Match Day Thread Tottenham Hotspur v Newcastle United

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Wednesday 15th July 6pm
Premier League
St James' Park​

An essential win against the Woolwich was nice, but we've no time to rest, as the fixtures are relentless.
It won't be easy and we basically need to win all three of our remaining games to achieve anything.
The pressure's off for Newcastle, as they're clear of relegation and a top-half finish is unlikely.
Teams generally react in two ways to that situation, either heading to the beach or being freed up to play.
Can Mourinho sort out our inconsistent defence and misfiring attack or will it be After The Lord Mayor's Show?

Steve Bruce has had a mixed time in his first season at his native club, replacing Rafa Benitez in the summer.
Two losses started things off, before they won a controversial victory against us. There's that word again.
Their form has lurched between decent runs and poor ones ever since.
They've dipped into the relegation zone a few times and scraped into the top half at one point, too.
An 11th to 14th place finish looks inevitable, which is roughly the same as last season.

Big money signings Joelinton and Allan Saint-Maximin have not quite come off.
The £40m Brazilian striker has only scored 4 goals in all competitions.
That's matched by the £20m French winger, but he certainly appears to have picked up as the campaign went on.
The sale of Ayoze Perez to Leicester funded half of those payments and he's looked good value for the Foxes.
An expiring contract put them over the barrel there though, so it's understandable.

Our visit to St James' came on the opening day of the last campaign and it showed.
Both sides were still getting back to full match fitness and a quick start settled into a bit of a struggle.
Jan Vertonghen opened the scoring after just 8 minutes, as his header crossed the line by milimetres.
Joselu quickly pulled things back to parity, but Alli retook the lead for us promptly.
Chances were at a premium after that and neither side took advantage of them:

The game at our place this season saw Mike Dean take centre stage, shockingly.
An early penalty call for Son went unheeded, before Joelinton put them ahead on the break.
We wasted various chances to level things up and things went in at 1-0 at half-time.
They defended well after the break, until Dean and VAR turned down an obvious penalty for Kane, as usual.
That just left Lucas Moura to miss a sitter at the death to send the points back to Geordieland:

Foyth, Parrott, Ndombele, Alli and Malachi-Walcott miss out through injury, while Dier is still suspended.
Serge Aurier is unlikely to play, following the murder of his brother in France.
Longstaff, Clark and Hayden are out for our hosts, while Lascelles, Saint-Maximin and Carroll face late tests.
Danny Rose is unavailable to play against us, due to his loan.

Lineups for each side's last league game:

Spurs: Lloris; Aurier, Sanchez, Alderweireld, Davies; Sissoko, Winks, Lo Celso, Moura; Son; Kane.
Subs: Gazzaniga, Tanganga, Vertonghen, Skipp, Fernandes, Ndombele, Sessegnon, Lamela, Bergwijn.
League form: DWLWDW.

Newcastle: Dubravka; Manquillo, Lascelles, Fernandez, Rose; Saint-Maximin, Shelvey, Schar, Ritchie; Almiron; Gayle.
Subs: Darlow, Yedlin, Krafth, Longstaff, Lazaro, Bentaleb, Atsu, Joelinton, Muto.
League form: WDWDLL.

Ref: David Coote. VAR: Peter Bankes.

TV: BT Sport 1.

How would you like to line up for this one and what would you change from the Arsenal game?
Would you stick with much of the same lineup, make a few changes or go for a wholesale switch?
Which system and tactics would you use and what are you expecting Newcastle to go with?

 

Lloris
Tanganga Sanchez Toby Davies
GLC Skipp Sissoko
Son Kane Bergwijn

JT will surely play RB (assuming Aurier won’t play), possibly we might see Sess at LB to balance the back 4 in a reverse of the usual dynamic but Mou seems to like Davies a lot and praised his crossing ability after the NLD, so he might just give the Welshman a license to get forward more than usual. Skipp is due a start IMO and for me he replaces Winks not Sissoko. Bergwijn gets the nod over Moura despite the latter’s strong work against Arsenal, because the Dutchman simply does more with the ball IMO.

 

Hugo
Tanganga, Dave, Toby, Sess
Gedson, Skipp, Gio
Lucas, Kane or Son, Bergwijn

Despite what I felt was quite an 'easy' win on Sunday with regards to never feeling in too much danger or under the cosh, I weren't happy with the midfield's performance, wasn't through lack of trying but they all seemed a bit meh. I think Skipp should start whilst it wouldn't hurt for Gedson to get some game time, likewise Sess. It'll be good to get some fresh legs into the team, other than injuries/ suspension there hasn't been much rotation other than the wing forward roles and I think that can be dangerous in congested fixtures as it increases the chance of injury via fatigue or just poor performance.

 

Jose on Gio:

“A little bit, yeah. He's struggling a little bit," admitted Mourinho. "We are waiting for the end of the season which is coming.“

“Then with the three weeks more or less of holiday, and probably a month of pre-season, we think it'll be enough time for take care of his problem."
——————————————
Anyone else think this screams he’s going to have an op in the off season which is meant to only keep him out for a few weeks and he’ll be ready for the start of the season but in reality he’s going to miss the first half of the season because... well because Spurs.

 

Wouldn't surprise me

 

I knew DH would see sense

nice avatar

 

Annoyingly we can't even say "Play Ndombele then" as he's picked up a knock in training

...so, play Harvey White then?

 

Just watched the highlights of the first match - wish I hadn't! My goodness you can see the different "standards of proof" required to give us a penalty compared to teams in red!

 

Michael Oliver got a wedding to go to?

 

No. He has to go to PMGOL offices to explain why 2 Spurs players were not sent off on in the NLD

 

Same team as the NLD, think it’s risky tbh but hope it pays off.

Huge respect to Serge too, would be incredible if he could score today:

 

Not sure it is very wise, surely the lineup needs some freshening up. If it goes wrong, he'd better claim we were tired. Cause that would be his fault.

 

He's got to **** up the Leicester v Sheffield United game with his mate Paul Tierney tomorrow.

 

The decision on Surge is either very brave or very foolhardy, let's hope the lads scores a worldie for his brother tonight ,COYS

 

Yeah I’m not too chuffed with it to be honest. Poch used to do similar with Kane, Jose’s now doing it with multiple players.

All three midfielders were below par on Sunday in my opinion, seems odd they’re all starting again when we have the fresh legs of Skipp and Gedson (plus White) waiting in the wings. Same applies with Sess who’s yet to get a minute whereas Davies must be getting shattered, he looked dead in his interview after the NLD. Bergwijn would surely be a smarter pick than one of the wingers too(?).

Here’s hoping they don’t show tiredness today though and we get the job done. I really want to finish strong and get into Europa.

 

a bit of continuity?

why do we always need to change something from 1 game to the other?

We are never getting the ‘perfect’ performance

the last XI fought hard for the result

 

I agree continuity is important, it used to be the standard. You don't change a winning team. If they get tired or are lack lustre he has 5 other options.

Good luck to Aurier it's a shame there will be no crowd to give him some love.

 

We’ve seen what happens when players are ran into the ground though. The midfield were below par on Sunday and Davies looked dead after his interview. If we were playing once a week it’d be a different matter but playing roughly every 3 or so days, I think it runs a high risk of injury as well as potentially below par performances if fatigued players are constantly playing from the start.