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Match Day Thread Tottenham Hotspur v Ludogorets Razgrad

Discussion in 'Tottenham Hotspur' started by PleaseNotPoll, Nov 3, 2020.

  1. PleaseNotPoll

    PleaseNotPoll Well-Known Member
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    Thursday 5th November 5.55pm
    Europa League Group Stage
    Huvepharma Arena​

    Another less than stellar performance out of the way and we're back to the Europa League.
    This time we face Ludogorets in our second trip to Bulgaria this season.
    The last European game ended in a deserved defeat, so we drastically need to improve in this one.
    Our manager has suggested that he won't be making as many changes this time.
    Can Mourinho turn around this run of dubious displays or will we be embarrassed in Eastern Europe?

    As I mentioned in the Plovdiv match thread, our host Ludogorets are something like the Chelsea of Bulgaria.
    CSKA and Levski Sofia dominated much of the footballing history of the country, until about a decade ago.
    They were bought in 2010 by local businessman Kiril Domuschiev and transformed almost overnight.
    Back-to-back promotions took them from the 3rd tier to the top-flight and their momentum continued from there.
    They won their first title and the domestic double in 2012 and have won every title since then.

    They've since become a mainstay in European competition and have had a few unexpected successes, too.
    They've faced the likes of Liverpool, Arsenal, Real Madrid, PSG and both Milan clubs.
    A draw against Liverpool in the group stage of the Champions League was their highlight in 2014/15.
    Wins against PSV home and away and a win against Lazio in the Stadio Olimpico lit up their 2013/14.
    They've tended to go out after the group stages since then, though.

    Ludogorets are having a pretty decent season so far, apart from in this Europa League group.
    This makes the decision to part ways with their manager Pavel Vrba last week a bit of a strange one.
    He's been temporarily replaced by Stanislav Genchev, a coach at the club and former player there.
    They're currently top of the league on goal difference from our mates Plovdiv with a game in hand.
    They've won 7, drawn 2 and lost 1, which was their first game of the season.

    The Bulgarian side have lost both of their group stage matches so far, overcoming Dynamo Brest to get here.
    Antwerp beat them 2-1 in the opening match in Razgrad, though they did take the lead just after the break.
    LASK won 4-3 after going 4-1 up and then being pegged back, ending the game with 10 men.
    They've also scored 22 goals in the league, which suggests that they don't have any problems in that area.
    These are the only highlights that I could find of any of their games, so make of that what you will:


    Tanganga appears to be our only missing player for this one, though there's been no team news yet.
    Wanderson and Marin are out for the hosts.
    Neither side has any suspensions.

    Lineups for each side's last league game:

    Spurs: Lloris; Doherty, Alderweireld, Dier, Reguilon; Sissoko, Hojbjerg; Lamela, Ndombele, Son; Kane.
    Subs: Hart, Rodon, Davies, Winks, Lo Celso, Bale, Moura.
    League form: WDWDWW.

    Ludogorets: Iliev; Ikoko, Terziev, Sa, Nedyalkov; Santana, Dyakov; Cauly, Manu, Jorginho; Mitkov.
    Subs: Stoyanov, Cicinho, Anicet, Verdon, Badji, Tekpetey, Yankov.
    League form: WDWDWW.

    Ref: Fran Jović (CRO). A fairly obscure Croatian ref, who appears to have taken a step up this season.

    TV: BT Sport 2.

    How would you like to line up for this one and what would you change from the Brighton game?
    Would you stick with much of the same lineup, make a few changes or go for a wholesale switch?
    Which system and tactics would you use and what are you expecting Ludogorets to go with?
     
    #1
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  2. Alfie Conn

    Alfie Conn Well-Known Member

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    Paulov Stewartov ?
     
    #2
  3. The Changing Man

    The Changing Man Well-Known Member

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    Aurier, Regullion and Lamela will all miss this one, but Tanganga is back in training. After last weeks debacle I expect a strong team tomorrow night cant afford another slip up.
     
    #3
  4. Dier Hard

    Dier Hard G'day mate!

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    Be interesting to see just how “full power” Jose is gonna go. Does he really wanna risk travelling to Bulgaria and back and having Kane and Son play a large spell? It’s a tough one, especially as Vinicius is in need of game time and a cameo off the bench won’t do him any good. Jose himself cried out for a striker last January and then reinstated he wanted one before Vinicius’ arrival so I think it’d be stupid if Vinicius doesn’t get a start, he didn’t even deserve to be hauled off in the last Europa match.

    I’d like something like:

    Hart
    Doherty, Sanchez, Dier, Davies
    Lo Celso, Sissoko, Ndombele
    Bale, Vinicius, Bergwijn

    I think there’s enough creativity and fire power in that to get a result, Kane and Son there if need be of course whilst ideally finding time to sub Ndombele and Lo Celso off too. Even Sissoko as well as he’ll likely start on Sunday.
     
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  5. bigsmithy9

    bigsmithy9 Well-Known Member

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    I shall be 80 on Friday and my mate 80 on Saturday. Please inform Jose and the players that we are expecting big wins in the Europa and v West Brom. We will both be pissed if this does not happen!!!!
     
    #5
  6. PleaseNotPoll

    PleaseNotPoll Well-Known Member
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    And they shut the pubs to stop you celebrating! <laugh> Happy Birthday for Friday, Smithy.
     
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  7. bigsmithy9

    bigsmithy9 Well-Known Member

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    If they can shut Trump's mouth that will be nice!
     
    #7
  8. PleaseNotPoll

    PleaseNotPoll Well-Known Member
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    Reguilon has the flu, Aurier and Lamela have injuries.
    Worth watching the Mourinho press conference just for his comments on the Brighton penalty, in my opinion.
     
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  9. PleaseNotPoll

    PleaseNotPoll Well-Known Member
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    Moose questions Moussa.
     
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  10. Billy The Spur

    Billy The Spur Well-Known Member

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    Good to see Mourinho naming the Pool`s and United`s in his press conference in regard to diving and being given ridiculously soft penalties etc, we all know certain affiliates of said clubs love to pedal unfair agenda`s against other players (Kane on this occasion) to try and deflect the attention away from the real beneficiaries of cheating (usually media darling teams from the North West that play in a red shirt). Very refreshing to hear Mourinho putting some of those mug journalists in their place and saying it how it is, I wish more managers would have the balls to come out and expose the clear bias shown towards certain clubs.
     
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  11. Lovearsenalcock

    Lovearsenalcock Homeboy
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    This is what I love about Jose...will fight for the badge and doesn’t beat around the bush.
     
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  12. vimhawk

    vimhawk Well-Known Member

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    They were still going on about the Kane incident today. Madness. How quickly they forget about real diving - they're not even mentioning the dive that Kane actually did! (Though I wish he hadn't.) I can't explain why they keep going on about this. What Kane did is something that's been happening forever, and is never commented on. He just did it very cleverly and I've no problem with it (unlike his dive). What made it look worse was the ludicrous impact by Lallana, goodness knows what he was thinking. Sure Kane was bent over, but a lot of that was probably because Lallana was on his shoulders! But again Lallana's contribution to the incident is hardly mentioned. The only thing I thought when it happened was that it could easily be judged to have been out of the area, and was quite surprised when we got a pen. No doubt the media fail to mention how many pens we actually win with in the box "cleverness", the clue is that since we hardly get any penalties of any description, not many. Some people nevertheless see Kane as a diver (although he never gets penalties for it) and others that do get pens from the slightest of touches as clever. It's hard to conclude there is anything behind this other than bias.
     
    #12
  13. Blue and White

    Blue and White Well-Known Member

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    Lallana also led with the arm. A phrase that the commentators like but have not used on this occasion.
     
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  14. remembercolinlee

    remembercolinlee Well-Known Member

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    It was our first home penalty in the league since March 2019 (when we were at Wembley).
    It is only our 2nd home penalty since April 2017 when we were at the old WHL.

    Can you imagine the meltdown if we start getting them regularly?

    It reminds me of the meltdown after the Lamela penalty in January 2018 at Anfield ... genuinely pathetic tbh
     
    #14
  15. PleaseNotPoll

    PleaseNotPoll Well-Known Member
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    We've had two league penalties in our last two home grounds. Not two each. Two in total.
    We got more penalties at Anfield in that one game than we have at Wembley or the new ground.
    If we're a team of divers, then we're not very good at it.
     
    #15
  16. PleaseNotPoll

    PleaseNotPoll Well-Known Member
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    Reminder that this is another early game:
    IT'S A 5.55pm KICK OFF, EVERYONE.
    You still might want to miss it if we play like we did in Antwerp, though.
     
    #16
  17. bigsmithy9

    bigsmithy9 Well-Known Member

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    Remind our "foreign friends" what today is. We want fireworks from our lads today.
     
    #17
  18. humanbeingincroydon

    humanbeingincroydon Well-Known Member

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    Reminder for my neighbours: November 5th wasn't every day since last ****ing Friday...
     
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  19. PleaseNotPoll

    PleaseNotPoll Well-Known Member
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    The return of Winksokko and presumably Moura on the left of the front three.
     
    #19
  20. Dier Hard

    Dier Hard G'day mate!

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    :emoticon-0119-puke:
     
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