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    Yep, it's now one win from two games to guarantee top four - we might even squeak it with two draws, as long as Arsenal either drop points or don't pull back a 9-goal GD. Not that I'm saying I want it to happen that way!

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      ‘They’re laughing at you, they’re laughing at you..Tottenham Hotspur, they’re laughing at you..’

      So sung the Leicester fans today after they went 2-0 up. Love them

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        Indeed my hopes/predictions came 100% true: good old Leicester really did the business against Arsenal and MU/Chelsea did the best thing for us by drawing too. If we mess up the CL place now we only have ourselves to blame. I want to see both Bournemouth and Everton ripped to shreds, figuratively speaking of course.

        I wish I was as good at predicting lottery numbers.

        I know we have an outstanding/unique in my lifetime chance in the CL this season but, particularly from the financial point of view and holding onto important players/Poch, is anything other than actually winning it better than qualifying and getting another good, long run again next season? Debatable.

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          Personally I'd play the strongest possible team against Ajax in the first leg and not leave out anyone with an eye on Bournemouth. To dare is to do Three days between the matches should hopefully be enough time for recovery.

          Tough juggling act for Poch, especially with all the injuries, but he's a fantastic manager so whatever he thinks is best is fine with me!

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            Oh I fully agree, Spurs have to commit fully in the first game but if they beat us hollow and/or we do not get a good result against Bournemouth then the 2nd leg becomes a very difficult choice for Poch.

            If it were not for the injuries and lack of equal quality replacements then I'd have no qualms about him going for it in any circumstances but if we lose another key player, the Everton match, and with it the CL place next season as a result that would be more of a disaster than anything else.

            The key to this of course is first to a good job against Ajax in the first leg. That means not letting them score at all or, at worst, score no more than one even they beat us. Then annihilate Bournemouth to secure a CL spot which will allow Spurs to commit 100% to the second leg too.

            That way I can see them being freed up mentally from such concerns and it being the spark which gets us to the final.

            It is just a big, big pity (damn WH, Burnley, MU etc) that we're not already in an unassailable CL spot even if we eventually dropped down to 4th place. There would then be no decision necessary about whether or not to go hell for leather in the 2nd leg too whatever happened in the 1st.
            Last edited by fallenangle; 29-04-2019, 23:35.

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              Ah well, not the result we wanted! It's going to be tough to qualify and we've given ourselves an uphill task, but we're certainly not out of it. We've scored in every away game so far in the Champions League this season, we got three away against Man City, so we're capable. Going over there and winning 2-0 or 2-1 certainly isn't beyond us if we up our game and put on a good performance. After the way we came back from the dead in the group stage, the way we got through against City, I wouldn't write us off just yet.

              Ajax were superb in the first half an hour and well deserved their goal. Their passing and movement was so quick and fluid, a joy to behold, we were often chasing shadows. We could barely string a few passes together thanks to sloppy play and the way Ajax were pressing us, we seemed well off it. The injury to Vertonghen actually helped us in the end because we got five minutes to catch our breath and then Sissoko came on and made a massive difference, he was all over the pitch harrying and harassing the Ajax players and suddenly they weren't having an easy time passing around us and we started to keep the ball much better ourselves.

              The second half was much better, we did most of the attacking, but it was the old problem of the final ball / pass not being good enough to give us a REALLY good opportunity. We'd work our way into a number of good positions, but then would hit a cross that was either straight into the keepers hands, miles too deep, not beating the first man, etc.. No real on a plate chances that I couldn't believe hadn't gone in. While nobody (aside from Sissoko) had great games, I can't fault the workrate at all, they were all clearly trying their hardest and pushing for the equaliser, but we just couldn't find our quality in the final third.

              So, tough task coming up, but still all to play for. Son will be back to give us another attacking option and it looks like Sissoko came through the match without any problems. Hopefully we can get a boost with a positive result against Bournemouth!

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                Yep I listened to most of it on BBCR5L and it sounded like the first half Ajax were really dominant until that Vertongen injury which definitely interrupted their momentum. Second half Spurs were right back in the game giving them some real problems even though Ajax could have sneaked a second.

                I'm actually fairly happy with it, the least worst result we could have expected with the main thing being Spurs kept them to one goal. Chances are we would have had to score at least one away goal anyway to win, now doing that only puts us on level pegging but if we score again they'll have to score two as well.

                We've still got a damned good chance so if, as I said earlier, we can secure a CL place for next season at the weekend before the second leg, then Ajax watch out, Spurs are coming.

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                  That wasn't great - however, we played pretty poorly. Our main creatives were, really, far from their best - it's hard to think of anything from Eriksen, Moura and Dele that was any good. Llorente tried his best, and won a lot of the ball when it was pumped up to him, but offered no threat in terms of mobility either.

                  And yet....apart from the time they hit the post in the second half, we controlled the second half even if we were being held at arms length. With Son and Moura up-front next week, and clinging to the hope that Dele/Eriksen can somehow shake off the current lethargy...there's still hope.

                  Just don't play three at the back, Poch, should you be reading

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                    Very much agree with that last point. Ajax are too fast and quick thinking/playing and all it takes is one mistake with x3 back line and they'll be in like a rat up a drainpipe.

                    Ideal: back four with a defensive/holding midfielder sweeping up in front of them allowing the wing-backs to come forward when attacking. In defence the same midfielder roams free to harry the man on the ball and minimise the space available to the other team.

                    I've always preferred that sort of start formation: 4:1:3:2 as it is easy to go from strong defence to even stronger defence 4:4:2 or even 4:5:1. But it easily converts to an attacking 3:5:2, 3:3:4 or even 2:3:5. 'All' you need are wing-backs with the speed/fitness to return to their defensive positions quickly (Rose, Trippier) and a midfielder (Sissoko) with the discipline to dedicated himself to that defensive/holding role.
                    Last edited by fallenangle; 02-05-2019, 12:41.

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                      Well that was gutting. A real missed opportunity to wrap things up today, as we started really well and had a number of really good chances but shot straight at the keeper each time, slightly better shooting and we'd have been at least one up.

                      Then we self destructed with the red cards. I think you could argue that Son was a little bit unlucky, as you don't always see players get sent off for pushing an opponent in the chest but he should never have given the ref the chance to make the decision. And if we were unlucky with that one we were very lucky that Dier stayed on the pitch before that; a foul that probably should have been a *yellow and then a clear foul in the box but the penalty wasn't given. Really poor from Juan Foyth as well, especially as he came on to replace a player who was on a yellow! To make the challenge that he did within two minutes of being on...

                      And then to add to how gutting it was, we put in an excellent performance with 9 men, just injury time away from what would have been an excellent 0-0 draw, and we let one in from a set piece right at the end. Gonna make the Everton match very tense now!

                      * second yellow
                      Last edited by EJG1980; 04-05-2019, 13:48.

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                        Bloody disaster I'd say. Just what we did not need and short of a similar mess up by our rivals for the third and fourth places it will all come down to the Everton game.

                        I thought Foyth had learned his lesson about doing that sort of thing. Apparently not.

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                          On the one hand, I'm surprised and pleased with this season - no transfers to join a squad that's not good enough, 8-9 of our best players tied up in the World Cup until the last weekend, many injuries to deal with, the stadium fiasco - and yet, with two games to go, we could finish in the top four and be Champions League finalists. If someone said to any Tottenham supporter at the close of the summer transfer window we'd finish in the top four and reach the CL final, most of us would have laughed loudly, then bitten both hands off and said 'yep, that's great.'

                          On the other hand, what has happened since we lost to Burnley in February has been disastrous - four wins in 11, with losses coming against teams like Burnley, Southampton, West Ham, Bournemouth. As good as the victory over Man City was, we were inches away from losing 5-3 that night, The squad is stretched through injuries and suspension, some of those left are - and never were - good enough, and all look absolutely shattered.

                          We're close to an amazing season, but we're also nor far away from a disaster - we should have secured that top four spot by now and I don't have any confidence our beleaguered team have enough in them to beat an in-form Everton team next weekend.

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                            Yeah it's been a bit of a weird season!

                            More losses this season than any other under Poch, yet it we beat Everton we'll also have had more wins this season than any other Poch season aside from 2016-17. Our form has either been excellent (after 26 matches we had our second highest points total in our entire history, beaten only by the double season in 1961) or abysmal (10 points from the past 11 matches). Yet at the same time that our league form went to pot we reached the CL semi-finals.

                            I think we over performed for the first several months, and I wouldn't have expected us to keep up with Man City and Liverpool with the injuries, tiredness, etc., but we shouldn't have dropped off to the extent we have done.

                            Good thing with Everton at least is that their really good performances have all been at home. In their past four away matches they've had one win at West Ham, drawn 0-0 with Palace, been beaten by relegated Fulham and thrown away a 2-0 lead to lose against Newcastle. But the main thing is we REALLY need to put in a good performance over the whole 90 mins.

                            As you said, such fine margins: two wins and we're in dreamland, don't win the next couple of games and it'll (probably) be an awful end to the season. It's always fun being a Spurs fan

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                              It does my head in sometimes.

                              I was watching MotD and what was Son was thinking in the sending off incident? Why did he simply not just walk away? Even giving that Bournemouth player the chance to get him in to trouble with the ref let alone blatantly pushing him, however theatrical the reaction, it was never going to result in anything but a sending off. Madness.

                              Then Foyth - a crude and dangerous attempt to regain a ball he had just lost. Expensive, youthful inexperience, again.

                              Eric Dier was also clearly not up to Premiership speed and lucky not to get more serious punishment as already said here.

                              The annoying thing is Spurs otherwise played well with a very praiseworthy defence which still looked strong or at least able to contain Bournemouth even when they went down to 9 men. We could have had goals earlier on too.

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                                Bloody hell, Huddersfield and Brighton you lovely teams

                                Technically not quite done yet, but surely even Spurs can't bleep it up from this position!

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