Match Day Thread Tottenham Hotspur v Swansea City

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Wednesday 5th April 7.45pm
Premier League
Liberty Stadium​

A successful return to Premier League football after the international break is out of the way.
It was only marred by a couple of injuries, mainly to our latest academy graduate, Harry Winks.
Let's hope that we can improve his spirits with another win on our travels.
This time up is a trip abroad, where the sunny shores of Swansea await us.

Our hosts have had a pretty mixed season and are still heavily involved in the relegation battle.
Switching from Bob Bradley to Paul Clement has had a big positive effect, though.
They've looked far more effective under the new manager, while Tom Carroll's also had an impact.
Even their recent losses have been more competitive, though they haven't stopped completely.
Losing Llorente to injury seems to have hit them quite hard.

Their visit to the Lane earlier in the season was something of a disaster for them.
Neil Taylor was lucky not to see red for an early tackle on Kyle Walker, which seemed to stifle the game a little.

Once it settled down it became one-way traffic, though they could have legitimate cause for complaint about the opener.
Dele Alli seemed to dive to earn it, trailing his leg and forcing contact with our old player, Kyle Naughton.

Much was made of the latter, while the former was largely ignored, for some reason.
Perhaps it was because of Swansea's collapse that followed? Son swiftly made it 2-1 before half-time.

Kane scored again early in the second half to kill the game, then Eriksen netted a brace to finish it off.
It was the least that the team deserved based on play, as the visitors struggled badly and failed to create.
They finished the game without a single shot, either on or off target, managing only a solitary blocked effort.
I suspect that we'll see much more from them in this game.

Last season's visit to the Liberty was a much closer affair.
Despite starting brightly, we quickly went behind to an Andre Ayew goal from a nice move.
Christian Eriksen leveled things up from a free-kick, but we went behind again soon after.
Harry Kane seemed to lose his bearings on a corner and he sliced it into his own net.
Eriksen tied it up again with another free-kick and then nearly nicked it at the end, but it finished 2-2.

Neither side has any suspensions for this game, though both have injury problems.
Kane, Rose, Lamela and Winks miss out for us, while Wanyama will be assessed before the game.
Rangel, Dyer and Llorente are all likely to miss out for the Swans.

Lineups for each side's last league game:

Spurs: Lloris; Dier, Alderweireld, Vertonghen; Trippier, Wanyama, Winks, Davies; Eriksen, Alli; Janssen.
Subs: Vorm, Walker, Carter-Vickers, Dembele, Sissoko, N'Koudou, Son.
League form: WLWWWW.

Swans: Fabianski; Naughton, Fernandez, Mawson, Olsson; Fer, Cork, Carroll; Narsingh, Ayew, Sigurdsson.
Subs: Nordfeldt, van der Hoorn, Kingsley, Ki, Montero, McBurnie, Baston.
League form: WLWLLD.

Referee: Jonathan Moss. The same ref as the game at WHL.

TV: Not televised.

Who should start up front? Did Janssen do enough to keep his place or should Son return?
Which system should we start with and which position should Dier play in?
Do we need to adjust anything to deal with any aspect of Swansea's play?

 

Pre-match presser, courtesy of @The RDBD :

Not interested in answering any questions about Luke Shaw. At all. As it should be, in my opinion.

 

Assuming Wanyama won't be available, I think I'd go with:

Hugo
Toby, Jan, Kev
Walker, Dier, Dembele, Davies
Alli, Eriksen
Son

Vorm, Tripps, CCV, Onomah, Nkoudou, Edwards, Janssen

Janssen looked pretty good against Burnley by holding the ball up well but yet again there's just no goal threat, he had one half chance IIRC. I want our sole striker to be the man likely to score first for us and with Janssen I just don't get that feeling, I sort of look to Alli/ Eriksen to do something. When Son came on, we looked so much better in attack, there was more fluidity and as shown by his goal, he just *knows* where he needs to be.

Dier slotted in at DM with ease when moved about in the Burnley game, reminding us that while Big Vic has been awesome, Dier is certainly no downgrade on him.

Get Edwards into the squad. His unpredictability and eagerness to impress will surely be of more value than Siss-oh-no.

 

No Paul Stewart

 

Paul Stewart (could have) played for both (if he wanted to) .

 

Mixed feelings about this one.

We are playing the Swanspurs, and beating them will make things worse for
them at the bottom. But we need those points (if only Chelsky could be punished
by having 6 pts docked for something - then we could lose) .

 

For existing?

 

Bit harsh on Janssen for Saturday. Thought he did ok and wasn't given any decent service in the first half, but still kept battling away - and as PNP noted elsewhere, was kicked throughout.
If he had been on the end of either Dele's open goal or a pass as good as the one Sonny got from Dele then he would have had more to show for his efforts.

Must win game and won't be easy: Gylfi and the other SwanSpurs will see to that.

 

The idea may be to rotate Janssen and Son, considering the fixture congestion. Given injuries, though, I wouldn't be shocked to see us stick with the 4-2-3-1, with a Dembele Dier pivot, and Janssen, Son, Eriksen and Alli all starting. Is N'Koudou still injured? It would be good to give him a runout, if not.

 

He was on the bench against Burnley. Probably updating our Twitter feed or posting on Instagram.

 

Sorry guys but your dream ends here . It all starts with you're team and manager taking us lightly . It was a great run though .Cheers

 

Lloris
Toby Dier Vertongen
Walker Davies
Dembele
Eriksen Dele Son
Janssen

Can't see us winning this ... Swansea are looking very strong and are fighting for their lives.

 

I'd definitely start with Janssen to knacker their defenders before bringing on Son. He's much better against tired legs.

 

Well, I'm all for you getting back on the winning track...this weekend, against West Ham, as I'm a big fan of Gylfi and Carroll as well. Surely you'd be better off letting Llorente recover fully during the week so he can be fit for the Hammers.

Incidentally, this game got me steamed one more time about that undetected handball versus Chelsea. The most crucial/blatant missed call in the PL this year, I think. You'd be four points above the drop zone and we'd be within four points of Chelsea (in theory).

 

I'm afraid roofy mate that we've got agents ready to complete their mission on Wednesday night.

Little tip, back Tommy Carroll for a spectacular own goal

 

Is this the game where Siggy is to concede a pointless penalty from a corner? Or was it Naughton?

 

Yeah I'm sure it must be Gylfi's turn mate, Naughton already conceded the penalty at the Lane this season.

 

Goodness, that kick to Walker's head. Isn't that the most obvious red card of the entire season! (That didn't even get a yellow, that didn't even get retrospective action from the FA, that didn't even get shown on Match of the Day, that was completely forgotten about by the pundits.)

 

The best team news ahead of this match is Swansea selling Neil Taylor to Villa back in January.