Match Day Thread Tottenham Hotspur v Borussia Dortmund

Lovely article on the BBC where a chorus of pundits claim that Harry Kane will never be 'truly world class' unless he leaves Spurs. Funny how no-one ever said that about Shearer.

Also thanking the stars that Barca are stupid enough to think that Coutinho is better than Eriksen. Idiots.

 

Christian Eriksen's an oddity for a modern footballer. He hates the limelight. He's on record saying how much he likes that Spurs don't make him do very much promotional stuff and he's very grateful for that.

When he signed his contract last season, he said how much he likes living in London. He goes out on the tube and can be fairly anonymous whilst seeing all that London offers, which is a great thing for a lad from a one horse town in Denmark. His girlfriend has only just relocated here and his family like London. No chance of enjoying that kind of lifestyle in Barcelona or Madrid, which for all their footballing appeal are much smaller cities and the definition of the goldfish bowl.

As a teenager, he was courted royally by Barcelona. He turned them down for Ajax. Money is not his god.

 

1. Perhaps they thought Shearer was English league class,
but was unlikely to become "truly world class" even if he
did play for a Euro giant.


2. Phil Neville.

Love the BBC guy comeback about whether Lewandowski
was world class while at Dortmund.

 

You forget according to many pundits he's a one season wonder. Perhaps they are right, I wonder if there is a limit on how many goals he can score in one season? Clive Allen was doing the commentary on Super Sports last night and he was saying that he truly believed that Kane had a chance of beating his 49 goals in a season. It was quite interesting, he said that was that Greavsie wasn't super happy when he took Greavsie's record and it would be difficult for him to accept if Kane took his record.

 

Post-match stuff ...

Manager :

Players :

NOTE :

The first question to Pochettino was from a Korean reporter.
The Son factor abounds, and scoring in CL games must be
raising the kerching levels for the club.

 

Another way to look at it is saying the Man Utd employee or the ex-Man City employee...

Alan Shearer is the test case for English fans and pundits overusing the term "world class" until it means nothing.

He was nothing more than Dion Dublin with a set of overused elbows.

 

What a game! First half was white knuckle and tough to watch as a fan but we got through it and second half was just an excellent performance. Incredible performance from the whole team and a result that was really important.

I love Ben Davies!

COYS

 

Davies' form (and I agree he was top notch last night, again) makes it an interesting test for when DOF Rose comes back. I hope he doesn't walk straight in when fit.

 

I think he and Trippier simply have some games they're suited for and some they're not. They're excellent against lower sides and sides that don't have too much pace on the flanks but when they are up against a side with pace and skill they usually get terrorised, which is what was so impressive about Davies last night. He shouldn't have had a good game but he did. We definitely need Rose back for Real Madrid though.

 

If Davies continues at this level at both PL and CL,
Pochettino may play him regardless of whether the DOF
is fully match-fit by the time of the Madrid game.

 

USA Soccer Guy

After a dry spell in August, HurriKane season is back for the Whitespurs as their MVP inserts twice against Russia Dortmund at the Wembley Arena. The Soccer Chickens won 3 to 1, although the German franchise were kinda mad when Obama Yang had an equalization strike denied by the denial flag erection when the score was 2 to 1. Coach Poncho Tino's guys got the W, although Jan the Tongan's major felony card in overtime kinda sucked.

 

It was Zokora in the last minutes of the League Cup Final all over again for me. That time I had a few quid on Zokora to score last, this time I had Son to score first and 4-1... luckily I was being an indecisive bastard so I stuck 50p on both 3-1 and 4-1(plus the same but with Dembele scoring first ). Only £30 back so not enough to retire yet

 

Yeah, maybe. Certainly can't knock him on current form.

What's DOF stand for?

 

Dbetternot Ogoogle Fryansessegnon

 

Director of Football. It comes from when he decided he was the arbiter of the standard of player that should come into the club (I believe anyway - don't know who coined it)

 

Anyone else afflicted by hearing "Piss Sock" every time the Dortmund player Pizczek [pronounced "Piss Check"] touched the ball?

 

Toby says......."We didn’t play like children, we played like adults. The game didn’t always go our way but we fought, we stayed compact, we tried to be dangerous when we broke. We had to learn quickly and we have done. It is a good step from last season and we are happy with it."

Sounds like an intentional tactic. It sounds good to me.

 

No.

 

It's hardly the first time we've used that tactic, as we used it to great effect in the 5-3 over the Chavs that also gave us this...

please log in to view this image

 

Pragma over dogma is the next step for Pochettino to master.
The more tools in the team formation toolbox, then Spurs will be
even better than they currently are.

If Dembele had fronted up yesterday in MF, it would have
worked better. With Wanyama back, this tactic will have even
more bite than it did yesterday.