Tottenham - EFL Cup Final | Pre-Match Thread

[Akpowell]

Obviously, Rodri won't start on Sunday after having played full games vs Dortmund, Chelsea and Villa.

If Kevin is fully fit, he will probably start in order to get 60 minutes under his belt before PSG.

None of the midfielders and attackers who are going to start vs PSG won't play more than 60-70 minutes. Same with Dias.

Pep can make 5 changes, and he will use them to make sure that virtually any of the starters in Paris will play no more than 60-70 minutes vs Spurs (including extra time).

That is, Pep is likely to make at least 5-6 changes, but 7-8 are more likely. The biggest conundrum is to find partners for Dinho in midfield. Can be solved in two ways: either start KDB and Bernardo and then sub them off for Gundy and Foden, so that none of them plays more than 60-70 minutes (with extra time), or use 3 in defence and put Cancelo and Mendy next to Dinho plus one out of KDB/Bernardo/Gundy/Foden.

Most probable line-up:

SteffEn

Cancelo
Ake/Dias
Laporte
Mendy

Dinho
KDB/Gundy
Bernardo/Foden

Torres
Jesus
Sterling

Or:

SteffEn

Dias/Garcia
Laporte
Ake

Cancelo
Mendy
Dinho
KDB/Bernardo/Gundy/Foden

Torres
Jesus
Sterling

Sorry but the front 3 don't inspire with confidence

 

[come-on-barney]

Mendy and Garcia it is then. I think Pep is bluffing, he loves to win trophies and set records. Think it will be a strongish side.

 

[alexmcity]

Sadly Pep rarely makes more than two substitutions and usually very late. He seems to become brain dead once the kick off whistle sounds.

If we don't understand why Pep does something it doesn't mean that he is brain-dead. He has his reasons and, given his track record, we can't be sure that those reasons are bad. Give him the benefit of doubt.

 

[vmsuhail]

Beat Arsenal away, United away to reach a final and then start a weak team. Can't digest that. Atleast Spurs are not a great side, so hope we can still do the job.

 

[didsburyblu]

Past games have shown where we start weak we generally struggle and our play improves when we bring the big guns on.
Our record also coming from behind isn't good so would much rather start strong and kill the game than give them a foot in it.
People saying bring on the big guns after 60 mins if we're struggling however If we are behind and come back to force extra time those big guns are still playing 60 minutes and arguably at a more frenetic pace as we're chasing the game rather than trying to control it and play it at our pace.

We don't want a repeat of the Leeds n Chelsea games and success breeds confidence going into the PSG game.

Team for me
Steffen
Cancelo
Laporte
Dias
Ake
Fern
Gundogan
Silva
Mahrez
Jesus
Foden

Would leave out KDB and bring him & Aguero on later to give them a bit of match fitness.
KDB for Foden
Aguero for Mahrez
Sterling for Silva
Zinchenko for Dias
Rodri for Gundogan

Easy this management lark!

 

[mccity]

If we don't understand why Pep does something it doesn't mean that he is brain-dead. He has his reasons and, given his track record, we can't be sure that those reasons are bad. Give him the benefit of doubt.

He doesn't make subs because he thinks it's pointless to in games where the tactics are working (especially if we're winning) as it just risks the subs getting needlessly hurt. He has generally been more liberal in Europe where 5 subs are available though.

Weirdly enough City have had barely any substantial injuries this season compared to the others.

 

[Legal Alien]

Is swap a few Carabao Cups for a Champions League tbf.

Oh me too.
The game on Wednesday is the 1st leg though and not necessarily a must win game (as long as we don't get thrashed of course) but after last week's performance i think the final is and the players should/ better be up for it.

 

[ninjamonkey]

I'll be livid if we play a team similar to Chelsea and fail to make it 4 carabaos in a row. What happens if we lose on Sunday playing a shit team, still get knocked out by psg and end up with only the league when we were 5/6 games away from a quadruple. It would turn a potentially historic season into an underwhelming one. Whereas, a league and Cup double is still a great season.

He's been saying 1 game at a time for the last 6 months, don't change that now Pep. If he is genuinely worried about fatigue then use your permitted subs for once and he can afford to play the entire eds side against Palace ahead of the second leg.

PSG are currently second and have a battle to win the french league themselves, can't see them resting too many themselves this weekend.

 

[plattlanebenches]

I'll be livid if we play a team similar to Chelsea and fail to make it 4 carabaos in a row. What happens if we lose on Sunday playing a shit team, still get knocked out by psg and end up with only the league when we were 5/6 games away from a quadruple. It would turn a potentially historic season into an underwhelming one. Whereas, a league and Cup double is still a great season.

He's been saying 1 game at a time for the last 6 months, don't change that now Pep. If he is genuinely worried about fatigue then use your permitted subs for once and he can afford to play the entire eds side against Palace ahead of the second leg.

PSG are currently second and have a battle to win the french league themselves, can't see them resting too many themselves this weekend.

You are dead right. It’s a cup final for fucks sake. Start with strongest team and go from there. It’s fucking Spurs in a Wembley cup final - we owe them!

 

[chesterbells]

I'll be livid if we play a team similar to Chelsea and fail to make it 4 carabaos in a row. What happens if we lose on Sunday playing a shit team, still get knocked out by psg and end up with only the league when we were 5/6 games away from a quadruple. It would turn a potentially historic season into an underwhelming one. Whereas, a league and Cup double is still a great season.

He's been saying 1 game at a time for the last 6 months, don't change that now Pep. If he is genuinely worried about fatigue then use your permitted subs for once and he can afford to play the entire eds side against Palace ahead of the second leg.

PSG are currently second and have a battle to win the french league themselves, can't see them resting too many themselves this weekend.

Winning the league would be underwhelming? Only on bluemoon ...

 

[west didsblue]

Sergio in contention.
Can’t see him starting but if he trains ok I bet he comes on.

 

[ninjamonkey]

Winning the league would be underwhelming? Only on bluemoon ...

Read the bit around it that. In relation to where we were this time last week, being heavy favourites for 4 competitions then yes only winning the league is underwhelming because there's an opportunity for significantly more.

Just like last season when the scousers looked like winning everything and having an unbeaten season at one point and then ended the season with just the league, despite waiting 30 years for it, many were rightly putting that down as an underwhelming season for them because of what they should have won. The same applies here.

 

[LucahArchie10]

Strongest line up from here on in.

No excuses.

100% he makes changes he cant help himself

If Mendy & Sterling start then I'm off for 2nd round of golf no way I can stomach watching the same shite as Chelsea with no energy, press & constant bullshit from the commentators fuck that

Eddy will be left out to start with & Walker you fucking watch

My guess will be

Steffen
Dias Laporte
Cancelo Mendy
Fernandinio
Bernardo Phil
Torres Sterling
Jesus

Subs
Eddy
Walker
Garcia
Akeĺ
Zinchenko
Rodri
Gundagun
Mahrez
Delap
Doyle

 

[LucahArchie10]

Judging by Guardiola's comments just now, the team on Sunday is going to be heavily heavily rotated. He laboured the point that normally this final takes place in Feb but this year it's in the busiest part of the season. He also laboured the point that his priorities are the PL and the CL. I now expect:

Steffen, Cancelo, Dias, Laporte, Mendy, Fernandinho, Rodri, Gundo, Torres, Sterling, Jesus.

2 HM no no no that's a disaster just like last week it was awfull

 

[RobinHood]

You are dead right. It’s a cup final for fucks sake. Start with strongest team and go from there. It’s fucking Spurs in a Wembley cup final - we owe them!

Never forgotten. Gutted at the time.

 

[yerwot?]

never in a million years would i criticise the most successful manager we have ever had at City. As a mere fan, i think Raz has too many mental issues at the mo, and Kun has already played his last game for us, Spurs may be a joke but have the ability to score against anyone on their day. There are many permutations available to Pep, some have seemed good on paper but never gelled on the pitch, but no changes at half time, leaves me perplexed, or it used to but now i am resigned to it. The myth that we have two first teams has been exposed these last couple of weeks, strong bench yes but not all are top class.
Anyway, an early goal, no unforced errors, no diabolical decisions and we keep our trophy for another year.

 

[Tricky_Trev]

2 HM no no no that's a disaster just like last week it was awfull

We play PSG 3 days after. 100% this will be more of a Leeds/Chelsea team than the team v Villa. The team that played Villa will play PSG.

 

[pavelsrnicek]

For some reason Spurs have been our kryptonite for the last few seasons. They’ve knocked us out of the champions league, drawn a match we played them off the park, beaten us twice with 4 shots on target, we’ve missed penalties, had goals ruled out by VAR and had Spurs score 2 dubious goals despite VAR. Whatever about 1981 we owe them for the last 3 seasons.

I hope we go relatively strong, maybe bring Cancelo & Ake at full back and Fernandinho at DM but with Bernardo and Gundogan. Foden, Sterling and Jesus up front. I doubt it somehow and chances are Pep will go close to identical to last Saturday.

 

[yankblue]

Sorry but the front 3 don't inspire with confidence

Well it all depends on your perspective really.

For example, if you were a Spurs fan, that front front 3 would inspire loads of confidence.

 

[salford blue 62]

Read the bit around it that. In relation to where we were this time last week, being heavy favourites for 4 competitions then yes only winning the league is underwhelming because there's an opportunity for significantly more.

Just like last season when the scousers looked like winning everything and having an unbeaten season at one point and then ended the season with just the league, despite waiting 30 years for it, many were rightly putting that down as an underwhelming season for them because of what they should have won. The same applies here.

I can see both points of view,and was secretly excited about the thought of winning four, but i remember the shite days of the thought of even a league cup final was enough.