Match Day Thread Tottenham Hotspur v Everton

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Saturday 13th January 5.30pm
Premier League
Wembley Stadium​

Our FA Cup campaign is off to a winning start and has been rewarded with a trip to sunny Wales.
Wimbledon put up stern resistance until Son was introduced, but fell away after conceding the opening goal.
Our opponents Everton fell at the first hurdle, losing to a late goal against their local Merseyside rivals.
They'll be desperate to avoid back-to-back defeats in this one, so we'll need to up our game drastically.

The blue half of Liverpool had a busy summer in the transfer window, losing some big names, but spending large sums, too.
Lukaku and Deulofeu brought in nearly £100m for their coffers and they paid out that and more on new players.
Sigurdsson, Klaasen, Pickford, Keane and Ramirez drained those funds, while Rooney returned on a free.
The message from the press was that we could expect a challenge for Champions League places. It was not to be.

Ronald Koeman failed to get the best from his new signings and struggled to replace the goals of his departed forward.
An opening day win against Stoke and a victory over Bournemouth were all that he could manage from the first 9 games.
A disastrous Europa League group stage added to the pressure and he was replaced in late October.
An immediate replacement didn't materialise and it was more than a month before a new man was brought in.

Meet the new boss, he's quite an old boss. Sam Allardyce joined in November, following his short hiatus from the game.
Results immediately improved and he dragged them from a relegation battle to eyeing Europa places, again.
The impact was clear, but their form has dipped a little recently, as they've stumbled after his first loss.
Can he turn this group around again, having added Turkish striker Cenk Tosun to the mix in the transfer window?

The game at the Lane last season was one of our more misleading scorelines.
A fairly comfortable, routine victory almost became a wasted opportunity, as we conceded twice late on.
Harry Kane put us ahead in the first half with a wonderful strike from range and we pretty much coasted from there.
He added a second after the break and it felt like it could be game over. Not to be.
A slip from Vertonghen allowed Lukaku to pull one back late on, before Alli restored the gap.
Valencia nicked another right at the death to make it look pretty respectable:

Our visit to Goodison Park earlier in this campaign had a far more convincing look to it's result.
Kane put us ahead with a strike from range again, but this one was rather lucky as it was meant as a cross.
Christian Eriksen fired home a second before the break, pouncing on Ben Davies' saved shot.
Any thoughts of a second half comeback were soon dampened, as Kane scored swiftly after the restart.
The hosts looked disorganised and dispirited, as they allowed the team to stroll to full-time:

Toby Alderweireld and Danny Rose miss out again through injury, while Harry Winks is a doubt.
Baines, Coleman, Funes Mori and Stekelenburg are all out for Everton and Keane may join them.
Neither side has any suspensions.

Lineups for each side's last league game:

Spurs: Lloris; Aurier, Sanchez, Vertonghen, Davies; Sissoko, Dier; Eriksen, Alli, Son; Kane.
Subs: Vorm, Trippier, Wanyama, Dembele, Winks, Lamela, Llorente.
League form: WLWWWD.

Everton: Pickford; Holgate, Keane, Williams, Martina; Davies, Schneiderlin; Vlasic, Rooney, Bolasie; Niasse.
Subs: Robles, Jagielka, Kenny, McCarthy, Sigurdsson, Lennon, Calvert-Lewin.
League form: WWDDLL.

Referee: Craig Pawson.

TV: BT Sport 1.

Did anyone do enough in the FA Cup game to keep their place for this one?
Does anyone need a rest or should anyone from the bench take their place in the starting XI?
Is their anything specific that we need to do to break down Allardyce's tactics?

 

I'd like to kick things off by saying:

Aaron Lennon

 

Hugo
Dier Dave Jan
Aurier Wanyama Davies
Alli Eriksen Son
Kane

For me. 3 competent CB's protected by Wanyama should be more than capable of keeping Siggy & co. at bay. Allardyce is practically Minister for Transport in this league so we need more attackers to wear them down. Son is just on fire at the moment and Alli and Eriksen appear to be finally turning the corner. I strongly feel that this is our strongest team until Toby is back, at which point we can afford to start pissing about with the line up. Dembele looked sharp against Wimbledon but hasn't been himself lately and I'm nervous he'll struggle against higher quality opposition.

 

Hugo
Aurier, Dave, Jan, Davies
Dier, Dembele
Alli, Eriksen, Son
Kane

Hopefully we can rely on Dembele to be fit for this, he played 90 mins vs Wimbledon so providing no knocks in training he should be good to go. Think Big Vic is still a few games from being ready to start a league game but seeing as he also completed the 90 against Wimbledon it's great progress towards being fully match fit.

 

Winks remains sidelined due to an 'ongoing ankle problem'.

 

Is it the same ankle he did early last year?

 

Guess that means a move for Seri (or Andre Gomes) has gone from imperative to "absolutely-****ing-necessary-get-it-done", then.

 

I suppose the big question over tomorrow, is how many buses will Big Fat Sam bring ?

 

Pre-match stuff :

 

I can see this being like the WBA and West Ham games.
They will hope to catch us on the break and will sit back and waste endless amounts of time.
I don' mind teams parking the bus as the onus should be on us to break them down and being defensive is a legit tactic. I would not want us to do it and was not prepared to spend what little spare money I had in the Graham era to watch that kind of dross football but I don't condemn it. What I hate is the
A) constant time wasting
B) the "clever" fouls, the pretending to be injured etc. the rotating of the players doing the fouling to avoid cards, the constant fouling of a particular player
C) refs not punishing the above until the last 5 minutes

We will see all of this tomorrow which is one of the reasons why I can not abide fat sam.
Another is his insistence that he has never been given a chance at a big club yet he bollocked up the Newcastle job by continuing with his ****ty boring tactics, and bollocked the England job with his ego and greed.

Result is all that matters tomorrow but I can not see us getting a good one.

 

This 100% - Unfortunately, the other infield tactics are not the preserve of Allardyce alone.

The failure of the officials to deal with blatant timewasting and cheating during the match and the authorities insipid management of the rare occasions when it is actually punished is at the root of the problem. The game is ****ed!!

 

I'm going to this one and have been forced at gunpoint to take a Mouser with me. He's a mouser but a Liverpool fan, so he's cheering for us. I think that makes it alright.

In a 'completion of the cosmic circle' and by way of confirmation of the inter-connected-ness of things', he's the [soon to be ex-] husband of my wife's friend [see last week's game against Wimbledon]. This is to take his mind off the break-up and get him out of the flat above the kebab shop. It seems that you can run, but you cannot hide from these things.

I'm hopeful that we'll explode out of the blocks and dismantle Everton's 11 man defence early on and run up a few goals and be royally entertained. I'm also hopeful of some entertainment, so that I don't have to listen to him telling me [in graphic detail] about the procession of much younger women he's been consorting with, as has been the way of things over the years that I've known him.

Lots of attacking players please Mr Pochettino, especially if it's level at half time. None of this waiting for 65 minutes nonsense. If we knock in a few goals and the other Mousers lose to Citeh on Sunday, we'll get our noses back into 4th place and I'll be saved from hearing what he's been up to.

 

I agree with others, this game is one we should win but has all the hallmarks of a potential banana skin. Big Sam will set his team up to frustrate, time waste and try to win set piece opportunities. They also have Bolasie back who could be dangerous on the counter attack, a new relatively unknown CF and the Allardyce factor. I hope today does not go all Spursy again, we really need to win this game to keep pace with the top four.

 

As long as Tosun doesn't have the worldiest of worldies. That would ruin my months of taking the piss out of the Turkish press in the transfer thread!

 

I dont want to tempt fate here but i cant see that Everton lineup parking the bus today. Its quite an attacking line up.

Its a decent Everton lineup and Tosun is an unknown quantity up front but theres no doubt if our players have their clinical boots on we should win this fairly comfortably.

 

Good shout!

 

Everyone at the game then?

No idea how Dembele didn't get booked there, it was blatant.