Match Day Thread Tottenham Hotspur v Southampton

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Wednesday 5th December 8pm
Premier League
Wembley Stadium​

Well that was ****ing awful, wasn't it?
Two good wins, swiftly followed by a poor performance and a loss.
We need to react well to this and get back to winning ways, so a poor Southampton side could be good.
They've decided to dispose of Mark Hughes though, which is unfortunate timing.
New manager bounce or bouncebackability? Pochettino has something to prove against his old club.

This summer saw the Saints trying to rebuild, after barely avoiding relegation in the last campaign.
Mauricio Pellegrino had taken them into the bottom three and Hughes scraped them out of it.
The Welshman's usual 9th place finish would've been a significant improvement, but it wasn't to be.
14 league games later and he was shown the door, having yet to face Spurs in either season.
It's a shame really, as his recent run of four goal defeats to us was rather encouraging.

Ralph Hasenhuttl is yet to be confirmed as Hughes replacement, but it's believed that he's agreed to take over.
The Austrian was a striker as a player, spending most of his career in his home country.
A year in Belgium and six in the German 2nd tier saw out his playing time.
He took up management in 2007 and spent the next 9 years in charge of three Bavarian sides.
RB Leipzig put him in charge for the next 2 seasons and he achieved 2nd and 6th place finishes there.

Last season's match was one of our most comprehensive wins and a memorable one for Harry Kane.
He broke Alan Shearer's record for goals in a calendar year, scoring a hat-trick on Boxing Day.
Alli and Son also found the net, as a makeshift visiting defence struggled badly.
Boufal and Tadic did strike back though, as complacency set in and some of the shine was taken off.
Hopefully we'll avoid any such behaviour this time, as we're not scoring as freely at the moment:

The reverse fixture didn't go so well, as we struggled to get anything on target... at the right end, at least.
An early own-goal by Davinson Sanchez gave the hosts the lead, though it didn't last long.
Harry Kane headed home from a corner a few minutes later and it looked like we could go on to win.
Despite dominating possession and chances we found it hard to test Foster in their net.
Dour weather and an ill Eriksen seemed to blunt our attack somewhat, as it finished 1-1:

Dembele, Sanchez and Trippier are all still out injured and Vertonghen is suspended.
Danny Ings, Ryan Bertrand and Matt Targett all face late tests and Mario Lemina is also suspended.

Lineups for each side's last league game:

Spurs: Llories; Aurier, Foyth, Vertonghen, Davies; Dier, Sissoko; Eriksen, Alli, Son; Kane.
Subs: Gazzaniga, Walker-Peters, Alderweireld, Rose, Winks, Moura, Llorente.
League form: WLWWWL.

Saints: McCarthy; Stephens, Yoshida, Vestergaard; Valery, Hojbjerg, Lemina, Soares; Redmond, Obafemi, Armstrong.
Subs: Gunn, Hoedt, Romeu, Davis, Ward-Prowse, Austin, Gabbiadini.
League form: DDLDLD.

Referee: Anthony Taylor.

TV: Not televised.

How many changes should we make for this one, given our performance on Sunday?
Do we need fresh legs, a tactical change or should we stick with the familiar?
Did anyone see anything in Southampton's match against Man Utd that we should be wary of?

 

Unlike many with Liverpool connections, he never made it to the south coast...

 

Hugo
KWP, Toby, Dier, Rose
Alli, Winks
Lucas, Eriksen, Son
Kane

Aurier and Davies could both do with a rest, especially the latter. Their positions make it hard to play so many games in quick succession as they're required to be up and down the pitch. Sissoko too has gotten through a hell of a lot of running in the past few games and wasn't as energetic against Arsenal as he has been. I'd take Foyth out of the firing line as well, was terrible against Arsenal and a mistake against Saints could hurt him a lot more than being dropped for this one, in my opinion.

 

Before we play Verts and Forth together again, I think Spurs need to organise a familiarisation event for them.

 

100% agree with this team. We just need a win and ideally Arsenal to drop points to get us back above them.
It would be pretty disastrous if we end up having less points than them after Wednesday evening.
Be great if we could smash Southampton but I’m not confident that will happen and even a lucky win would do right now.
It would be very Spursy for us to draw or lose this match

 

Should we play it safe and take to social media to post paranoid gibberish about Anthony Taylor being a Saints fan?

 

Yeah we’ve gotta beat Southampton, simple as that.

The players have to make up for that **** show we watched on a Sunday.

 

I am going...I went to the WBA match last year when they just ditched their manager 2 days before.
I then witnessed the match with the most time wasting ever seen and a soul crushing 1 all draw ... am now ****ting myself about tomorrow

 

Am going tonight with my daughter. I kind of wondered why, until my older brother rang about half an hour ago. It's been years and years since I went to a game with him, although we'd been going together since we were tiny but had drifted apart over the years and see less and less of each other, as you sometimes do.

A bloke at his work offered him a ticket and he just thought "**** it, why not?" Then he rang me and one of my other brothers to see if we were going.

It's things like this that people who just watch on the box don't get. It's not all about the result...winning and losing are important but sometimes being there is everything...let's thrash 'em.

COYS!

 

Go early and have a few beers together.

 

The Ben Foster Match, as I remember it. Ridiculous stuff. The ball must've been in play for about 10 minutes.

 

He single handily ruined a match...and was allowed to do so by a coward of a ref.
At one point (half way through the first half) he kicked the ball out of a ball boys hands to delay a corner yet the ref, after talking to him for over a minute failed to book him...he waited until the 84th minute to do that!

 

Mike Jones. Totally pathetic refereeing.
Foster made no secret of what he was doing and an early booking would've cut it out completely.
The ballboy incident was the perfect opportunity to give us all a proper game and he refused to take it.

 

Foster's done it plenty of times to us too, the cheating prick. Bloke is obviously still pissed that Robbo lobbed him from about 80 yards.

 

Last Thursday a kid tried to attack me with a pair of scissors. I removed them, put him in a safe place and the little fecker threatened to call the police (has done it in his old school) Parents had riot act read to them and were informed that if he made a false allegation we would press charges as the whole incident was witnessed and on cctv.

On Friday I was spat at in work.

On Saturday I started to feel unwell.

**** Sunday.

On Monday I was so I'll I was off work and barely left my bed. I walk at least 15000 per day most days ... on saturday sunday and monday I managed less than 2000 in total.

On Tuesday I returned to work and had a kid call me every name possible, try to hit me and make himself deliberately sick in an effort to get his own way before he then accused me of breaking his leg (cctv to the rescue again...oh and the small fact his leg weren't broken).

After work I met my teen beast, took her fo coffee and a treat, talked her through her mocks, listened to her boyfriend troubles only to be told a couple of hours later that she wished I would listen to her, as she stomped off and ignored me all night!

And today a tiny kid accidentally head butted me cutting my lip.

SPURS HAD BETTER BLOODY WIN TONIGHT

 

You're going to get twatted

 

I expect some increased effort from Saints tonight, their new manager will be in the crowd watching and no doubt their players will want to make an early impression. No slacking please Spurs, 3 points is a must, there is no room for complacency.

 

nkl

Am doing exactly that. The bloke he's getting the ticket from is going to The Ivy. More money than sense if you ask me. I went with Mrs B for her sister's birthday. Apart from the burger I had, it was very disappointing. I wouldn't go back.

 

But look on the bright side, no one threw a piss sock at you.

Every cloud, mate, every cloud.