Gent v Tottenham

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sammyspurs said:
Going strong on Thursday doesn't mean we can't go strong against Stoke 9 days later.

We can rotate for Fulham, and the second leg could be a walk in the park if for ONCE we just take advantage of a situation that favors us and take a later stage cup game seriously.

I see the value in top 4, and want to finish 2nd but not at the expense of a trophy. I'd be happy to come 4th, behind Woolwich again, as EL champions.




Is the argument in some quarters we must prioritise the title, or second?

That would seem to say we can't even finish 4th if we take the cups seriously. What kind of squad is this?
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If we put this tie out of sight on Thursday night, then the first team could conceivably have a breather for 2 games & over a week, rather than needing a result on 23rd at Wembley & having to play Stoke a couple of days later.
Plus we have the possibility of having Rose, Verts & Lamela back by then.
 
bk_spur said:
What are you talking about? Where we finish in the league is still hugely important even if we don't win it outright. I think we can definitely finish top 4 if we focus on it as our primary competition, but, the competition is fierce, and if we make it second priority, there is a huge chance that we will fuck it up. We do not have a squad good enough to compete in multiple competitions right now (you can thank Lamela and the injury bug!). CL qualification is absolutely paramount to us progressing and growing as a club.

I suggest that it would be almost as good as a trophy if we were to finish above Woolwich (and make Top 4) for the first time since I've been a spurs fan. 2016- the year- was pretty shitty in general, so I could really use a year without a "St Totteringham's Day" for a change.

Last thought: if Janssen can't cut it against Gent over 2 legs, he ain't gonna cut it for us in the prem, and I'd rather find out now before we head into the summer. Kane looks tired AF right now- I'm voting to wrap our prized asset in cotton-wool and keep him fresh for the remainder of the prem games.

You're all lovely, daring, idealists for thinking we can do both/all of this without significant consequence, but I assure you, the squad is too banged up right now for us to do so without grave peril these next couple weeks.
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e74663fac89c7089956775c53016fe.jpg


In all seriousness though, there is no reason with our squad at present we can't compete for top 4 and have a go at the cup, I know we lost against liverspuds, but they will go and loose against palace now or another team fighting relegation as no other team will have a go with them any more, we have proved the way to beat them is to sit back.....
So that leaves us, city, woolwich and united fighting it out for 2nd to 4th, and I quite fancy our run in............
Plus as other have said if we win Thursday, technically we can rest most of the squad for 10 days, which is more then enough surely?
 
Stoke are going to have a mid season break. We play 3 matches. When we had a mid season break recently I did not see any real benefit. I would not want to swap places with all the premiership teams including Liverpool who have a 2 week break. However if we make wholesale changes to the team we are not good enough and will get beaten. Therefore whilst we cannot play the same 11 in all matches we cannot give games to fringe players who have failed to impress in recent cup games. We have Lamela, Vertonghan and Rose to come back fresh in March. Kane, Alderweireld have had injury absences. Dembele and Son have not been over used. We therefore are in good shape for the run in. Our best spell was over Xmas when we played the same team and won several matches in quick succession with good performances and no midweek matches over recent weeks has not seen an improvement. I will be much more optimistic in beating Stoke if we are still in both cups than if we get knocked out and have fresher players.
 
CJJ said:
Some people on the forum always seem to want a cup and champions league qualification, then say they don't want the Europa
:goonermong:

meatloaf.gif
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LOL, great point, two birds one stone.

Prioritise the EL and you dont even need top 4......in fact, 4th is not even a given for the CL.

Euro glory and you get your CL payday.

Naaaahhhhhhh how crap is that
 
sammyspurs said:
LOL, great point, two birds one stone.

Prioritise the EL and you dont even need top 4......in fact, 4th is not even a given for the CL.

Euro glory and you get your CL payday.

Naaaahhhhhhh how crap is that
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Also adds importance for the european players who value the Euro Cup medal above finishing 4th (which means fuck all in most of the European leagues)
 
CJJ said:
Also adds importance for the european players who value the Euro Cup medal above finishing 4th (which means fuck all in most of the European leagues)
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Yep.....in fact, let any player experience winning the EL, and ask them the following season if they would rather not travel to Eastern Europe to get that feeling again. (Hold on, are you less tired if you travel to Eastern Europe on Wednesday for the CL instead?)


Must be so enticing for these two to keep throwing trophies for top 4.
Title bid is all but done....draws at Sunderland, and the defeat at Anfield saw to that...a points haul of 4 from those games instead of 1 would have seen us way more in it.

Time to adjust our goals for this season Id say
 
sammyspurs said:
Going strong on Thursday doesn't mean we can't go strong against Stoke 9 days later.

We can rotate for Fulham, and the second leg could be a walk in the park if for ONCE we just take advantage of a situation that favors us and take a later stage cup game seriously.

I see the value in top 4, and want to finish 2nd but not at the expense of a trophy. I'd be happy to come 4th, behind Woolwich again, as EL champions.




Is the argument in some quarters we must prioritise the title, or second?

That would seem to say we can't even finish 4th if we take the cups seriously. What kind of squad is this?
Click to expand...
Yes I agree, although..
The Fulham game is possibly a harder game than against Gent. Which one of these games do we go stronger?
I feel, we should be able to rotate and get a result against Gent (reading reports about them) and then put out a strong team against Fulham showing our serious intent for the FAC following on to stoke with some good form.
 
This whole setup would benefit from winning a trophy, manager and players.
No clearer signs of progression on a career path than some silverware.
 
MrS said:
Yes I agree, although..
The Fulham game is possibly a harder game than against Gent. Which one of these games do we go stronger?
I feel, we should be able to rotate and get a result against Gent (reading reports about them) and then put out a strong team against Fulham showing our serious intent for the FAC following on to stoke with some good form.
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Yeah it's tricky......I'm still pissed off with them, so for me same team from Liverpool, and show that what we tried isn't complete lunacy and that our players are not super twats.
Get enough done, and a strong second team should see off Fulham. If we can rest for the second leg by getting the job done away, we can still be strong enough in the FA Cup
 
The argument is pretty redundant as none of us have any influence over the managers / clubs (If it is to be believed that the decision to prioritise one comp over another comes from higher up than the manager) team selection.

It will be interesting to see who we line up on thursday though, and see if it reflects Poch's comments after the Wycombe game that perhaps he cant rely on his fringe players as much as he thought he could (heres a tip for free, perhaps don't play them all at the same time??!)
 
Just done a little research...

Gent's recent League form:

10 games played
2 won
4 drawn
4 lost

Those 2 games won were at home, and one to Club Brugge who are top. Anderlecht beat them 3-2 at Gent which suggests they can be got at, at the back, at home.

In the Europa League, they condeded 5 to Shakhtar twice.

We should go hammer and tong on Thursday and get this won in the 1st leg, we can then heavily rotate in the 2nd leg at home with a good rest for our 1st XI before our next League game and no need to rotate too much v. Fulham. Gent are terrible away so we shouldn't have anything to worry about, even less so with a 2+ goal lead from the 1st leg.
 
SchmoodSpur said:
Just done a little research...

Gent's recent League form:

10 games played
2 won
4 drawn
4 lost

Those 2 games won were at home, and one to Club Brugge who are top. Anderlecht beat them 3-2 at Gent which suggests they can be got at, at the back, at home.

In the Europa League, they condeded 5 to Shakhtar twice.

We should go hammer and tong on Thursday and get this won in the 1st leg, we can then heavily rotate in the 2nd leg at home with a good rest for our 1st XI before our next League game and no need to rotate too much v. Fulham. Gent are terrible away so we shouldn't have anything to worry about, even less so with a 2+ goal lead from the 1st leg.
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Would like that scenario - if we have a good performance it will give everyone a lift after the weekend. I do worry about the attitude for europa ties as over the past couple of years they tend to look like they don't give a shit
 
El flaco said:
Would like that scenario - if we have a good performance it will give everyone a lift after the weekend. I do worry about the attitude for europa ties as over the past couple of years they tend to look like they don't give a shit
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After Captain Hugo very publicly dressed them down after Liverpool I'll be surprised if we don't put a performance in.
 
CJJ said:
So is the League Cup, but I'm sure Ledley's pretty proud of his medal
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Correct.
If you can't offer medals or European competition i.e. Glory, then you've got to pay top dollar wages- hence why some players are off to China - cos it's not to play against, or in, the highest level of competition.

And why play your second string (until it's safe to do so & players need a break) in any competition? because ultimately you're surely defeating the object of getting into/ entering that competition in the first place- i.e. Trying to win the bloody thing, to get the cup, the medals & the glory that your players want. All this rotate "because we can" mystifies me. Rest players who need it & use your squad to cover injuries & suspensions otherwise. Don't swap around because it's the trendy thing to do
 
Boltonspur said:
Correct.
If you can't offer medals or European competition i.e. Glory, then you've got to pay top dollar wages- hence why some players are off to China - cos it's not to play against, or in, the highest level of competition.

And why play your second string (until it's safe to do so & players need a break) in any competition? because ultimately you're surely defeating the object of getting into/ entering that competition in the first place- i.e. Trying to win the bloody thing, to get the cup, the medals & the glory that your players want. All this rotate "because we can" mystifies me. Rest players who need it & use your squad to cover injuries & suspensions otherwise. Don't swap around because it's the trendy thing to do
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I believe in offering opportunities against weaker opposition - i.e. I'd not be concerned to give Pau a game here and there (as he did play a whole season in the BBVA last year), or players like N'koudou, Sissoko etc, who can offer something our current XI doesn't, but not doing a Harry Redknapp and playing Onomah over Eriksen.
 
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