Match Day Thread Tottenham Hotspur v Burnley

Gil on the right? Lo Celso as an attacking midfielder ahead of Hojbjerg and Skipp?

 

I’d have Gil on the left and Son on the right, Sonny’s game barely drops when over there as he can cut inside and pelt them with his left just as good as his right. Multi-functioning wizard that bloke. But other than that, yeah that’s how I’d go.

 

Mal-functioning currently...

 

It will be interesting to see how strong a side Dyche picks tonight, because whilst our form is far from great, they are in even worse shape without a win in the league.

The premier league is everything to them and I think he will probably make quite a few changes.

 

He may see it as an opportunity to get a much needed win, alternatively.
Get a result tonight and then Brentford on the weekend looks less intimidating.

 

Its one of the reasons I want us to go very strong tonight. We need to build confidence and momentum, and the first teamers had a rest last midweek. Minutes will need to be managed especially over and after the Christmas period but right now, we need to be competitive every game. Plus this is knockout football not a mid-stage group game in the ECL.

 

This is one of Nuno's few redeeming qualities. He does seem to have a bit of a ruthless streak. Far more so than Poch and similar to Jose but without the public humiliation and divisiveness that generally went with it.

Players like Dele, Winks, Sanchez and Doherty have quietly been bumped down the triage list and that hopefully bodes well for moving a bunch on in January. The biggest issue is that their replacements really aren't much better.

 

A good incentive to win tonight is " if you don't win the coach leaves without you " having worked there for a couple of months if that doesn't put the wind up them nothing will

 

I want to see us pretty strong tonight but reckon we’ll make a couple changes. So I’m hoping/expecting:

Gollini
Royal Romero Rodon Regulion
Højbjerg Skipp
Son GLC Gill
Kane

 

Given the absence of Winks and Alli, plus the U23s lineup yesterday, I dread to think of what our bench is going to look like.

 

If I were Nuno hearing some of the vitriol aimed towards him from fans, I'd walk out myself. Then we'd really see what a mess the club is in.

Do you really think it'd be good news for Spurs if he walked before Levy had a replacement lined up? What makes you think Potter, or any other potential candidate, would jump at the chance mid-season when he didn't at the beginning? How are we any more attractive? Do you want Mason to take over again?

Nuno hasn't won me over yet, but I can't say he's been given a fair chance yet either. At least Mourinho had a Kane backup option, and Bale.

If Nuno walked, the only success would be for the press and rivals enjoying banter at our expense.

 

Yep, absolutely.

Money. We went for the cheap option and got what we paid for.

If it's a choice of Nuno or Mason, Mason every day of the week.

 

The disrespect to Rodon, man.

 

A bit different to what I was expecting and like DH says I’m mystified as to why Sanchez is picked ahead of Rodon. But the Højbjerg/Skipp pivot, and Kane, give me hope that we won’t be as bad as against Vitesse.

 

Would rather see Tanganga alongside Romero, unless the plan is to get Sanchez some games so we can move him on in January

 

5 defenders on the bench. I hope Gil's not on the right again or we're in for a long night.

 

Not a dig at you but every time Sanchez plays he gives away chances so the idea of playing him in order to sell him seems counter productive to me.

 

It'll just reduce his value and interest doing that, the more he plays the more he'll put off potential buyers. We're best letting them think he's good rather than showing them he's not.

 

I can sort of get it, given how our CBs are set up, albeit not in this particular lineup

The way we're set up is to have one CB who moves the ball forward and one who operates as a sweeper, which is why Romero and Dier are our first choice pairing as those are the roles they're best deployed

It's where the rest of the CBs fit in which is where the selection this evening is a tad iffy: Sanchez and Tanganga are both closer to Romero, while Rodon is closer to Dier, so realistically if we want tonight's lineup to be 1/1 with the first team it should be Sanchez (or Tanganga) and Rodon at the back

 

Not playing him at all is counterproductive to selling him, look at how the ubermensch made it harder to sell Dele by refusing to play him as he effectively raised Dele's profile by being such a dick to him

Realistically, playing somebody in cups and European games to sell them is the best way to go, for example Poch played the likes of Paulinho and Chiriches mainly in European and cup games in order to get him on the radars of potential buyers, and ultimately that worked as we got good fees for the both of them which we likely wouldn't have if we just let them rot

On the other hand, letting players rot usually decreases their fees. Not always, for example we got a good fee for Kaboul after he was frozen out but he also had a good Premier League CV from his time with us and Portsmouth that encouraged Sunderland to buy him, but more often than not you end up with players like Janssen or Nkoudou cluttering up the squad longer than they should because nobody is willing to take a punt on a player we can't be bothered to even play