Tottenham Hotspur FC 2013/14

[fallenangle]

I'd certainly like to see Spurs do to Newport what Swansea did to Notts. County last night, But I'd be happy with a win of any sort.

[Tetsuo]

All three were dives. Judging from media interviews this week, Pochettino obviously instructs his players to do it and sees it as a tactic. Kane came out too and basically said "I dived, but that's football".

It's not just Spurs, obviously, there's several PL mangers and players who game the system in the same way, it's nothing new. I just wish the conversation about diving would move on, and we accept it's part of the game, and the endless cognitive dissonance surrounding 'contact/intent/entitlement' it can just f**k off for good. It's so tedious.

[fallenangle]

Sometimes you have to dive to avoid full contact and being seriously injured. HK has suffered such damage which kept him out for weeks and that's a hell of a lot worse than maybe getting a yellow card for simulation. The intention to avoid such a tackle but still being caught often leads to people saying the guy has dived and there have been what IMHO are unfair yellow cards shown to players who were trying to do just that.

HK dived but was still caught by the goalkeepers hand - it was a penalty.

Good comfortable win by Spurs v2.1 tonight and we threw away so many chances that could have made it a a real drubbing.

But OMG did anyone see the highlights of the Rochdale versus Millwall game? Rochdale's pitch looks like two thirds have had cattle grazing on it. The other third looks worse.

[EJG1980]

Not a rip-roaring exciting match but a nice straightforward progression to the next round. Great to see Lamela get his first goal since his return from injury, nice little finish after good link up play with Son.

It's a shame two of the biggest misses tonight went to Llorente, with his header going wide of one post and shot going wide of the other. He could have used the confidence boost of at least one of those nestling in the back of the net.

I think I read that they had a massive downpour of rain the day before the match against Millwall and they had to call in lots of help to get it playable (well, sort of playable ). Hopefully they won't have any more trouble with the weather and it'll be in a better condition by the time we play them.

[TonyDA]

So how we all feeling about tomorrow's game? Found myself thinking today that a win - great as all the usual 'we beat our neighbours' stuff is - would also mean 7/9 points from what looked a horrible February run....and we'd have taken that a few weeks ago.

But I think it's going to be tough and I wouldn't be surprised if it was a draw, actually. As much as we'll be up for it (I hope), I have a feeling Arsenal will as well. The new signings should give them a nice little lift, although I thought the same about Sanchez & Man Utd a week ago!

[EJG1980]

So how we all feeling about tomorrow's today's game?

Really excited and really sick, all rolled into one. The usual derby pre-match feelings

[EJG1980]

A well deserved win but SO close to getting punished by a last minute sting in the tail.

First half, we were the better side, but didn't really create any proper chances and Arsenal looked potentially dangerous on the counter, albeit without actually troubling us much. We were ahead on points, but 0-0 at half time was fair.

Second half we were all over them and should have scored three or four but aside from Kane's superb header, we kept passing up chance, after chance, after chance. With every chance missed, every minute ticking by, you're thinking "If they score in last minute to make it 1-1 after we should have been out of sight.........." Until the final five minutes they only had one long range shot from Wilshire in the entire half.

I think I cheered Lacazette steering his shot wide and Ozil smashing his free kick into the wall as much as I cheered our goal! We would only have had ourselves to blame if they'd nicked a point though.

Thankfully we got the three points we deserved. Up into third place for now, time to start cheering on Southampton and West Brom

[fallenangle]

Oh yes! Another good win. Sounds like Arsenal could/should have equalised but didn't and Spurs missed at least one other decent chance. But a win is a win and three more points taking us into third place and now well clear of Arsenal and above both Chelsea and Liverpool for the time being. Yay!

Now only the little matter of Juve on Tuesday and Rochdale next weekend.

[EJG1980]

Oh yes! Another good win. Sounds like Arsenal could/should have equalised but didn't and Spurs missed at least one other decent chance. But a win is a win and three more points taking us into third place and now well clear of Arsenal and above both Chelsea and Liverpool for the time being. Yay!

Now only the little matter of Juve on Tuesday and Rochdale next weekend.

Replace that one with a five or a six and it'd be more accurate

The team we pick for Juve will be interesting. I wonder if Poch will do what he did with the Man Utd and Liverpool matches and go with the same eleven again and then swap everyone out for the Rochdale match, or if he'll mix it up a bit more against Juve.

I'd be more than happy to take a draw from the Juve match right now, especially if we could nick an away goal.

[fallenangle]

I was going by the instant report of the match in the The Sun online () where the headline was that Lacazette had missed two late sitters. But reading back they do say Spurs were all over Arsenal for much of the match and could have scored more.

I suspect it will be Spurs v2.1 for the Rochdale match just to rest the key players as much as anything. But what he normally does when starting with mostly second choices in key positions he includes plenty of first choice subs available in case they make a balls up of it.

Just hope they don't throw the FA Cup run away because, realistically, it is our best chance of silverware this season.

[TonyDA]

Well, that was lovely. A brilliant second half performance, tempered slightly by the number of chances missed - if Lacazette had taken that opportunity at the end, completely undeserved though a draw would have been, we'd only have had ourselves to blame. But it really should have ended 2-0 or 3-0.

Seven points from nine from what looked like a horrendous run has put us right in the Top 4 mix again, even if Chelsea and Liverpool win their games this weekend, and we're on something of a run right now.

I wonder if we'll switch back to a 3-5-1-1 for Juve away, and that was why Alderweireld was rested today - the chances of him playing three games in a week would be too much, too soon? So a back three of Vertonghen, Sanchez and Toby, with Davies/Trippier as wing backs. Three in midfield would probably be Dembele, Dier (although I'd like to see Wanyama back in the team now, really) and Eriksen, with Dele/Son and Kane up front. That would be tough on whichever of Dele and Son were left out, but I'm not sure we can go to Turin and be too hung-ho. Mind you, I wouldn't be too worried if he played the same team as today.

Just seen that Juve haven't conceded a goal since December 30th! Blimey...

[EJG1980]

Liverpool won as expected, but we got a nice bonus with Man Utd losing to Newcastle earlier. That bunches things up a bit more and while we might be down to 5th again if Chelsea win tomorrow, we'll only be four points behind second. It's tight!

I was really happy to see Alex Pritchard scoring and playing really well for Huddersfield earlier today. I had high hopes for him a few years ago and thought he could be one of the youngsters to break through under Poch but he got injured at just the wrong time and it didn't quite work out for him.

He was superb on loan for Brentford in 14/15 and when he came back that summer he was playing in the pre-season games, Poch said he was in his plans for the upcoming season, and he got a nasty long term injury that kept him out for six months. Got a loan to West Brom when he came back from injury and was then sold to Norwich in the summer. I wish I had a crystal ball to see how things would have turned out if he hadn't been injured, he had a good chance of making a Winks style breakthrough, I reckon.

Glad he's back in the Premier League now though, he's a great player to watch and I hope he and Huddersfield stay up. They can go on a great run and win all of their games AFTER they play us next month

[TonyDA]

Well, I take back my 'three at the back' prediction as Toby Alderweireld hasn't made the trip at all - and I'm taking it back as I really don't want to see Dier moving back there!

The official line seems to be that Poch wants Alderweireld and Winks to stay behind and work on their fitness, rather than travel and sit on the bench tomorrow, as they're both likely start against Rochdale on Sunday. Of course, that's just kick-started a media frenzy, that Poch and Toby have fallen out over Alderweireld's reluctance to sign that new deal. Have to say that if the speculation is anywhere near true, and that Alderweireld isn't being paid the same as the likes of Lloris (nor being offered it) that's madness - and if I was in his shoes I'd be refusing to sign. Mind you, Vertonghen has been awesome in his absence, so he should also be knocking on the door for a pay rise.

On more happier thoughts - loving the Kane banter on Instagram/Twitter after the NLD - a little wind-up with Piers Morgan, plus a couple of posts along the lines of 'Happy Sunday' accompanied by a pic of him scoring on Saturday. And, yes, I'm well aware it's probably not him posting personally, but still.....

[EJG1980]

I think whenever anyone in the football press/media types molehill it auto-corrects to mountain

As Poch said in his press conference, he's not yet fit enough for games as big as Arsenal or Juve and will be gradually eased back in to the team. He said the Newport replay ended up being useful as it gave him a lower intensity game that Toby could play in. He did the same with Rose earlier in the season (when he left him out of the squad for Arsenal away so he could do extra training) and he's doing similar with Wanyama, who has been back for over a month but only made three starts, all in FA Cup matches, zero in seven in the league.

Of course, "recently injured player works on improving fitness" doesn't generate the clicks that certain publications want, so we get the added baseless BS on top.

Edit: here's an article on ESPN where they wrote up all of Poch's comments on Toby and his fitness situation.

[EJG1980]

Sad to see that Ryan Mason has had to retire due to the head injury he suffered in January last year. It's a shame he can no longer play football, but as he's said himself, after the injury he suffered he's lucky to be alive and able to live a normal life. It'd be nice to see him back at the club sometime in the future, maybe as a coach if he's interested in getting into that side of the game.

Decent player in those first couple of years under Poch, and along with the likes of Kane and Bentaleb he showed that it didn't matter if you weren't a big money signing or experienced, if you worked hard and impressed in training Poch would give you a chance. A great example for other young players to follow.