Match Day Thread Tottenham Hotspur v LASK

Just our luck that we get a second striker and now they’re both unavailable

Maybe Bale up front tomorrow and give Clarke a start with Lucas the other wide player? Sounds like we’ve got enough doubts ahead of the weekend without risking Sonny in the Europa.

 

I think Son will start. It's still an important game and one that we should be aiming to win.

 

The assumption doing the rounds is that Kane is simply being rested so we're pretending that he's injured - and we would've gotten away with it if Vini didn't pick up a knock...

 

"He has a good chance [against Arsenal]. I don't want to lie, I don't want to hide anything in relation to is he going to play or not. I think he's going to play. My feeling is that he's going to play."

"I'm not going to tell you the nature of his injury," said Spurs manager Jose Mourinho.

 

Now that is Spursy.

 

I'd go with what Hudd said too, stick Bale up top and have two of Bergwijn, Lucas or Clarke flank him. Wouldn't want Son to start from the off because it really would be our luck he picks up an injury too, have him on the bench if need be though.

 

Has Dane Scarlett travelled?

 

PNP: Not wanting to do your job but ...........

Thursday’s match officials are all from Poland. The referee is Paweł Raczkowski, assisted by Radosław Siejka and Adam Kupsik. The fourth official is Pawel Gil.

 

Another young ref (37), but he's relatively experienced and strangely well-travelled.
Reffed in Japan, Saudi and Moldova, as well as his native Poland and various UEFA competitions.

 

Oh great, another UEFA ref who has studied under Clusterfuck...

 

Yes

 

So the first vaguely < standard > injury dilemma, with a must-win
EL away tie preceding a home NLD.

Another test of Joses' squad management skills right at the
beginning of the vicious december + january fixture melee.

Time will tell (as always) ...

 

This is a big factor in my rating of his likelihood of success at Spurs. We have a number of players who come with issues that need to be managed. Last season, he broke Kane and Sissoko by constantly playing them and we then picked up injuries to Bergwijn and Sonny. By the time football was side lined, we were bollocksed for forwards.

Thus far, he's managed Bale's fitness issues very carefully and there's been a decent amount of rotation throughout the squad. Toby Alderweireld probably should have been rested after playing 3 full games in the international break (a fact that Mourinho acknowledged himself). However, centre halves, along with goalkeepers, are the most resilient positions and Citeh were there to be taken without Aguero and Sterling - so, given the alternatives, it was an understandable gamble.

Tonight, I'd rather not see Sissoko, Hojbjerg and Sonny on the pitch at all, if we can get a draw and qualify without them. We've only got one clear midweek until the second week in February. If we're going to get something out of this season, we need to give players a chance to rest. To do that, we have to utilise the whole of the squad. Mourinho needs to get something out of Dele...and....Winks and....Sanchez and maybe dip into the Academy more than he'd really like. I hope he will, as we'll be better off doing that than losing critical players for months at a time, as we did last season.

 

Hojbjerg is probably the irreplaceable player at the moment. Losing Kane or Son would be huge but there is cover there for them now and whichever one was out the other would still have Bale and Vinicius.

 

When he brought Hojbjerg on against Ludogorets, my brother, who hadn't uttered a comprehensible word at the time, clearly said...."Fuuuuuuckin 'ellll". It was by some distance the clearest thing he'd said since his stroke....and he was spot on too!

It's probably a sign that fans are never happy. Poch ground my gears by playing Kane for 89 minutes when we were 5-1 up. Mourinho does it by winning games by slender margins, where we're at 100% until the final whistle!

 

Is Sanchez going downhill,I wonder. Seems to be dodgy on the ground.

 

Only when he's not being dodgy in the air...

Just as ditching playing out from the back has done wonders for Hugo, defending so deep has negated Sanchez' primary asset - his speed to rectify errors. He now requires concentration, positioning and solid defensive skills...all of which seem beyond him right now and possibly were never really there..

His confidence and game have totally collapsed and like Winksy and Dele, it's hard to see what role he has under Mourinho.