Tottenham - EFL Cup Final | Pre-Match Thread

[SWPISHOME]

Tomorrow it's not about a win,its about a trophy in Wembley....

What are we going to do nick it?

 

[lazerblue]

Sterling hat trick tomorrow
Hopefully

twat, spat my corona all over the keyboard

 

[kaz7]

Think some people exaggerate our chances to win tomorrow if Pep selects our best team and underestimate our chances to win if he plays 7-8 squad players.

Realistically, even if Pep started our very best team, a win would be far from guaranteed. Our chances would be about, say, 70-80 % (that take might be a bit optimistic though). The (much) better team does not always win, especially in cup games.

At the same time, if we fielded tomorrow a team like the one vs Chelsea, we would have (at least) 40-50 % chance to win, as Spurs are far from being as good at defending as Chelsea.

So, it's not like we are guaranteed to win if our strongest team play and guaranteed to lose if many squad players start.

Imagine that Pep starts our strongest team, but shit happens (like Stones' red card the other day) and we lose or the game goes to extra time. It would be a fuck-up. PSG may be stronger than against Bayern, since Verratti and Marquinos are back, and also fresher, IF most or half of our starters in Paris play 90/120 minutes tomorrow.

The only way to not go to extra time is to play your strongest team

 

[Damanino]

CL takes priority, if we can win this with a rotated team great its not like our players coming in are rubbish pprobably they would start for Tottenham most games.

But we need to go big vs PSG, not often Pep got us to the semis (first time now if 5 season) and he failed 3 CL semis in a row with Bayern I am sure he wants to put that record right much more than add one more Carabao trophy.

Spurs are rubbish, we just need to take care of Son and not concede 2 goals from 3-4 shots.

 

[Horlocksleftpeg]

People are mistaking rotation in the League Cup as ‘throwing the towel in’. We have not lost a League Cup game since October 2016 and will have rotated in almost every one? The rotation is just all the more pressing considering the League Cup has not been out of the way relatively early in the season and is instead at the business end of the season when the two most important competitions are decided.

I think it’s given how poorly we performed in the Leeds and Chelsea games where we lost 100% due to incorrect team selection.

 

[Horlocksleftpeg]

I think we’ll see (not my wish)

steffen
Cancelo Dias laporte mendy
Gundogan Fernandinho bernardo
Sterling Aguero Jesus

If we are missing both foden and DeBruyne from the starting 11 I think we’re in trouble.

Foden has to start.

 

[alexmcity]

The only way to not go to extra time is to play your strongest team

Not really, as explained in the post you are responding to: even our very best team has a chance of 20-30 % to lose/draw tomorrow.

If Pep starts with 7-8 squad players, then going to extra time wouldn't be that bad. Pep can make 5-6 changes so that the starters in Paris don't play more than 60-70 minutes even with extra time.

Another thing almost nobody seems to mention is that Spurs may well try to kick lumps out of our (best) players: another reason to think twice before using them, especially for 90 minutes. Spurs know we have a highly important game 3 days later and will try to scare our players with some nasty challenges.

 

[cleavers]

My biggest ask is we don't make 7, 8, or 9 changes again, it's too disruptive even if the players are good enough.

 

[Akpowell]

I think we’ll see (not my wish)

steffen
Cancelo Dias laporte mendy
Gundogan Fernandinho bernardo
Sterling Aguero Jesus

If we are missing both foden and DeBruyne from the starting 11 I think we’re in trouble.

Foden has to start.

Foden has to start, he's fit as fuck

 

[RegMuffin]

Foden has to start, he's fit as fuck

It's less about the fitness, more about the knocks and potential injuries.

Plenty on here will line up to slag Pep off if he goes big and we're exposed on Wednesday due to injuries. Chelsea was an error - half a side effectively rested for the Villa game. He's justified to shuffle the pack here.