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    Another game of two halves but Spurs came good again eventually.

    Have to mention the Liverpool result too. There is still plenty of time but they're going to have to play phenomenally better or the top four play phenomenally badly to get back up there and be in contention for one of those places. I'm certainly not writing Liverpool off but if Arsenal win their next match they'll be 15 points ahead of them having played the same number of games.

    That's a huge gap even at this stage of the season.

    If we can get points from the Liverpool game, scheduled for next Sunday, it would a great result for us and put them even further out of contention. I'd be happy with a draw, particularly if MC and Arsenal falter in any of their coming matches.

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      Well, if the "play crap in the first half, go behind, improve in the second half, come back and get the win with a last minute goal" formula ain't broken...

      Spurs, you crazy buggers Qualified for the next round and top of the group!

      Even in the much better second half there had to be at least one **** yourself moment, that late Kolasinac header when it was still 1-1... pretty sure my heart stopped for several seconds thanks to that one.

      Only downsides were the injury to Son (hopefully no long term concussion) and the possible injury to Bentancur who went off near the end. Could really do without them missing any games.

      Edit: the assistant coach mentioned Son in the press conference, says he has a facial injury and a bit of a swollen eye, doesn't know if he has a concussion, needs to be assessed. No mention at all of Bentancur which hopefully means there are no problems with him.
      Last edited by EJG1980; 01-11-2022, 23:39.

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        I was listening on and off to it on the BBC Final Score on the Red Button, crossing my fingers every time I went back to check the score.

        But I listened to the last 5 minutes not daring to hope that they'd hold onto the draw let alone that Spurs would score again - then they did with virtually the last kick of the game.

        Madness, but that's Spurs for you.

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          Ah, that's a shame, the club have announced that Son will be undergoing surgery to stabilise a fracture around his left eye.

          I guess we're not going to see him for Spurs until after the World Cup now, unless it's something that could be protected by a face mask while it heals, allowing him to get back on the pitch straight after the surgery.

          So that's Kulusevski, Richarlison, and Son, all injured at the same time! Though I think Kulu is on the verge of a return, but unless he's 100% I wouldn't rush him with only three games to go before the WC break.

          It'll be interesting to see what we do for the next three games if all of those players remain out. 3-5-2 with Kane and Moura up front? Stay with the usual 3-4-3 but move Perisic up the pitch to take Son's spot on the left?

          I'd be tempted to go with that latter option, and give Gill a chance on the right of the front three as well. You never know, many a player has broken through when they got a chance because of an injury crisis, and I've liked what I've seen of him in his recent cameos from the bench. If nothing else he'd certainly inject some youthful exuberance, energy, and unpredictability into our attack.

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            Gil had the spotlight turned on him, I think, it was in last week's or the previous week's BBC Football Focus. The pundits seem to like him and his potential. I knew the name but other than that I can't say I know much about him.

            If he comes good it would be very useful at this time with three out of the five first team choice front players likely missing.

            I wouldn't be surprised if Perisic was used in the way you described either. It was what I was predicting here how he might be used even before his transfer to Spurs was finalised.



            https://bordersdown.net/threads/117844-Tottenham-Hotspur-FC-2013-14?p=2443523&viewfull=1#post2443523

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              Well it looks like Conte took my two line up guesses and combined them; it's 3-5-2 with Kane and Perisic as the front two. Great to see Dejan Kulusevski back on the bench, he's been a big miss for us the past couple of months.

              Good incentive for us with Man Utd and Chelsea both losing, we can increase the gap to both the teams right behind us in the top four race. Also a good incentive for Liverpool though, as a win for them sees them catch up those two and us. As you mentioned a few posts ago, a draw wouldn't be the worst result in the world, but fingers crossed we can get the win!

              Half time edit: I think that's the fourth league match in a row where we've gone in 2-0 down at half time Just looked, third, Man Utd didn't get to 2-0 until the second half. But still!

              Full time edit: Shame, another good second half performance and would have got at least a draw out of the game with a little bit better finishing, but gifting Liverpool that second at the end of the first half really hurt us. Same second half but only 1 behind, I think we'd definitely have got a draw and possibly won, but we can't keep giving ourselves so many mountains to climb.

              Frustrating as we played well for decent portions of the match, we've played worse this season and got three points and today we got nowt. Thought Yves Bissouma had a very good game. We can't blame anyone but ourselves though, we have got to cut out the mistakes and start matches better, especially in the big matches. As Kane said after the match, it's good to see the spirit to try and come back after poor starts, but if you aspire to be a team right at the top you cannot keep doing that, and we have to improve.

              I think that England call-up has derailed Eric Dier somehow. He had been excellent since Conte came in, but since that England call-up he's been "bad" Eric Dier again with silly mistakes, concentration lapses, lack of confidence. Or maybe the timing is just a coincidence and he was having a purple patch of form that's naturally come to an end.

              I think in January (and I doubt we'll get it all done) I think we need a top class CB to compete with / replace Dier, a better right sided CB to cover for Romero (and sell Sanchez), a top class right wing back (and sell one of Royal or Doherty), like for like cover for Kulusevski up front (Richarlison can play there but he's much better on the left or in the middle), and a creative midfield type, someone like Maddison. Oh, and a partridge in a pear tree

              Overall I think we're in a pretty decent position, despite some frustrating days. We've had a lot of injuries, haven't played anywhere near our best yet, and we're into the Champions League knockouts and are in the top four of the league.

              Conte has been here one year now, and if on the day he took over you were told "In one year this team will have qualified for the CL again, got to the CL knockout stages, and would be in the top four of the league a third of a way through the season," I think most would have taken that as very good progress for one year, especially after a couple of years in the comparative doldrums.

              It's a decent place to build from for the second half of the season, when hopefully we'll have better luck with injuries and can get some reinforcements to the squad in January. Kulu and Richy fit, Son hopefully rediscovering his best form, that alone should make a big difference after the World Cup.
              Last edited by EJG1980; 06-11-2022, 19:51.

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                Harry Kane's goal today means he's now onto 260 goals for Spurs, only 6 behind Jimmy Greaves' record of 266.

                Only two matches to go before the World Cup so it's pretty unlikely he'll break it before then (although he did once score 4 against Leicester and then 3 against Hull in consecutive matches, so he COULD do it ) but it would be pretty special if he went to the World Cup and broke the England scoring record and then came back and shortly afterwards broke the Spurs scoring record.

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                  Very disappointing against Liverpool - poor first half defensively then the almost inevitable Spurs mistake and we're two goals down. But we could and should have come away with a point at least because in the second half 'good' Spurs turned up and it was a different game. Just a shame we couldn't convert it into at least one goal.

                  They were praising Kieran Trippier on MotD and the positive effect he's had on Newcastle (now occupying 'our' third place), since his return from injury. I'm on record here multiple times asking the universe why Spurs dumped him so I won't repeat it again.

                  Only good thing about Sunday football-wise was that I watched the FA Cup first round match between Torquay and Derby on ITV not really expecting much entertainment. First half seemed to confirm that expectation with Derby cruising to a dull 0 - 2 lead adding the second just after the restart.

                  But I'm glad I stuck with it because the rest of the second half was a whole different story particularly after Derby gave away a penalty and the miscreant was sent off.

                  Torquay were just relentless in attack from that point on but rubbish in the last third. Then literally with what would have been the last kick of the game in the 95 minute they finally scored and got the draw and the return match with it.

                  Proper FA Cup game with the underdogs getting their well deserved reward at the last gasp.
                  Last edited by fallenangle; 08-11-2022, 01:34. Reason: typo

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                    Sounds like a good match; sometimes it's nice to see a match without all the razzmatazz and nonsense that goes with top end football these days.

                    The Champions League draw has taken place and it's a repeat of 2010/11 with us facing AC Milan in the last 16:

                    AC Milan v Tottenham
                    RB Leipzig v Manchester City
                    Club Bruges v Benfica
                    Liverpool v Real Madrid
                    Eintracht Frankfurt v Napoli
                    Borussia Dortmund v Chelsea
                    Inter Milan v Porto
                    PSG v Bayern Munich

                    After the "easy" draw of getting Bruges, AC Milan was the team I wanted to get. Didn't want PSG for obvious reasons, and we've played all of Dortmund, Leipzig and Inter within the last three years so it'd have been a little dull to face one of them again, whereas it's been over ten years since we last played AC Milan.

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                      If we get through that game I think there is a good chance that we'll get a Premiership club in the last eight.

                      But I'd actually like to see Spurs take on Dortmund again. We often seem to get them in euro competitions and they proved to be a good match and test as to how good we actually are.

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                        Would have posted this yesterday but couldn't find a good enough clip at the time:

                        One of my all time favourite Spurs goals in Europe. More of the same in February and March, with a bit of luck!

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                          Can't accuse Conte of not taking the "lesser" cups seriously, almost a full strength line up (taking injuries into account) for tonight's match against Forest. Fraser in goal instead of Lloris and Skipp in midfield instead of Bentancur are the only changes from what would be a starting eleven you'd expect to see in the PL. Forest have made nine changes (I think) from the starting eleven that played in their last league PL match.

                          Kulusevski on the bench again, and the very welcome sight of Richarlison returning from injury to join him there.

                          Let's hope that our strong selection pays off!

                          Edit: Nope! Pretty disappointing, put out a strong team like that and they just didn't seem up for it at all. Even when Forest went down to ten men for the last fifteen minutes we didn't do nearly enough.

                          No complaints about the result, Forest were the better side throughout and tested Forster a number of times in addition to the two goals they scored. The only save I can remember their keeper making was from a Spence header, and that was with about ten minutes to go. Fully deserved win for Forest.

                          Only one match to go until the World Cup break, big push needed from the players to get a win on Saturday so we can end this half of the season on a high. It'd leave us in a good position to start the second half of the season, hopefully with everyone fully fit and raring to go.
                          Last edited by EJG1980; 09-11-2022, 23:44.

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                            Yes, very disappointing result and performance but in the long run maybe getting knocked out at this stage and reducing the number of games Spurs have to play this season might be a good thing.

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                              It's a shame as I'd love to win any trophy, but if you're being pragmatic it does free up a few dates in the second half of the season where we'll be able to have a rest, which, you never know, might end up being important.

                              With matches every three days and often multiple rotation options injured at the same time, it's not surprising it's caught up with us a bit with the last several performances. Lucas Moura missed 11 matches, Kulusevski got injured at the end of September and missed 10 matches, Richarlison got injured a couple of weeks later and missed 6 matches, and of course we then lost Son for the final four matches of this part of the season.

                              So we had a period there with matches every three days, where Kane and Son were our only fit forwards and had to start every match. Plus we've had Romero at the back and Skipp in midfield who have both missed a fair few matches through injury.

                              Us, Chelsea, Man Utd, Liverpool have all struggled for consistency in this first part of the season with the matches coming thick and fast. The only teams who have been consistent are Arsenal and Man City. I don't think it's a coincidence either that Newcastle started moving up the table in the past month, when they have no European distractions and the teams they've overtaken have all had to cope with domestic and European matches.

                              Hopefully it's one of those tough periods that, once we're through it, we come out the other side better for the experience.

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                                What a bizarre mixed bag of a match! Moments of terrible defending, beautiful flowing attacking moves, swapping between being all over Leeds and suddenly going back into our shell and struggling to get out… ah well, by the end, I really liked it

                                Could end up being a big moment in the season. A loss and we could have been going into the break on a bit of a downer, but a rousing win and suddenly you’re looking at all the positives and thinking we’re in a good position to kick on after the World Cup. Obviously going behind three times is not ideal, but to come back every time and eventually win shows a lot of spirit and guts.

                                So happy to have Kulusevski back, he makes such a difference, and as Sweden aren’t at the World Cup he can have a nice rest and get himself fully fit for the restart.

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