Tottenham Hotspur v Crystal Palace (14 September @ 15.00)

[bfwolf]

I'd probably take 4 points from our next two games if offered. Crystal Palace at Home and Leicester away are a bit tougher than they look:

Oddsmakers have us 2/5 to take all 3 vs CP and 21/5 to draw. A weighted average expectation of 2.34 points from the match.

They have us 13/10 to take all the points vs LC and 53/20 to draw. A weighted average of 1.58 points.

All told, oddsmakers suggest we'll take 3.91 points on average from the 2 matches, which is slightly overstated as the bookie's vig has to be figured in. So yeah, 4 points would be about what we should expect. Which means 6 points would really be grand.

 

[bfwolf]

What allocation do Crystal Palace get for the game this weekend?

They have in resent years manufactured a very well choreographed vocal away support and style themselves on Italian ultras “ Ha ha ha”, but in reality they are south Londons middle class firm... and something of a joke. Look out for the designer clobber and pretty hair cuts.

Their support is absolutely tremendous tbf.

 

[Notabadsquad]

Name a game where Skipp did anything to suggest that he is really serious emerging talent. From the appearances I recall, he has looked ponderously ordinary. I hope its nerves and that there is stuff in the locker that will emerge with confidence and experience but suggestions that hes a better starter than Winks seem premature.

Correct.

FFS what is wrong with people.

It is simply confidence or Pochettino that is holding us back.

We need a win but just as much we need to remember how to dominate opponents.

Something is and has been awry for way too long and it needs rectifying, whatever that dictates.

But Skipp at present is not the answer.

 

[harry7]

So yeah, 4 points would be about what we should expect. Which means 6 points would really be grand.

Have we become Everton? Expecting 4 points from Leicester(A) and Palace(H).

If we really are a Top 4 team and didn't fluke our way to a ECL final then we shouldn't accept anything less than 6 points. Palace are relegation fodder FFS.

A point a piece I can understand against City and Woolwich away, but Leicester just lost their prize CB and replaced with Johnny Evans!! and they play a 33 year old striker.

 

[bfwolf]

Have we become Everton? Expecting 4 points from Leicester(A) and Palace(H).

If we really are a Top 4 team and didn't fluke our way to a ECL final then we shouldn't accept anything less than 6 points. Palace are relegation fodder FFS.

A point a piece I can understand against City and Woolwich away, but Leicester just lost their prize CB and replaced with Johnny Evans!! and they play a 33 year old striker.

People betting ACTUAL MONEY and not just running their mouths (or fingers as it were) on their keyboards suggest 4 points is the weighted average of what we'll get in the next 2 matches.

Not sure why you've got your knickers all twisted. I think all of us are certainly hoping for 6 points out of it, but to act like Crystal Palace and Leicester are mugs is far off the mark. And there is a VERY REAL RISK that we take less than 4 points.

Now personally would *I* take 4 points? Nah. To dare is to do.

But anyway, 1 match at a time. Let's score early vs Palace and put this one away early.

 

[ShutUpPatrik]

Can of Monster maybe at half time??

Each game a new flavor.

 

[Gmspurs]

He’s injured mate.

Sanchez that is, not zaha

ochsulk:

 

[TracyCK]

Hi all, haven’t been around here lately as I started a new business. Have to work tomorrow so my seat is available if anyone wants it - Block 512, Row 21. FV is £52.

 

[Gmspurs]

Is Harry Kane Big Bird?

 

[Hrytn]

Must win.

 

[TheSpurEst]

Have we become Everton? Expecting 4 points from Leicester(A) and Palace(H).

If we really are a Top 4 team and didn't fluke our way to a ECL final then we shouldn't accept anything less than 6 points. Palace are relegation fodder FFS.

A point a piece I can understand against City and Woolwich away, but Leicester just lost their prize CB and replaced with Johnny Evans!! and they play a 33 year old striker.

I agree that we should not accept 4 points from those 2 games.

But it is an absolute dumbfuck of a statement to say that Palace is relegation fodder.
They have racked up way more points in 2019 in the EPL. By total points gained this year they are 4th in the table while we are in relegation zone in this table.

So I hope no-one within 10 miles is as ignorant to expect this to be "a field-day at home turf against relegation battler". If we do, we will lose this one. We have to prepare for this as seriously as we did for NLD!! It also gives 3 points and we play very much in-form team (while ourselves being very much out-of-form team, to be honest to ourselves).

Have to fight and run and run and fight.
COME ON YOU SPURS. FIGHT WELL AND GIMME WIN.

 

[ShutUpPatrik]

The dumbest thing we can do is expect teams to just roll over for us. We need to approach each and every game with the same level of focus and intensity. That's how you create a proper winning mentality. No expecting to cruise through games against "relegation fodder" based on old merits. Every game is a 90 minute war. That's why City win so many games. It doesn't matter that their squad costs a fortune they don't coast in games whether it is against Palace or Liverpool, Barca or Copenhagen. They still prepare and go in to the game with that same level of killing instinct.

We need that. It is something we lack. We lack an edge which is why teams like Palace and Newcastle no longer fear playing us. They know that if they sit back and take their chances they will take points off us because we do not have that edge right now that means we will put 3-4 goals passed them.

There are no easy games. The sooner we accept that and adapt to that the sooner we will see long term success.

 

[StripiestPilot]

Have we become Everton? Expecting 4 points from Leicester(A) and Palace(H).

If we really are a Top 4 team and didn't fluke our way to a ECL final then we shouldn't accept anything less than 6 points. Palace are relegation fodder FFS.

A point a piece I can understand against City and Woolwich away, but Leicester just lost their prize CB and replaced with Johnny Evans!! and they play a 33 year old striker.

We haven't won an away game in the league since January and have won 4 of the last 16 league games. Our last clean sheet was in April when we scraped a 1-0 against Brighton at WHL. We are the team that is relegation fodder right now.

Of course we have players with a lot of talent but that means nothing, we live in the here and now not the past. We have lost our energy and our aggression and now we have the old Spurs stench of a team that is easy to beat if you just do the basics right. In our current form we have no right to beat anybody, having seemingly better players on paper is not enough to win a match.

I expect us to beat Palace if we work harder than them and don't make any stupid mistakes, but when was the last time we did that? The players and manager have everything to prove after 9 months of shite.

 

[DTM]

Their support is absolutely tremendous tbf.

Oh come on.

I can not believe you have just said that about Crystal Palace. Of all the clubs in the country I have visited (over forty years), and I’ve been there many times -they have the most blatantly choreographed and plastic support I know of. Do they have die-hard genuine support among them? Every club does so obviously they must have - but that lot that call themselves “ the ultras”, and give most of their vocal support - they today are the absolute laughing stock of English football because their “new found passion “is fake and more suited to sohos’ theatre land.

Only in the last decade have they found a voice and it took a real life choreography artist to motivate the cunts! Had I not experience them before the makeover I would agree with you but I did, so I know - they are a joke!

 

[DTM]

The dumbest thing we can do is expect teams to just roll over for us. We need to approach each and every game with the same level of focus and intensity.

That is surely the most poignant bit of advice a team needs to hear prior to kick off but it seems only a Guardiola or a Klopp believe in such standards.

 

[StripiestPilot]

That is surely the most poignant bit of advice a team needs to hear prior to kick off but it seems only a Guardiola or a Klopp believe in such standards.

Of course Poch understands that, getting the players to do it is the hard part, especially when it's the same squad and the same manager for the 6th year in a row. It's natural that things have gone a bit stale, most clubs in our situation would already have changed the manager. I'm not saying we have to do that but it remains to be seen whether Poch can revive the team. He's never had to do this before, most managers don't last long enough to go through this process of rebuilding their own team.

Just look at Real Madrid, they are in similar circumstances. An aging team that has already peaked under Zidane and he is struggling to revive them. When Ferguson and Wenger did it they had to change a lot, big players were moved on, the style of football changed, different coaches were brought in etc. We are only at the start of the process and it's going to be tough.

 

[DTM]

Of course Poch understands that, getting the players to do it is the hard part, especially when it's the same squad and the same manager for the 6th year in a row. It's natural that things have gone a bit stale, most clubs in our situation would already have changed the manager. I'm not saying we have to do that but it remains to be seen whether Poch can revive the team. He's never had to do this before, most managers don't last long enough to go through this process of rebuilding their own team.

Just look at Real Madrid, they are in similar circumstances. An aging team that has already peaked under Zidane and he is struggling to revive them. When Ferguson and Wenger did it they had to change a lot, big players were moved on, the style of football changed, different coaches were brought in etc. We are only at the start of the process and it's going to be tough.

So let’s just go for broke and sack the manager now before the inevitable happens?

Who will replace him?

 

[bus-conductor]

Name a game where Skipp did anything to suggest that he is really serious emerging talent. From the appearances I recall, he has looked ponderously ordinary. I hope its nerves and that there is stuff in the locker that will emerge with confidence and experience but suggestions that hes a better starter than Winks seem premature.

Just about every game he's played (as an 18yo don't forget) he's shown signs of what he's about, tenacity, dynamism and an ability to actually get his head up and play an incisive pass - if you want a stand out game, how about Preston away in the cup last year, where as well as having a great game in midfield generally he also got two assists, and one of them was a defence splitting pass from midfield.

He was also probably our best player in pre season this year, OK it's pre season, but he's still a kid playing against top teams like Bayern, RM etc

I don't want him replacing Winks per se right now, but he could do a damn site better job with his attributes as a midfielder than Sissoko, who can't press, can't pass and plods about like a drunken rhino.

He got some qualities we are drastically lacking, some fucking vim and urgency, some aggression and some ability to actually play football. The kind of qualities Poch built his rep on once upon a time.

He's 18/19yo having his first few games, we seem happy to tolerate oder players taking a whole season to learn how to not shit the bed every time they play, why not give the same sort of leeway to him.

 

[StripiestPilot]

So let’s just go for broke and sack the manager now before the inevitable happens?

Who will replace him?

Well that's the thing, we are in an awkward spot. Poch has earned our loyalty and we need to give him time to turn things around. I'm just saying that only truly exceptional managers, with silverware under their belt, have managed to accomplish what Poch is trying to do in refreshing their own team.

Let's say Poch had resigned in the summer, there would be no opportunity for players like Vertonghen, Toby, Rose, Kane, Dele etc to coast along because if they don't impress the new manager straight away they would be out of the team and soon out of the club. With Poch having to phase out his own players there is an obvious awkwardness and players can take it easy thinking that "the gaffer knows me". I believe Rose said something like that the other day.

If Mourinho or Allegri came in after the Woolwich game and looked at Rose's defending this season there would be a 0% chance of him starting tomorrow, but Poch is loyal to some players and will give them more chances as a result. To successfully manage this transition to the next "phase" he has to be more ruthless and make tougher decisions. He handed out a new contract to Ben Davies and we spent £25m on a new LB/LW, Rose should be sweating for his place. Another shit game and he has to be taken out. Otherwise the project is doomed. These players who are heading towards 30 and winding down their contracts should be the ones working hardest to earn a new deal, not taking it easy. Poch can't let them have an easy ride just because he's managed them for 5 years. If he can't get them to shape up in the next few months then we will have to make a change.

 

[Gatsby]

Kane loves September, I'm expecting a goal or 2 from him tomorrow. Son also loves playing Palace at home.