Match Day Thread Tottenham Hotspur v Middlesbrough

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PleaseNotPoll

PleaseNotPoll

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Tuesday 1st March 7.55pm
FA Cup 5th Round
Riverside Stadium​

FA Cup games that aren't replays in midweek? Rubbish.
Skipp, Tanganga and Bentancur probably all still out.

Lineups for each side's last league game:

Spurs: Lloris; Romero, Dier, Davies; Doherty, Winks, Hojbjerg, Sessegnon; Kulusevski, Kane, Son.
Subs: Austin, Royal, Rodon, Sanchez, Reguilon, White, Devine, Bergwijn, Scarlett.
League form: LLLWLW.

Boro: Lumley; Dijksteel, McNair, Fry; Jones, Lea Siliki, Howson, Tavernier, Taylor; Watmore, Sporar.
Subs: Daniels, Peltier, Bamba, Boyd-Munce, Balogun, Coburn, Connolly.
League form: WDWLWL.

Ref: Darren "VAR bottler" England. VAR: Nope.

TV: BBC1.

How would you like to line up for this one?
 
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Real blow that Skipp is still out. We are overplaying our CMs - Hojbjerg especially - at the moment.

However with almost a week until we play Everton, I think Conte will just go with Hojbjerg-Winks again. Although I wouldn't mind giving White a start.

The other pressing issue is Kane and Son. Playing themselves into a rich vein of form recently after a disappointing first half of the season but is it too risky to start both?

I'd imagine/like to see:

Lloris
Sanchez Dier Romeo
Royal Winks Hojbjerg Reguilon
Lucas Son Bergwijn

Subs: Gollini, Rodon, Doherty, Sess, White, Kulu, Kane.
 
Citizen Kane. said:
Real blow that Skipp is still out. We are overplaying our CMs - Hojbjerg especially - at the moment.

However with almost a week until we play Everton, I think Conte will just go with Hojbjerg-Winks again. Although I wouldn't mind giving White a start.
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It does seem to be that we're doing this by design, though, considering we let three CM options leave in January

This would be a problem if this led to White and Devine getting some minutes before the end of the season, but as the Winks/Hojbjerg pivot we're having to use at the moment means our midfield can't grab a game by the scruff of the neck (as demonstrated for long periods yesterday) we then get into a position where on the one hand we don't want to overplay our fit CMs, but on the other we don't want to be chucking a couple of youngsters in at the deep end

It's also worth remembering why this is, as after the window shut Conte didn't name names but certainly implied the reason he was happy to let Ndombele and Lo Celso go out on loan was because if they started games one of his substitutions wouldn't be tactical as he couldn't trust either to play 90 minutes, the former because we've now had four managers who can't trust him to play 90 minutes while the latter's coming off an(other) injury so he'd be lacking sharpness until sometime in March at the earliest, while in comparison White and Devine are sharper right now - and certainly sharper than Nile John is given he's been loaned from our U23s to Charlton's...
 
I think we’ll see some rotation but can’t do too much, Boro aren’t mugs and I really like Steve Cooper as a bloke and manager.

Think Gollini, Rodon, Lucas and Bergwijn are all likely to start. The rest will probably be first choice options.
 
humanbeingincroydon said:
It's also worth remembering why this is, as after the window shut Conte didn't name names but certainly implied the reason he was happy to let Ndombele and Lo Celso go out on loan was because if they started games one of his substitutions wouldn't be tactical as he couldn't trust either to play 90 minutes, the former because we've now had four managers who can't trust him to play 90 minutes while the latter's coming off an(other) injury so he'd be lacking sharpness until sometime in March at the earliest,
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That’s being generous to Lo Celso. Fit or not, the guy is useless.
 
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Midweek non replay FA cup games are just wrong , what next ,time outs for TV adverts or company logos on the pitch ,rename the penalty area as the end zone ?
 
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paultheplug said:
Champions league is inferior?
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He has played one game for them in the CL and is yet to complete 90mins in La Liga.

I'd love him to do well as it means they are more likely to buy him and for a decent fee come the summer.

But the extent to which some Spurs fans still cling on to the illusion that he was a good signing and our 'system' or manager(s) were to blame is somewhat worrying.
 
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humanbeingincroydon said:
Must have been a different Villarreal that played Juventus in the Champions League last week or Los Ladrones in the league a couple of weeks back...
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I haven’t paid much attention to Spanish football for ages but it’s good if he plays well for them, hopefully gets interest for him in the summer and Spurs can get a half decent fee. I don’t think he will be in Conte’s plan regardless
 
humanbeingincroydon said:
Must have been a different Villarreal that played Juventus in the Champions League last week or Los Ladrones in the league a couple of weeks back...
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Asked and answered.

Why are you determined to demonstrate that 4 successive Spurs managers and the overwhelming majority of Spurs fans are wrong about Lo Celso?

It's simple. He isn't suited to the PL. Not the first and won't be the last big money signing to flop here. It isn't revelatory.
 
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Citizen Kane. said:
Asked and answered.

Why are you determined to demonstrate that 4 successive Spurs managers and the overwhelming majority of Spurs fans are wrong about Lo Celso?

It's simple. He isn't suited to the PL. Not the first and won't be the last big money signing to flop here. It isn't revelatory.
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Well for a start, because people make demonstrably false claims such as "4 successive Spurs managers" wrote off Lo Celso when that simply isn't the case...
 
As others have said in various threads, I really hope Lo Celso, Ndombele as well as the likes of Gil, Sarr, Etete, Parrott, Whiteman etc all enjoy very successful loans for various reasons, some to engineer moves away and some to come back here better players who’ll either challenge for spots or get a loan higher up in the leagues to further progress. I won’t focus too much time on them while they’re not here though, other than a brief look at LiveScore to see if they’ve done anything or if Twitter finds a quick video.

Focus on what we’ve got here for now I say, sing the praises of Kulusevski after such an impressive start, get excited at how good Romero’s looking now with a run of games after injury, he really is looking like an elite level CB that in time can possibly reach Jan/ Toby levels, hope Bentancur can return soon and continue to impress, plus the usual suspects like Kane, Son and co who are hitting form, they’re the ones that really matter at the moment for us Spurs fans.
 
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humanbeingincroydon said:
Poch played him
Mason played him over Ndombele
The ubermensch played him over Ndombele

But sure, the poster who was dismissing Romero as "dross" last October thinks I'm digging...
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Poch didn't start him until his final game in charge, against Sheff United. Before then he was either on the bench or injured.

Mason played him over Ndombele. Again, that's scant praise. Bit like saying I prefer being kicked up the arse than in the unmentionables. Oh, and that season he didn't complete 90mins on a single occasion in any domestic competition.

Maureen came to rely on him following our CM plague and it was probably his best run in a Spurs shirt. Still didn't score a single goal in the league and only managed 2 assists.

We really are scraping the bottom of the very last barrel in the wine cellar if we are suggesting that he is worth keeping hold of.
 
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