Difficult game tonight away at FC Basel in the UEFA Europa League Quarter Final 2nd leg - our 161st competitive European match since 1961. We will have to play much better than we did at the Lane last week to stand any chance of progressing to the Semi-Finals. Kyle Walker is back after suspension but we are still missing Younes Kaboul, Sandro, Jermain Defoe, Gareth Bale and Aaron Lennon - that's almost half of all our first choice starters! please log in to view this image Tottenham Hotspur in Europe 1961-62 to 2012-13
I',m with you.and you shouldn't worry about injury's,a player can get injured in training,they happen,teams just have to overcome them
Couldn't agree more players can get injured at any time.. Consistent top 4 would be fantastic but for me it's about silverware, winning trophies wether it be league cup Europa lge or whatever can only bring that winning mentality we are missing... I say lets get a strong team out tonight and try and win this competition COYS!!
Going for the win in the Europa has to make sense. I know the competition has too many games but what is the point in qualifying for a tounament if you don't try to win it. Why are we bothered about CL if we can't compete? You just have to do the best you can in ANY competition the only reason to prioritise the league at the expense of other comps is to make more money. Is that why we follow Spurs? Not IMO, we want to see them win something. Having said that it will be a tough task to proceed further in Basel but I think AVB will go for it so good luck to him and Spurs.
It's not that we don't want to win it, it's that the league has to come first. In modern football, longterm success is dictated by money and with the money we need to keep our best players and sustain our chances of competing at the top coming from a top 4 finish that should be our focus. As for our best team at the moment, who knows what that is? We hope our best players will be back and we'll look more balanced against City but it's not certain that we'll have them back or that they won't get injured again before the end of the season and that's why I'd prefer we explored our options in this game. Against Everton we had no real options on the bench to change the game so that's what we need to look to change, particularly in terms of width, we know relying on our fullbacks for the width will leave us vulnerable to the counter and doesn't really work too well so we need to work out whether there's a better way to solve that problem. Yes players can play 2 games in a week but when you're coming up against a team that has had all week to prepare for the game and you've had less than half that time to prepare, including recovery, then you're disadvantaged. We can't really afford that now.
While I get your point YV, we can't have the players going out there tonight thinking I'd better make sure I don't get hurt. They must have the mindset of winning and the day after focus on the City match. On the positions I think he should start Thudd at least he has an idea on the playmaker role and if Mousa plays push him further forward.
I went last week and was very impressed with Basel. Can't see us going to the semis without lennon, bale and defoe. The comfortably dealt with bale after lennon went off and can only see them being stronger at home. Just hoping we put on a good performance. I dontmean this in a doom and gloom way but itll be a great test for other squad players...they need to build on a good point salvaged against evrrton last sunday
I agree with all that, although I wouldn't if the City game was this weekend rather than next I know Spurf's not scoring this but I'm going for 2-3 Ade x 2 & Walker.
Friedel, Walker, Dawson, Vertonghen, Naughton, Dembele, Parker, Holtby, Dempsey, Sigurdsson, Adebayor. Subs: Lloris, Huddlestone, Livermore, Assou-Ekotto, Caulker, Coulthirst, Carroll. Interesting to see Coulthirst in the squad. Ekotto must've really pissed AVB off if he's still not getting a game. Disappointed to see Dempsey starting, I mean what is the point? He's not going to all of a sudden get any better. Cue Dempsey hattrick
What has Benny done so wrong that Naughton starts at left back ahead of him? It's really annoying. Edit: sorry just saw your post YV!
Friedel; Walker, Dawson, Vertonghen, Naughton; Parker; Dempsey, Dembele, Holtby, Sigurdsson; Adebayor Lloris, Assou-Ekotto, Caulker, Carroll, Huddlestone, Livermore, Coulthirst
I'd quite like you to go through tonight so we can play you in the semi finals... We're through so good luck lads
Carroll setting up Coulthirst for the winner would play well in the press. ...oh who am I kidding? They only care about Chelsea/Rubin tonight anyway.
