The good, no the terrific news from the Gaffer in his press conference today is that Tomas Kalas is s back in full training and available for the match. Ryan Fredericks is of course still suspended. Don't get all the talk from the 'pundits' that Spurs can't score at the moment. Okay they lost 2-0 at Anfield last weekend and 1-0 to Gent in the Europa last night; a game they obviously went aiming to keep the score down and try to nick one. Hardly signs of a goal drought though. That said, Pochettino put out a strong side against Gent and they did look a bit leggy - all except the incomparable Moussa Dembele, who was immense. Seems as though Harry Kane picked up an injury as well. Whatever, with the return against Gent next Thursday and every chance of them going through to the next round of Europa games, they're inevitably going to rotate and bring in a few youngsters for this one. For us, it will be interesting to see whether Jokanovic showcases our prize youngster, Ryan Sessegnon, in front of potential suiters. I think not and Malone will be back. As thankfully will be Kalas with Ream partnering him. Elsewhere, can't see many changes with Wembley only two games away - the Gaffer only made 3 against Hull. Goalkeeper? Yes. And maybe a bit of tinkering up front, to start with at least, seeing Chris Martin also back. The starting line-up then: ....................Bettinelli...... ...Odoi....Kalas....Ream...Malone. ................McDonald... ..........Cairney...Johansen... ...Aluko......Martin...Piazon... With the buzz-bombs Kebano and Ayite waiting to come on as impact subs.
I really fancy us to win. It would be amazing. COYW. Believe. Agree about young Sessegnon. I'd leave him out on the bench and get him to warm up and stretch outside the Spurs dugout. I can't remember what his squad number is but someone can always put the letter M after it!
Agree the above line up is probably the strongest starting line up, sadly I can't see us winning unless every player is in top form. It's started to happen already in the last few days, anyone who starts talking about the Fulham game in the media focuses on Sessegnon to the point of gushing, but it is like Chinese whispers, they are just repeating what they heard not seen. Then I've heard how another Fulham player to watch out for is Martin who has scored 10 goals. It's ridiculous Cairney, Johansen & McDonald don't get a word.Clueless, but it's so typical of a press who know nothing on Fulham.
The man in the middle today is Robert Madley. Wakefield born Robert (he doesn't like being called "Bobby" these days) is the younger brother of Andy Madley who did our game at Birmingham a couple of weeks ago. Both are proclaimed Huddersfield supporters. Robert, although 2 years younger than Andy, has gone a step up over his brother and is a Premier League chap; at 31 one of the youngest. He does 'slum' it on occasion however and his last outing but one was Southend v Scunthorpe when he booked 7 and sent off another. We've seen Robert but briefly. In the depressing days of 2014 in a 2-2 draw with Blackpool at the Cottage. Similar outcome from Robert - 5 booked and one sent off. Generally speaking Robert is seen as your average 6/10 ref. Watch out for those red cards though. Last season it was 6 in 35 games (and only 96 yellows). This season it is 3 in 21 games (and a slightly improved 90 yellows).
Great news about Kalas. Here's my team prediction: Bettinelli; Odoi, Kalas, Ream, Sessegnon; McDonald; Cairney, Johansen; Aluko, Piazon, Kabano. I'm not sure which of the front three will be in the centre and which out wide (though there will probably be a fair bit of switching if it's these three, or two of them plus Ayite. I think Martin will be left out after his recent lack of interest, and I think Sessegnon will continue his role as the cup left back. Then again, I rarely get the line up right.
I thought Spurs might have rested some players but looks like they are playing their strongest team available! Ayite and Kebano both start in place of Piazon and Martin from Cottagers team in the OP. A lot of pace in our team so could be looking to catch them out on the break.
As a neutral I wanna see Sessegnon come on. Trippier is so far forward and isn't blessed with much pace that there's a whole there.
So many things went against us today, could be here for a while listing them, but in the end Spurs deserved to win. Best to just forget about this one and move on. Lets carry on our good form in the league, we now have games in hand on most teams above us so lets take advantage of it and get into those play offs!
For me only 2 Fulham players turned up today to play at their potential that was Johansen and McDonald (even they made mistakes) the rest struggled. Malone was a big culprit in 2 of the goals, lack of concentration and control. Cairney went missing all game and was too slow and ponderous. Spurs controlled the game and is probably the best team and tactics we've played against this season. But our coach got his tactics extremely wrong, I'm not sure if he can see from the dug out. If he can he should get an Ariel view of this game because Pochettino's tactics were brilliant and we should incorporate them into our team.
Agree about our tactics SuperBri. Can also understand why Jokanovic brought on Sessegnon into midfield second half - our 4-3-3 wasn't going anywhere - and to be fair he did okay. But it was hardly Plan B. Martin and Piazon at half time would have given us more outlets and more shape (as opposed to perm any one of the three up front chasing the ball). But let's not forget that was a very strong team that Pochettino fielded and had on the bench. And as it turned out, trying to match a team 3rd in the Premiership at their own game simply didn't pay off. Agree with Fab as well. Put this one down to experience and get back to the day job. Elswhere the weekend went much better for us: Norwich drop 3 pts, Leeds and Preston drop 2 apiece, Barnsley drop 3. Fulham unmoved at 8th with games in hand.
It is important to note the strength of the Spurs team. We were outclassed today, but at least it was by one of the best teams in England. That said, Bettinelli and Malone did not have good games. I don't think it's a coincidence that Aluko and Ayite have struggled in the last two games without a centre forward; I don't think Cyriac is a world beater, but we looked much more balanced when he came one. I'm really not a fan of the false nine idea, it's wasting both Kebano and Aluko/Ayite.
I agree with Surly and Cottager. We should keep a sense of perspective - we were outclassed, but it was against a team who, frankly, ought to outclass an upper-middle Championship side. For all the promising signs in our attacking play recently, it underlines how far we've still got to go. It also underlines just how costly the transfer window was for us, with Martin having his head turned and the club failing to bring in several options up front and having to settle for Cyriac at the last minute. If we had a strong centre forward option, then just maybe we might have given Spurs more of a game. As a short term fix, if Cauley Woodrow keeps finding the net for Burton, how about recalling him from his loan and seeing if he's ready to step up for us?
I could only watch this via a stream which annoyingly kept cutting out so don't have the perspective of you guys but I have to say I was disappointed with our performance. Don't get me wrong, I knew this would be a heck of an ask and I didn't really expect us to win but I would have liked to have seen a bit more fight. We just seemed a bit flat. I agree with the Captain, it shows how far we have to go to get a team that could compete in the Premiership. If we were promoted this year I think it would be too early and we could have a torrid time the following season. Probably the most disappointing aspect was that, out of all the lower league teams who were in the round, we came out looking like the weakest. Everyone else showed some good fight, Huddersfield, Blackburn, Millwall and especially Lincoln all had spirit and gave a good account of the league they are in, we let ourselves down in this respect, I feel. We could have shown we were a coming force - we didn't.
Thing is we're not a physical side, nor did we get the space Man United gave Blackburn (from what I saw on the highlights). We're a side used to 60 - 70% possession, playing a passing game and being honest, without a great deal of threat in the oppo's final third. That's why we're only 8th in the Championship. Yesterday we came up against a top side in the Premiership who were not only quicker in every position but also were exceptional in their positional play and their work off the ball. Quite simply we were out of our comfort zone. That's where I blame Jokanovic ( a tad anyway because I suspect the outcome would have been the same). He may have been caught out by Poccetino naming the side he did but when Jokanovic saw * our midfield struggling - Cairney has taken some stick on social media when in fact Spurs targetted him as the danger and had Wanyama and at least two others on top of him straight away; and * trying to get long balls behind their defence wasn't working he should have changed tactics early on or at least at half time. In the event his subs when they came, changed nothing. In fairness to Jokanovic he has been saying for some weeks now that our play isn't good enough when we don't have the ball. That was certainly true in this match and that's the big lesson I hope our lot digest from how well Spurs demonstrated the way to do it.
