the number of minutes he's played in every competition so far this season Premier League: 134 Ligue 1: 71 Champions League: 1 FA Cup: 248 Coupe de France: 0 Coupe de la Ligue: 8 Trophee des Champions: 0 Or another way to put it, here's how many minutes he's played by month this season August: 0 September: 36 October: 18 November: 17 December: 8 January: 0 February: 178 March: 80 April: 186 May: 12 To say he was lacking match fitness when he arrived at the end of January was an understatement, as his first start against Rochdale saw him play almost as many minutes of football as he had in the entire first half of the season - which goes a long way to explaining why he was starting to tail off with twenty minutes to go against Rochdale, Swansea and Brighton Of course that doesn't explain why he's not given 20+ minute cameos with the occasional start thrown in, as he'd do a hell of a lot more damage if that's how we used him.
That’s interesting reading, and I can see why he’s not been starting, or playing 90 minute games. But like you say, regardless of match sharpness, he’s fit enough to play 20-30 minutes from the bench.
Actually, those stats are quite damning to my eyes. Lucas effectively had his preseason in Jan and Feb and should have been given progressively more opportunities to build that still further. Was he injured at all, as otherwise if he is still not near 100% fitness it is because he only got 80 minutes in March!!
HBIC’s stats on Lucas further indicate that he’s not gonna start. So do we go: Lamela Alli Eriksen Son Or Son Alli Eriksen Kane ? Or do we drop Alli deeper as @Dier Hard has suggested in the past, and go will all 5 of the ****ers? After all, we’ve had years of no impact subs from the bench, and we’d still have Lucas for 5 minutes if we need him!
He did miss a couple of weeks at the start of the season with a malleolar injury, although as those often rule players out for 4-6 weeks it was hardly that serious - but the problem is that PSG didn't give him any real opportunity to work his way back to match fitness, so he's currently the worst thing that any Spurs player can be: 90% fit.
