Tottenham Pre Match Thread

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A win firmly puts us in the hunt. Not going to be easy, but if we can be arsed matching Spurs' work rate we can easily beat them.

I'm not convinced with all the injuries we've amounted. They've scored only 2 fewer goals but conceded 7 fewer goals than us this season. They have a fully fit squad barring Vertonghen and N'jie and we have Silva, De Bruyne, Nasri, Navas, Bony, Kompany and Mangala out.

I just can't see where the creativity is going to come from. All Spurs will have to do is press Yaya when he's on the ball.
 
I'm not convinced with all the injuries we've amounted. They've scored only 2 fewer goals but conceded 7 fewer goals than us this season. They have a fully fit squad barring Vertonghen and N'jie and we have Silva, De Bruyne, Nasri, Navas, Bony, Kompany and Mangala out.

I just can't see where the creativity is going to come from. All Spurs will have to do is press Yaya when he's on the ball.

Very good point, would take a draw.
 
Hope Kompany is fit enough to start. Can see Zabaleta getting some time on the right of midfield at some point. Hard to see where the creativity is going to come from over the next few weeks-one thing we must do is tighten up at the back.
 
We don't have the pace, power or hunger in midfield to beat Spurs. They'll easily bypass our midfield unless Pellegrini gets the system right.

I've said already that we've seen an end of an era with this City squad and what's confirmed it in my mind is that for this game we need to be setting up as if we're the away side and hit them on the counter. That's the way we can win this game. If we lose we're out of the title race considering how many more games we have left this season in all competitions and how few league games will be left.
 
Hope Kompany is fit enough to start. Can see Zabaleta getting some time on the right of midfield at some point. Hard to see where the creativity is going to come from over the next few weeks-one thing we must do is tighten up at the back.

If Kompany and Otamendi can play the majority of remaining games we can still achieve great things this season I really believe. We have to stop leaking silly goals, especially set-piece which can be trained and prepared for.
As for creativity, yes looks a little short with the with the injured players but lets face it creating 15-20 chances a game hasn't been the issue, its how many we get on target that's the problem another area that Leicester have excelled in, shots on target ratio to shots and goals to shots on target ratio. We need to hit the target more not create more!
 
With Kompany, De Bruyne, Silva and Nasri all out I think this is the first time in years where Spurs will have a stronger starting lineup on paper than us.
 
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 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.
Navas is injured so wont be playing. Its hard to imagine us beating you atm weve litterally got no creatitivity at all with all our main playmakers injured. No navas means we'll most likley have to play someone out of place wide probably kelechi or he'll try his delph on the wing experiment.
 
Navas is injured so wont be playing. Its hard to imagine us beating you atm weve litterally got no creatitivity at all with all our main playmakers injured. No navas means we'll most likley have to play someone out of place wide probably kelechi or he'll try his delph on the wing experiment.
Didn't realise Navas was injured.

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