Tottenham Pre Match Thread

[MadchesterCity]

Heavy defeat expected, struggling to find any positives

 

[pavelsrnicek]

As a guess I would expect the lineups to be something like this:

Hart

Sagna - Otamendi - Demichelis - Clichy

Fernandinho Delph

Navas - Yaya - Sterling

Aguero


vs


Kane

Eriksen - Alli - Lamela

Dembele - Dier

Rose - Wimmer - Alderweireld - Walker

Lloris
​

The difference being you, given your injuries, have very little to offer off the bench bar inexperienced youngsters, whereas Spurs have the likes of Chadli & Son who can be match-winners and players like Davies & Mason who are settled in the PL now.

I would imagine Dier & Dembele will not given Yaya a moment's peace, and in full backs Rose & Walker they have people who have the pace not only to keep check of Navas & Sterling respectively, but also bomb forward at will which will test out your wingers' interest in tracking back.

Eriksen & Lamela will swap sides throughout the game and Alli is in excellent form, so if you're going to win the match then IMO the performances of your DM's will play a big part in that.

You'll need to play much better than you did at weekend, that's for sure.

​

As others have pointed out Navas is out though Kompany might be back.

It does look as though we will struggle to put out a balanced side. Who plays instead of Silva? Does Yaya start? Do we go 4-4-2 with Kelechi?

It should be a very hard team selection for Manuel but I suspect he will shoe horn in the usual suspects with Delph left side with Sterling right with perhaps Yaya off Aguero. Means will have a very unbalanced side with very little creativity and Aguero extremely isolated.

 

[cityboy1]

Didn't realise Navas was injured.

BTW, "us"? Look at my username bud, I aint no Spurs fan ;-)

oops sorry wasn't looking at that just saw the big post haha. Yes he is so we litterally only have sterling and toure (who shouldn't really be starting games like this)

 

[cityboy1]

As others have pointed out Navas is out though Kompany might be back.

It does look as though we will struggle to put out a balanced side. Who plays instead of Silva? Does Yaya start? Do we go 4-4-2 with Kelechi?

It should be a very hard team selection for Manuel but I suspect he will shoe horn in the usual suspects with Delph left side with Sterling right with perhaps Yaya off Aguero. Means will have a very unbalanced side with very little creativity and Aguero extremely isolated.

I was thinking we could go 4-4-2 but we still have no one to play wide

 

[Lee the Blue]

A change of tactics and thought process is required here - not something Manuel is noted for so I don't expect it.

We cant go in and play football against Spurs with all our absences - if Kompany, De Bruyne and Silva were all fit and firing we could, but they aren't so we cant.

First objective is to stop the flow of runners towards our back 4 and goals going in to our net; to do this we need to compress the game, pack the midfield and hope intensely that we can nick something when we can, which with Sergio Aguero up top is always possible.

Hart

Zabba
Sagna
Otamendi
Clichy

Sterling
Fernando
Fernandinho
Delph
Toure

Aguero

Id line up like that in a genuine 4 man midfield. Sterling, Fernando, Fernandinho and Delph effective blanketing the front of the back 4. Toure joining in as best he can, but asked to be the main support to Aguero when we do have the ball.

When you've just been drubbed the first thing to do is stop conceding.

 

[Blumers Bloomers]

Interesting that a lot is being made about the lack of homework on the opposition, working out their weaknesses and playing on these etc.

Has Pelligrini ever been spotted in the crowd at any matches involving teams where we had upcoming fixtures? Ever? Or is that not what Football Managers do these days, they send their management team instead?

Anyway.

Not feeling good about Sunday.... lesson well and truly learnt after I thought we were going to send a statement to the football world last Saturday. Fear the worst then I can only be pleasantly surprised.

 

[MikeF]

I felt we'd turn Leicester over but expect us to get stuffed by Spurs

Reverse psychology

 

[Sergio Picasso Aguero]

Hart

Zabaleta - Otamendi - Sagna - Clichy

Fernando - Fernandinho

Sterling - Toure - Angelino

Aguero

 

[Millwallawayveteran1988]

Hart

Zabaleta - Otamendi - Sagna - Clichy

Fernando - Fernandinho

Sterling - Toure - Angelino

Aguero

I would play that side but with Kelechi in for Angelino.

 

[PragueBlue]

I was thinking we could go 4-4-2 but we still have no one to play wide

Maybe better with a diamond formation with Sterling either up front or floating between right and left wing.