In context of the season would you prefer to....

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Do you want Spurs to qualify for the Ropey

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Guido said:
First time I have ever said this but for THIS year we have to bin it. Why? We are not playing well, we have injuries and those who excelled last year are way off form. We simply can't cope with rotation, something we did well last year (especially our fullbacks). Nothing I have seen this year has convinced me that we will cope playing in the EL.

We are a tuff side to play against, our position in the league is testament to this. But part of being a Spurs fan is to also watch attractive football and the only way I can see this returning to our game is if we focus on the League, have a week to prepare the team on shape/formations. Basically I'd rather watch us play well in the league than play shite in EL, then draw another 10 games in PL.
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My thoughts as well, we have a few top players but we would need to buy Isco, Coric and one or two more to have a strong enough squad to have a crack at everything and I doubt we will buy 4 top players in January.

The EL always affects our form in the prem and we ain't winning it, it will therefore just hurt us in the league. At least Poch came clean about the state of the squad and lack of depth when faced with injuries and a lot of games.

I do feel one season it would be best to have no Europe at all and have a proper crack at the league title.
 
Anthony Beale said:
In a way, we've done it the ideal way.

Get into the champions league, enjoy the prestige and money that brings. Then drop into the Europa and have a crack at a competition we actually have a chance at.
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Biff said:
Throwing games like Dortmund last season forfeit an opportunity to gain experience and a winning mentality in Europe. It's a direct correlation between that disgusting attitude and the performances this season in the Champions League for me.

We'll probably do our level best to throw CSKA and I predict fail, with a draw. Enter an awkward game or two in the Europa League, then exit (we need to rest players X Y Z because we've got a MASSIVE game against Northern Shit on Sunday...)

We all know the drill, it's been going on for years now, ever since Redknapp sent the third team out to the Ukraine in the later stages of the Europa.
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Hmmmm.... let's see what "full-strength" team we go into the Europa League first... THEN we'll know how seriously we're taking it... AND whether we are indeed IN with a shout of winning the thing!
 
If we lose to CSKA we will go into next season with a 7 match losing run at Wembley. That is horrific and I still feel that this season's start was affected by our losing run at the end of last season. Poch has stressed it is the Mentality of the players that is the problem which includes playing at Wembley. Lets sort the problem this season by winning against a Russian team we have already beaten, follow up by winning at Wembley against a team that finishes second in the Europa League group and take it from there.
Things turn around quickly as Chelsea have found after losing a few matches only to go on a winning run.
 
palmers_green_yid said:
Qualify for it, and then decide in late February when it returns if we still have a shot at winning the league. If so, play the kids. If not, take it seriously.
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He tends to play half of our strongest 11 & half youth/fringe which is the worst thing to do.
We would have to play our best 11 to win it.
So playing half of our first 11 just tires them out for no gain.

Either go for it & play our best side. Or use it to give the youngsters & fringe players some game time.
Not the in between option he goes for.
 
scott said:
He tends to play half of our strongest 11 & half youth/fringe which is the worst thing to do.
We would have to play our best 11 to win it.
So playing half of our first 11 just tires them out for no gain.

Either go for it & play our best side. Or use it to give the youngsters & fringe players some game time.
Not the in between option he goes for.
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I always thought that. It was the same with Harry, though maybe he was slightly bolder in playing more youth/reserve players.
 
scott said:
He tends to play half of our strongest 11 & half youth/fringe which is the worst thing to do.
We would have to play our best 11 to win it.
So playing half of our first 11 just tires them out for no gain.

Either go for it & play our best side. Or use it to give the youngsters & fringe players some game time.
Not the in between option he goes for.
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He's not taken a single cup competition seriously since he arrived, he's not going to start now.
 
I we were to play our best team regardless of the league then go for it. We will also play at the lane.
However, if we are to rotate I still think we don't have what it takes in depth of quality and experience to win it.
We found out last year at the same stage.
 
Eskimo said:
He's not taken a single cup competition seriously since he arrived, he's not going to start now.
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Apart from the one he took seriously by getting to the League Cup Final.

I get the point though Eskimo, he has thrown a couple. The Scum game (but could be argued they did too as they fielded a 2nd string team, but it felt bad because it was them). No doubt we binned Dortmund (but the when looking to challenge for a league title it's 50/50 on was it right or wrong, I can even have an argument with myself over that decision, I was very disappointed with the side though I wanted to see how good we were). We put out a strong team against Palace (only person rested was Toby & Lloris) in the FA Cup and dominated them, hit the post at least twice with their keeper MoTM.

So I think in reality he has thrown 2 the CL, well the away game against Monaco (we were just shit in all the other games, with the strongest available team actually fielded). And the EL, both Dortmund games.
 
Eskimo said:
He's not taken a single cup competition seriously since he arrived, he's not going to start now.
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True. He could change his ways but probably not. Even at southampton he put out weakened teams in the cup.

Not sure whether its his or levy's decision to prioritise top 4 over cups?
 
Guido said:
Apart from the one he took seriously by getting to the League Cup Final.

I get the point though Eskimo, he has thrown a couple. The Scum game (but could be argued they did too as they fielded a 2nd string team, but it felt bad because it was them). No doubt we binned Dortmund (but the when looking to challenge for a league title it's 50/50 on was it right or wrong, I can even have an argument with myself over that decision, I was very disappointed with the side though I wanted to see how good we were). We put out a strong team against Palace (only person rested was Toby & Lloris) in the FA Cup and dominated them, hit the post at least twice with their keeper MoTM.

So I think in reality he has thrown 2 the CL, well the away game against Monaco (we were just shit in all the other games, with the strongest available team actually fielded). And the EL, both Dortmund games.
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Personally, I fully supported him throwing the Dortmund game. The league was still within our grasp and it was a far greater prize, we had more chance of winning it, and we probably won't get another chance like that for 10+ years, whereas we could easily be in the EL knockout stage again quite soon. Three very good reasons IMO.
 
scott said:
Not sure whether its his or levy's decision to prioritise top 4 over cups?
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Cups definitely mean less in other countries, so there could be an element of him not seeing why they are worth bothering with. Although the cups over here have become massively devalued over the past decade or so too. If you go on a run and get far then they become important but if you go out in the first couple of rounds it's disappointing but you get over it a lot quicker than in the past.

Us actually getting to the final of the League Cup recently kind of throws a spanner in the argument that he completely doesn't give a fuck about the cups though. Probably if we had more squad depth/Poch wasn't so committed to blooding young talent (which is a good thing really) we'd be trying harder and doing better in them consistently.
 
imitationleather said:
Cups definitely mean less in other countries, so there could be an element of him not seeing why they are worth bothering with. Although the cups over here have become massively devalued over the past decade or so too. If you go on a run and get far then they become important but if you go out in the first couple of rounds it's disappointing but you get over it a lot quicker than in the past.

Us actually getting to the final of the League Cup recently kind of throws a spanner in the argument that he completely doesn't give a fuck about the cups though. Probably if we had more squad depth/Poch wasn't so committed to blooding young talent (which is a good thing really) we'd be trying harder and doing better in them consistently.
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I think that was due more to the draw than poch prioritising the league cup.
First good team we faced & we lost.
 
Let's look at this logically, and ask ourselves a few questions.
1) Can we win the EL if the manager decides to take it seriously, and we get decent draws along the way. I believe the answer is YES
2) If we were still in the CL could we win it. I think the obvious answer is NO

The game is about glory, and finishing 4th in a twenty horse race hardly constitutes glory. However, winning a trophy, any trophy, is glory, and what's more gives thousands of fans a great day out. Last year Poch sacrificed every cup in the hope we may win the league, and as a result the club ended up with egg on it's face, especially when we lost 5-1 against a ten man Newcastle who had already been relegated. The fact is we are not good enough to pick and chose what competition we want to win, we have to try and win everything. No player will be asked to play more than two games of football a week, and let's face it, that can hardly be considered hard graft, can it?

To be honest, until we are good enough to actually win the CL I don't give a toss whether we qualify for it or not. Mr levy would argue about the financial benefits, but as he never spends any of the revenue on improving the squad, why should I care if the shareholders get a bigger payout. Lets get our heads out of the clouds, and come to terms with who we are. We are in the second tier of the premiership, and that isn't to say we are not a massive club or a club without potential, but we should be concentrating on winning trophies we can win rather than chasing pipe dreams !!
 
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