please log in to view this image Saturday 20th August 3pm Premier League White Hart Lane First home game of the season and it's a London derby(ish), as we chase our first win. Another disappointing draw against Everton wasn't ideal, but at least we didn't lose, I guess. Starting away from home every season really kills our momentum, in my opinion. It's an unnecessary risk and it's one that we need to stop taking. Palace's own start to the campaign was also not what they were looking for. A dour game against West Brom ended in frustration, as the away side nicked all three points. Salomon Rondon scored the only goal of the game with a late header from a set-piece. Something of a Tony Pulis special and something that we need to be prepared for when we face them. The corresponding fixture last season saw us take all three points after a decent performance. We had most of the possession and chances, but were lucky not concede before we scored. Palace hit the woodwork and Lloris made a superb save, before Heung-min Son put us in the lead. His breakaway goal remained the difference between the sides, as chances were hard to come by. Our visit to Selhurst Park was a more eventful affair and one that most people will remember. Jan Vertonghen had a nightmare, conceding an own goal and then having to go off injured. He hasn't looked 100% since that day, though Wimmer deputised admirably. Going in 1-0 down at half-time having been much the better team was quite hard to take. The second half saw a memorable comeback and some superb goals. Harry Kane's header leveled things up, leading to a tense finish, as we tried to push it and they broke on us. Dele Alli's winning goal came with around five minutes to go and was replayed relentlessly. Nacer Chadli went on to put the cherry on the cake in injury time, scoring a wonderful goal himself. Injuries and suspensions are mounting up, despite not appearing to be much of an issue until this week. Dembele is still out and has two more games to go. Lloris and Wimmer have hamstring problems, while Son probably won't feature after the Olympics. Combine that with the handful of players that appear to be frozen out and we're a little light. Palace might be worse off than we are, though. Souare, Williams, Campbell, Sako, Tompkins and McArthur are all either out or doubts. Mile Jedinak (Villa) and Yannick Bolasie (Everton) have both been sold this week, too. They have no suspensions or anyone close to one, unsurprisingly. Line-ups for each team's last league game: Spurs: Lloris; Walker, Alderweireld, Vertonghen, Rose; Dier, Wanyama; Lamela, Alli, Eriksen; Kane. Subs: Vorm, Davies, Carter-Vickers, Winks, Mason, Onomah, Janssen. Palace: Hennessey; Ward, Dann, Delaney, Souare; Jedinak, Puncheon; Townsend, Lee, Zaha; Wickham. Subs: Speroni, Kelly, Ledley, Cabaye, Bolasie, Anderson, Ladapo. Referee: Michael Oliver. After that disjointed first half against Everton, would you change the line-up? The most obvious thought would be to alter the Dier/Wanyama pairing, but who drops out and who comes in? Would anyone do anything else different? 4-4-2, maybe? A diamond or wingers?
Even though they are both defensively minded, I feel Wanyama and Dier need more game time together to be able to understand the other's movements and know who can cover which areas when on the back (or front) foot. There will be times when we'll need these two to start games in that pivot so while Mousa is out, I think it'll be worthwhile to give them some much needed minutes alongside one another, even if it only lasts for 45 minutes and then switching things around. Team I'd go with: Vorm Walker, Toby, Jan, Rose Lamela, Dier, Wanyama, Eriksen Kane, Janssen McGee, Davies, Tripps, CCV, Winks, Onomah, Alli I'd bench Alli, even though Eriksen was far worse against Everton, Alli was also ineffective and I just feel having Eriksen to support Janssen and Kane will be more beneficial as he has better vision. Janssen's 35+ minutes against Everton makes it hard to leave him on the bench again and plus being at home I think we can afford to go 4-4-2 for a change (especially with the DMs) with Kane likely to play the 10 and Janssen the 9. Alli will still have time to come on and hit a worldie just like he did at Selhurst though
Good news for me is that I got a ticket for this...got it through stub hub...a spur put it on after face value so <applause > to them for not being a money grabber. The bad news is that A) I went to the Palace fa cups match last season and B) The only other ticket I got through stub hub was for Leicester last season in the league And we all know how those went!!!!
Want more than a one goal win this weekend. Spurs haven't won in 5 official matches so NEED a good win for themselves and a good springboard for Liverpool.
Palace have agreed a £27m+ fee with Liverpool for Christian Benteke. They'll have to get the deal done by noon tomorrow in order for him to be eligible to feature in this game, IIRC.
I think his increasingly strong position give MP the confidence to speak out and hearing their manager speak out on their behalf is no bad thing for the players IMO. The questions that arises is who is the 'Golden Goose' is it the players or is it the fans because at least the players are handsomely rewarded whereas the fans are given high ticket prices and Friday night games without the transport to get them home.
Pochettino is pondering that as far as on-pitch matters go, who is the golden goose and who is accused of killing the golden goose (players or manager) .
I think he has a point. The people organizing these endless competitions are mostly those who are purely concerned with making money, and have never kicked a football professionally in their lives. They have very little to no idea of the levels of fitness and endurance necessary to compete regularly at the top of the game.
Does beg the question why he didn't give Vorm more games? He needs to rotate much more this year. Give Kane, Eriksen, Lamela, Dier a week off now and again. Hopefully not all at the same time though. They will have such a core fitness that missing training for a week won't set them back.
Yep, I'd agree - if we had adequate replacements, but we don't. As MP said, the pressures are so great that virtually whatever decision he makes about resting, not resting, etc, can easily be the 'wrong' one. And that's only what he can control. Internationals, with players sometimes flying thousands of miles for a meaningless, but commercially attractive game, are outside of his control, unless he pulls a 'Fergie'
You want them to miss the odd training aspects that are most akin to full competitive games (the core fitness sessions etc) until they deemed to be fatigue free. Pochettino managed the Australia pre-season well IMHO. Most of the established seniors were not there, and I have not heard that there has been a sponsor / supporter PR disaster because of the squad used.
