please log in to view this image Saturday 29th December 3pm Premier League Wembley Stadium Halfway through the season and we're sitting in 2nd place, despite having played 11 away games. Bournemouth came to play and paid a heavy price for going toe-to-toe, which allowed us to leapfrog City. Wolves have been a trickier proposition on the road so far and will likely offer a sterner test. They've played nine away from Molineux and only conceded nine goals, winning, drawing and losing three each. It's our final game of 2018. Will we go out with a bang or get dragged down by the pack? Nuno Espírito Santo has had a successful start to his first Premier League campaign. Wolves have had mixed results and they'll believe that they can improve, but there's been plenty of positives. 11th place in the first season after coming up would be perfectly respectable, of course. It's not the full picture of their position, though. 14 points clear of the drop and only 2 behind 7th place. Can they push for a return to Europe next year or will mid-table safety be enough? The game at Molineux earlier in the season was a very strange one. The team selection reflected the upcoming PSV Champions League fixture and the start was far from ideal. Dembele picked up an injury that he still hasn't recovered from when there was only seven minutes gone. Lamela, Moura and Kane appeared to have put the game to bed after an hour though, as the goals rattled in. Two mistakes from Foyth resulted in penalties after that, setting up a tense, nervy finish: Wanyama, Vertonghen, Dembele and Dier are still out, while Alli and Aurier may return. Diogo Jota is out for the visitors. Leander Dendoncker and Kortney Hause will be assessed after absences due to illness. Neither side has any suspensions. Lineups for each side's last league game: Spurs: Lloris; Walker-Peters, Foyth, Alderweireld, Rose; Sissoko, Winks; Moura, Eriksen, Son; Kane. Subs: Gazzaniga, Trippier, Sanchez, Davies, Skipp, Lamela, Llorente. League form: LWWWWW. Wolves: Patricio; Bennett, Coady, Boly; Doherty, Moutinho, Saiss, Jonny; Gibbs-White; Traore, Jimenez. Subs: Ruddy, Vinagre, Kilman, Neves, Costa, Cavaleiro, Bonatini. League form: LWWWLD Referee: Stuart Atwell. TV: Not televised. It's another rapid fixture, so how many changes do we need to make and how many can we risk? Which system or formation is best suited to breaking down Wolves' stubborn resistance? With games on Tuesday and Friday, is there anything that we need to do differently to preserve the squad?
Once again (with increasing regularity now, as the implications for the rest of the season loom ever larger) an important day at the office. At stake this time come FT is being : 1. 3 pts behind PL #1 2. 10 pts in front of PL #5 with said clubs playing each other later that day. And again the win is most important, and another display of Spurperior football being a bonus. Regarding starting XIs, I assume FB rotation again and Ser Davos being rotated for Foyth. Lamela is due a start (need to get him and Moura up to Sonny levels for after the Man Utd game) . The team kills the game early and Pochettino has the luxury of giving Sissoko or Winks a 30 min rest with Skipp as sub.
Deceitful play by Spurcat there. LDL is currently occupied by another "window" (the one the hacks claim is now open for Toby - so Man Utd can buy him next month) . Edit : On second thoughts I have changed my mind, perhaps he has no excuses (LDL appears to have delegated the above to a real plank-ton) ... https://www.not606.com/threads/transfer-thread-fact-and-fiction.343033/page-459#post-12414027
A tricky game here, Wolves are no mugs. We play before Liverpool, City and Chelsea, which might put a bit of pressure on us. A bigger crowd tomorrow than Wednesday, so hopefully a better atmosphere as the Bournemouth game was played in almost surreal silence for much of the time. I suppose some rotation is inevitable, although I do hope he keeps KWP in, as it would be good to see him rewarded after his fine display on Wednesday. Our energy levels seemed to be very high against Bournemouth, let’s hope they are tomorrow, as our current schedule compared to our rivals, is heavier.
We cannot complain about the schedule, as this is really what the club has been building to (competing seriously on all fronts) , and what supporters have been waiting for. The CM/DM injury plague is unfortunate, but it is what it is and we have to trust in : 1. Pochettino doing decent squad management until at least two of them are starting XI ready (which IMHO will be February at best) 2. fate not damaging Sissoko or Winks before then
It seems that, with CM a real issue with Dier and Wanyama out, we're playing a form of Gegenpress: get as many attacking players on the pitch as you can, be direct when getting the ball to them, and trust the defence to handle any counter attacks. Not to be mistaken with the form of that being used by Saltypool, which has those tactics but also includes being sure to score when clearly offside and have referees award you penalties tripping over your bootlaces.
The good thing is Wolves will come and play, the bad news is that as a result they will have chances, we are not defending that well at the moment so there maybe some 'hairy' moments tomorrow. Best defenders needed so either RB, Toby, Big Dave and Ben, then Sissoko and Skipp, Son, Lamela and Eriksen, Harry, and of course Hugo! - wouldn't risk Dele, and rotate Lucas as we may need a different approach for Cardiff
I think the approach for the Cardiff game will mainly involve several thousand people suggesting Colin ****er keep his gob shut
am going to this...it's my reward for ... 1) going with my youngest to Westfield Shopping Centre (or, to give it its full name...Fecking Westfield Shopping Centre)last Saturday where the only decent thing was watching pissed off hammers fans moping about after losing to Watford 2) Taking both my girls to Oxford street on Xmas eve 3) Agreeing to go to back to Westfield on new years eve with my youngest cos it's her birthday and she wants to go shopping in the sales So pleeeeeeaaaaaasssssseeeeeeee spurs reward my good parenthood with a win.... pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaassssse
With us playing before the others...We should be wetting our lips to close the gap to 3 points and get the other teams a bit hot around the collar. We've been ruthless lately with our goal scoring..I hope it's because we have embraced a menacing mind set. This is one of them games again, for me, where if we are talking about winning titles then any XI we send out should be able to do the job.
Decent line up again. A few that could do with being rotated, so let’s hope we can have the game won at half time and make some changes.
So that's probably the best XI we can field at the moment - Interesting that GKN is on the bench in preference to Llorente
