Match Day Thread Tottenham Hotspur v Gent

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Thursday 16th February 6pm
Europa League Round of 32
Ghelamco Arena, Ghent, Belgium​

A decent unbeaten run came to a crashing halt with a crap performance at Anfield.
Our toughest away fixtures in the league should be out of the way now, but we've done poorly in them.
Time for a European distraction and an attempt to regain some momentum.
We're off to Ghent to play Gent. What happened to the H? No idea.

Gent (not to be confused with Genk) currently sit 8th in the Belgian first division (just behind Genk).
They're only 12 points off the top, though and a single point would put them in 6th.
This might not mean much in our league, but it would give them a shot at the title, bizarrely.
Their normal season leads to a play-off, where everything's up for grabs, including European places.
I'm sure some of our squad are looking forward to it.

Our hosts come into the game in mixed form, largely struggling to score many, but not conceding often.
A weekend loss at home to relegation battling AS Eupen is in contrast to a couple of good results.
They drew the previous game at 3rd place Zulte Waregem and beat Club Brugge before that, who are top.
Hard to know what to expect, but a lot of their games seem to end 1-0 or 0-0.

Here are the highlights of their last game. Gent are in blue, Eupen in white:

Luis Garcia for Eupen used to play for Espanyol, Zaragoza and various Real youth sides. 36 but still effective.

Looks like they're fairly effective on set-pieces and a bit divey.
Massive blunder by their keeper for the late, late winner, so his confidence might be knocked.

How did Gent get here? They finished 3rd and were placed in the 3rd qualifying round of the Europa.
They were drawn against FC Viitorul Constanța, a side formed in 2009 by Romanian legend Gheorghe Hagi.
This was their opponent's first European tie and they lost it 5-0 in Belgium, but salvaged a 0-0 draw at home.
Gent drew Macedonians KF Shkëndija in the next round, beating them 2-1 and 4-0.

On to the group. They faced Shakhtar Donetsk (Ukr), Braga (Por) and Konyaspor (Tur).
The Ukrainians won every game, leaving the Belgians fighting with Braga for the runner's up spot.
The final game saw them travel to Turkey, needing a win to progress.
The game was 0-0 going deep into injury time, when this happened:

No suspensions for this one, but it looks like Rose, Vertonghen and Lamela are still out.
Hard to find any equivalent news for Gent, unfortunately.
They do have one former Spurs youth player though, in William Troost-Ekong.

Lineups for each side's last league game:

Spurs: Lloris; Walker, Alderweireld, Dier, Davies; Wanyama, Dembele; Eriksen, Alli, Son; Kane.
Subs: Vorm, Trippier, Wimmer, Winks, Sissoko, N'Koudou, Janssen.
League form: WWDDWL.

Gent: Kalinic; Gigot, Gershon, Mitrovic; Dejaegere, Esiti, Matton, Asare; Kubo, Kalu; Coulibaly.
Subs: Rinne, Troost-Ekong, Verstraete, Simon, Milicevic, Perbet, Foket.
League form: LWDWDL.

Referee: Benoît Bastien (FRA). A 33-year-old French ref, who took charge of Braga 1-1 Gent earlier this season.
Seems a bit card happy, having dished out 60 yellows and 4 reds in 19 games.

TV: BT Sport 3.

Following our disappointing performance at Anfield, do we need to change things drastically for this?
Should we stick with the same system or switch back to the three at the back?
Does anyone need to sit this one out or should we be at full strength?

 

After Saturday's total shambles from our manager, I am demanding he goes full strength for this one. Nothing less will satisfy me.

 

Excellent OP as always PNP

Although I am curious as to how Gent came to have a native american as their club badge . How on earth did that happen?!

 

They traded it for the h in Ghent. Possibly.
Their story is that the adopted it when they were a sports club in the early 1900, after Buffalo Bill and his circus visited town.
Their nickname is The Bufallos and they have fans who wear headdresses, apparently. Don't tell the Americans.

 

Rotation has been a bit haphazard so far this season. Perhaps Poch's lack of experience in juggling CL rather than EL football led to a 'scorched earth' policy of mass changes or no changes. I'd like to see a calmer rotation over these 3 cup games as while I'd obviously love to progress in both competitions, I do worry that certain players (namely Dier and Wanyama) are being overused this season and may burn out by the squeaky bum end of it. Against Gent I'd like to see:

Hugo
Trippier Toby Wimmer Davies
Dier Winks
Son Alli GKN
Kane

As PNP said, Gent don't have a great scoring record whatsoever. I'd like to experiment with a speed merchant on either flank and use Winks to pick them out.

I don't think we'll be seeing 352 again until Jan and Rose are back. The benefit of playing pacy wide men is that the FB's theoretically don't need to push up so much.

 

Smart rotation is needed, it's an opportunity to give some much needed minutes to squad players while also ensuring our core can keep a rhythm going. I'd give Wimmer and Winks starts in all three cup games, if Wimmer can impress then I reckon we could tinker with the idea of going 3-4-2-1 against Stoke. Winks playing frequently will give Dembele/ Wanyama/ Dier a much needed rest for a game or two. Vorm, Tripps, Sissoko, Onomah, GKN and Janssen to also get at least one, maybe two starts plus minutes from the bench.

Gent away is on paper our toughest of the three cup games, so I'd go with something like:

Hugo
Dier, Toby, Kev
Walker, Wanyama, Winks, Davies
Alli, Eriksen
Kane

Give 3-4-2-1 a go, Davies may not have the speed of Rose but with the cover of three CBs plus Wanyama (Winks doesn't mind doing dirty work either), there shouldn't hopefully be too much onus on him being lightning quick to get back.

 

Played for both: William Troost-Ekong

...although he didn't actually play for us, did he?

 

Not having a dig at your selection but Walker aside, there is zero pace anywhere in that team. It has become a real concern this season in the sense that our only sources of speed have been the FB's and Son when he has played. It makes GKN's prolonged absence all the more mystifying. I predict a dour 0-0 or a disappointing 1-0 loss if we line up like that. It will be vintage AVB stuff.

EDIT: Just clocked who I'm replying to. Maybe I am having a dig after all

 

It's good we disagree again, I feel our agreements on the Pool match cost us!

To quote someone I'm not overly fond of (and despite being in a different sport), Conor McGregor once said "timing and precision beats speed and power" and I think that can apply to many sports.

PSG proved pretty much proved that last night, they don't have a real speed demon in their ranks yet carved what many would consider to be the best side in world football open with absolute ease.

Pace is great when used effectively but we've predominantly been a side in recent seasons who's relied on the smart technical abilities of Eriksen, Kane, Alli and Lamela to do the damage, when those guys are up for it, you could have a team of Kyle Walkers and it wouldn't be enough to stop them. Besides, when fully fit, our side will only have two fast players anyway, the side I opted for is only one short, lol.

 

Dembele just needs to carry the ball forward more. Whenever he does this he causes a little bit of mayhem in the opposition and his reputation will go ahead of him in this one anyway. More forward activity from our bulldozer will open opportunities for the rest of our forwards. Speed on the wings is important but carving through the middle will create the space on the wings.

 

Fixed for you!!
All the talent in the world, but not enough end product: either final ball or goals.

 

I just hope we take this seriously. I want us to win it not bothered about blooding youngsters or giving fringe players a go anymore, it doesn't pay.

I want this trophy!

 

There is a squad, with players who have hopefully played as much as possible
for all causes, in order to remain fresh and ready to front up on demand.
That is the "manager" part of Pochettinos' job description.

 

I'd love it too mate, I just think that this season more than anything has shown us the limitations of our wider squad. I don't think we can risk trying to fight on 3 fronts, especially with the top 6 so close. Last season, when City, United, Liverpool and Chelsea were all ****e - that was the time to do it. But it was also the time to make a concentrated push for the league itself. And Poch did, throwing the towel in on the Dortmund game as a result of this miscalculation.

The FA Cup is probably easier to win: less fixtures, less travel, less playing against unknowns. Whilst the EL pot isn't as strong as it was last season, there are still a handful of teams in there who would stretch us to our absolute limits. Roma, Villareal, Shaktar, Schalke all stand out as very handy sides with lorries-full of European experience. It is a blessing that Villareal and Roma play eachother, as they are two of the favourites. But even so...can we hack it?

 

I pretty much agree with this.
If that team can't beat Gent, then well...

Any other time I'd be concerned over a Son/Trippier combo, calling for Son to be an impact sub and saying that Trippier needs more protection. But Gent really shouldn't be causing these two many problems tonight. When considering the need for some rotation and injuries to certain players, there's not much else we can do, other than play Siss...


...I'm just kidding.

 

Some people seem to have a need to have a villain footballer in the team. Our current culprit is Sissoko. WHY?

It's not his fault the club paid £30 million for him.

Whenever he has come on he appears to me to be trying and he has provided assists.

People express great patience with Janssen yet have no time for Sissoko neither have worked out YET it's just the different attitude from posters I find odd.

 

So what I am hearing is that you blame Janssen and Sissoko

In all seriousness...the problem I have is that Janssen was worth a punt. Sissoko had played in the prem and delivered nothing...and (at worst) it was obvious that it was not going to work out or (at best) completely unlikely thaf it would end well.

It ain't Sissoko's fault and when I am at a game I, like virtually all other fans , completely back him cos anything else is counter productive.

On here I think some of us are just enjoying the joke.

 

I certainly hope we give Big Kev a start tonight, because if he's going to get over his slump not playing him isn't the way to go.

 

Or maybe you say the truth on here but out there, sometimes the truth is best kept inside or you'd end up beaten up.