Match Day Thread Tottenham Hotspur v West Bromwich Albion

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Sunday 7th February 12pm
Premier League
Tottenham Hotspur Stadium​

Yet another poor performance and result in the league, as we slowly slip down the table.
It was also another Thursday night on BT Sport, so we're back playing on Sunday again this weekend.
Both managers will be desperate to win this one, as both teams are in very poor positions.
The Baggies will probably fancy a shock here, but even a win would still leave them adrift.
Can Mourinho turn things around or will Allardyce spark another unlikely escape?

West Brom had an impressive campaign last season, ending in promotion to the Premier League.
They held off strong challenges from Fulham and Brentford to hold onto 2nd place and avoid the play-offs.
Matching Bielsa's Leeds was a little too much for them, but I think people can understand that now.
Slaven Bilic did a good job in a competitive league, yet he's found out how little loyalty that bought him.
A poor start to the campaign saw him sacked pre-Christmas and he's now working in Beijing for Guoan.

Nobody was particularly surprised to see Big Sam return to The Hawthorns as his replacement.
He was born just down the road in Dudley and supported Wolves as a child.
His time in coaching started at the club, as he wound down his playing career with a single appearance for them.
He returns having done the rounds cemented a reputation as a solid, if unspectacular top-flight coach.
They only have one win under his reign so far, though it was away at his boyhood club Wolves.

The game at their place earlier in the campaign was a tight slog of an affair.
Both sides played within themselves and huffed and puffed with little quality to make a difference.
Mourinho made changes with time to spare, while Bilic waited and reacted, rather than taking the initiative.
The momentum switched away from the home side, as they seemed happier with the potential point.
Doherty swung the ball in for Kane to head home with a few minutes left, as Johnstone was too hesitant:

Reguilon, Kane, Lo Celso and Alli are still out. No updated news on anyone else yet.
Diangana returns for the visitors, though he's unlikely to start.
Neither team has any suspensions.

Lineups for each side's last league game:

Spurs: Lloris; Aurier, Alderweireld, Dier, Davies; Hojbjerg, Sissoko; Bergwijn, Ndombele, Son; Vinicius.
Subs: Hart, Doherty, Rodon, Sanchez, Tanganga, Winks, Bale, Lamela, Moura.
League form: WDWLLL.

West Brom: Johnstone; O'Shea, Ajayi, Bartley, Townsend; Pereira, Snodgrass, Livermore, Phillips; Robinson; Diagne.
Subs: Button, Furlong, Peltier, Ivanovic, Gibbs, Sawyers, Grant, Robson-Kanu.
League form: LLWLDL.

Ref: Stuart Atwell. VAR: Darren England.

TV: BT Sport 1.

How would you like to line up for this one and what would you change from the Chelsea 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 West Brom to go with?

 

This has the hall marks of being a seriously tedious game...but I really want us to help send fat Sam down... can not stand anything about him.

C'mon JM...do something right this season ffs

COYS

 

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I think we’ll win this, we simply can’t afford not too. But it probably won’t be pretty.

Hugo
Tanganga, Not Dier, Not Dier, Davies
Hojbjerg, Ndombele
Bale, Dele, Son
Vinicius

Edit: Dele out, throw Scarlett up top with Vini and go 442.

 

Another one that’s reached his limit and needs to be shown the door

 

If he's fit enough for the whole match we have to start Lamela. he showed more fight in his few minutes the other day than the rest of them in whole match up to then. Lucas was up for it too. Neither of them are high on most of your 'must keep' lists, but it shows what can be accomplished with a bit of fight.

 

The bit about ‘how long since a title’ annoys me. It’s massively disrespectful to the club. Part of me would take a defeat to West Brom if it meant the nightmare of Mourinho was ended quicker.

 

What was accomplished?

 

Had a decent attempt on target and pushed Chelsea back enough to allow Aurier to get into the game, which should have lead to Vinicius equalising.

 

Yeah decent shot but Mendy always had that covered. The Aurier cross came from us - as we seem to do of late - only coming alive late into the game through desperation along with Chelsea being more cautious. I don’t think Lamela/ Lucas made a huge amount of difference, it was just desperation levels from us. Credit to them two for coming on and trying but they made little overall impact, pretty sure Lamela gave away one of his customary silly fouls in their half too. I wouldn’t be surprised if Lamela does get a start tomorrow because we hardly have anyone making that RW spot their own but I disagree with Vim’s point that anything was accomplished, he came on and the score remained the same.

 

As I said when posting the same clip in the match thread, it's the way he's never available for a pass because there's always a Chelsea player in the way which gets me - as well as going a long way to explaining the anomaly on our pass maps for months about how our CBs never, ever play the ball out to him

The issue is that similar can be said when we play Winks or Lo Celso in that position, and given Winks would regularly make himself open for passes from the CBs, there comes a point where you wonder if it's a tactical decision to isolate on of out CMs from our defence and, if it is...why the **** are we doing that?

 

the point being made though is that he lacks football intelligence...a few feet either side and he makes space instead he was constantly hiding behind their player in order to make himself an impossible option for a pass...no way is that a tactic.

That’s atrocious for a footballer and winning teams can’t have them types in the XI

 

One thing worth pointing out is that, last season, Christian Eriksen was regularly doing the same thing, and one thing you certainly can't say about Eriksen is he lacks a footballing brain - but on the other hand, you can certainly say that he was mentally checked out last season

 

1-0 sonny

wrong thread

 

My first thoughts re a team for tomorrow was Hugo + 10 others, the outfield players in the last month are all much of muchness and I cannot really get excited about any of them.

But lets be bold - How about - Hugo, Tanganga, Rodon, Sanchez, Davies, Devine, Hojbjerg, Ndombele, Lamela, Vincius, Scarlett. Not gonna happen, but could the youngsters seriously play worse than the players they would be replacing.

Will be a terrible attritional match probably decided by a scrappy goal.

 

The latest theory doing the rounds is that, much like his time at man Utd, this season the ubermensch is sacking off the league in order to secure CL qualification via the Europa League

So what happens if we mess up the EL due to the players looking the world's most unmotivated speed daters?

 

Doing something like that would earn Jose a lot more respect from the fans because they’d see the intent to disperse as many of the useless pricks that keep letting him and us down each week. Fans can accept mistakes by youngsters should they happen, whilst the unknown/ unpredictable nature of them could actually help spur a team on with their fresh impetus.

 

Do you seriously want to mess up our future prospects by playing our young talent in this demoralized set up with the tactics that produced ONE chance for Vinicius?

 

Fair comment Spurf - I was just hoping that the arrogance of youth might allow them to break free from these tactics.

And you needn't worry Jose won't pick them!

 

Yeah I agree with TCM, I do think an injection of youth could really boost the place. This club produces good young players, our teams are never as good as Chelsea's but we definitely make a good number of individuals more or less every season and as we've seen recently, not utilising them enough has come back to bite us. With better development and care, our right hand side right now could've been:

RB: KWP
RW: Edwards/ Madueke

Rather than:
RB: Aurier/ Doherty
RW: Bale/ Bergwijn/ Lucas/ Lamela

We're so stale these days and it's not really a surprise a lot of our young players have envisaged better futures elsewhere. About 85% of our team/ squad have been here for 4-5+ years and the majority have seen their best years, only Kane and Son remain who are at a similar/ better level than they were 4-5 years ago.