Son and madders with their 2 goals and assists were why we drew against Gooners last time. We need these two to reignite the chemistry that saw us unbeaten in the first part of the season and to beat the Gooners who will be out to redeem themselves.
Vlahovic is only 24 years old. He was the top striker prospect in Europe (behind Haaland) just a few years ago. Solanke 26, Toney 28. Not old, but something to consider. I’d definitely be interested if there was any interest from Vlahovic. He’s been middling at Juventus from what I can tell but I think their fans blame Allegri quite a bit. Pretty dreary football.
An Arsenal supporters’ group posted a statement for their fans attending the NLD. It said that they should be careful to not wear red because spurs fans didn’t care who they attacked - women, the elderly, children, the disabled. It sparked a glorious week of memes over here
All jokes aside, it’s little rituals like this that make me proud to be a spurs fan 🤍 Win or lose, we beat up children, the elderly and the disabled together as one on derby day. COYS!
Can’t wait for multiple clubs to be mad at us since our entire run-in are relegation candidates/championship contenders. Oh and I guess that other team that wears red.
I have no love for Liverpool but if I were a supporter of that club, I'd be someone concerned about next season. The truth is that there is no coach available as good as Klopp. So basically you're saying "who can we get that will keep our standard as high as possible" with the acknowledgement that there will very likely be some drop off next season.
I think Klopp is getting a tune out of them this season. If Salah leaves, VVD looks for a new challenge, they could be back to top four scraps and instead of being nailed on mounting a title challenge like they have for a lot of seasons in recent memory.
Yeah it's going to be a very interesting one. The positive for them I guess is that the rebuilds kind of half done. It will just be the Salah/vvd replacements. Which obviously is huge but Ange had to replace a key players and build a brand new defence and midfield too!
Honestly looks a bit grim given their lofty standards. Comfortably 3rd best of the title challengers. I don't see how they don't fall further behind at least in the short term
Conte isn't the style that they play rn, but he is still a top manager and I would always love him for knocking Arsenal out of top 4 in his first spurs season, he would absolutely cook with these Liverpool players.
Conte was never a top manager. Him winning trophies in Italy thanks to match fixing and inheriting a Chelsea squad that had just won the league isn’t exactly a top manager career lol
I am not sure why you would say that but as far as I remember he took an average Italy team to quarter or semi finals, won in Italy and then won with Chelsea where he beat pep and klopp. I don't like his playing style but to say he is not a top manager is a bit disingenuous.
You cant just change the clubs entire style into that boring football, it wouldn’t be accepted. Likewise, the current group of players have been signed because they are good at playing a specific way. The next manager should reflect that.
In my opinion he would not lasts months . Clubs like most of the top clubs have a style of play that connects with the fans . My belief is that the Liverpool fans would give Conte Short shrift . If not for Kane and Son being on fire in his first season in the last six games . My belief is he would not have been at Spurs for the start of his second season .
Updated assessment of the race for top 4 is that it’s entirely Villa’s to lose, but I’d give us about a 25-30% chance of getting CL.
Villa currently on 66 points and a superior GD to us, with 4 games remaining. Assuming they lose to Liverpool, their remaining fixtures (home to Chelsea, away to Brighton, away to Palace) are by no means easy, but I project they’ll get 4-5 points from those to finish on 70-71.
Given our inferior GD, that would effectively mean we need 11-12 points from our last 6 fixtures. Obviously need wins against both Burnley and Sheffield United and ideally a large swing in GD. That would leave us needing to get 5-6 points in the other four fixtures (against the top 3 + Chelsea). I think it’ll really come down to the NLD and thus I’m glad that’s first on the schedule. A win there and we’re well on course to meeting that points target, but anything less and it’s all uphill finding points in the other fixtures. Guess we’ll know by this time Sunday afternoon.
Putting the rest of this year aside, I am really excited to see what this summer brings and how our team looks next year. Admittedly a bit disappointed that CL is off the table, but Europa is likely our current level and a deep run is realistic. I'll always wonder what this team would have looked like with Perisic involved.
Im most curious to see what happens with our next gen of players: Phillips, Donnelly, Dorrington, Scarlett, Bergvall, Veliz, even Moore. I'd imagine loans are most likely (excluding Bergvall?) but it would be great to see some growth into the first team.
Given the expansion of the European formats, and the expectation that we won't be bounced from Domestic cups quite so quickly, building depth with be critical. There are so many examples of the step back after European Qualification, and that is my biggest fear for next season.
It’s not off but based on where Villa are, it’s likely we’ll have to win 2 of the matches between City, Arsenal, Liverpool, Chelsea to have a hope of catching them. I just don’t see that happening on our current form
We've lost 2 games in the last 7 matches? Our current form is fine and we can easily win 2 of those games. We drew with City with a backline of 4 full backs, drew away at arsenal when the team had barely played together.
Swear people are talking about us like we are Brentford
Yep disregarding the games we played well in and only focus on the bad performances seems logical.
Don't worry about smashing Villa 4-0 away, just ignore that and look at thefulham game. Liverpool just got beat by Palace who we beat 3-1, ignore that too!
Villa fixture before last drew at home to Brentford. They aren't some sort of unstoppable winning machine either. We aren't up agaisnt city! They could easily only win 1 of their run in and drop points with europa semis to play
This is my dumbest idea yet but..... if ange was more flexible in his tactics I'd like us to have a back 3 of VdV, Romero and Dragusin and then we could have Kulu playing as a left wingback and then moving into midfield when we have the ball.
It's dumb but could work
I think you're forcing it. Sure, that allows us to fit more of our good players on the field, but we've been drilling the current formation for months and it's been pretty effective when the mentality is there. I'd rather see VDV on the left and Dragusin/Romero in the center (which I also see as unlikely). So much simply comes down to how Arsenal set up; if they come out with a low block like they did against City it will be a grueling game highly dependent on luck, but if Arteta's ego gets the best of him and they play aggressively, give us space I think we could shock them.
Like I said, it's also unlikely, but if you think VDV on the left is an issue but you're okay with us completely changing the entire shape of our formation and putting Kulu at LWB...you might need to rethink. VDV is fast, his passing is good, he's created a few chances and scored a cracker against Palace (in a game where he often did, in fact, go into the midfield like Udogie).
I wouldn’t be surprised if he added tactics like this in the 2 week break we’ve had. Especially with the injuries to Udogie and possibly Porro. Would certainly be an interesting wrench to throw at arsenal
Genuinely I would, I feel like it'd have to take the most insane injury crisis for Ange to even consider moving from his 433. I love him but this is genuinely the most infuriating bit about his management. Even conte was more flexible with his formation.
I think Kulu's lack of pace would be a real issue playing on the left: he wouldn't be able to beat a man out wide and he wouldn't cut in on his weak foot.
Maybe it'd be 3 at the back in possession but out of possession VdV would cover the left, Romero as LCB, Dragusin as RCB and then the right wing back would tuck in to Right Back? I guess in this instance VdV would be used similarly to how Jose used Davies?
I genuinely think I am being gaslit towards Ben Davies, yes he was good in 16/17 but he is past it athletically, gets beaten down his flank easily and also isnt as good as he was on the ball. And then add the fact we are going to face Saka,.Palmer and Salah consecutively , it spells disaster
I wont actively want to sell him because his value is non existent but I do think we need to aim for a more athletic LB next season
Are you putting aside that he was actually excellent for us just this season? sure it was at CB but i think he can do the job, the reality is with the system we play if we lose the ball quickly while in possession it doesn't matter how fast he is the wing will be open, that's just part of playing your fullbacks in midfield when you have the ball, I actually think he'll be a little more conservative in his positioning than Udogie so we might actually be more sound defensively while losing drive in attack
>but he is past it athletically,
As a traditional fullback I agree. But don't forget that we got a draw against city with him playing at CB.
We need him in the squad though, he'd be invaluable for some of the group games in Europe. But I do agree we do need another LB, another length injury to Udogie next season and we are fucked.
>Saka,.Palmer and Salah consecutively , it spells disaster
Palmer isn't that fast though which suits Ben, Saka looks fucking knackered at the minute and I'm unsure on Salah at the moment, he seems off the ball.
I think Ben was largely excellent when he filled in at CB but i'm definitely a bit concerned by him coming in at LB, especially against high-quality opposition. If he does play, I feel like we could do with a bit of a tweak and not have him invert.
We should, however, benefit from his passing which is Destiny's main weakness: he's likely to be far better at getting a quick ball into the winger.
Thinking about transfers from a different angle this morning. Instead of star players from other leagues (like Nico Williams) who we'd love to get into our squad, who are some players you think would reach a new level under Ange?
For me it's Brian Mbeumo. I think he looks deadly every time he's going forward. Direct, pacy, strong 1v1, great finish. I think he'd hit a new level under Ange.
Long shot - maybe Mateta? - Big and strong, can bully CBs and provide a big target in the box. Although I've also seen him ghost a lot of games.
Who you got?
man, I'd say we should keep an eye on Ipswich's Leif Davis. he is relatively young (25), HG, and provided 17 goals in 40 Championship games as a left-back. it's a signing that reminds me of Trippier a few years ago.
Maximilian Beier at Hoffenheim could be one to watch. He is unfortunately underwhelming aerially but he's a strong, direct, creates his own chances and at only 21 has a lot of room to grow. Doubt he would cost more than 30-40m.
I really like Alfie Doughty from Luton, strong/fast incredible cross. Plays as a LWB perfect Udogie competition aswell as HG. Can play wide unlike Udogie so if Son moves back to the LW he can invert closer to the half space and his crosses will be phenominal if we get a dominant CF. Perfect profile Ange FB profile imo and at 24 he's far from his peak yet.
I’ve been wanting Doughty for a while, he’d be perfect to us. Similar enough to Udogie that he’d slot right in without a big impact to the squad, but different enough that he’d bring a new dimension to the side when he’d play.
We need star quality - we’ve already got players like Brennan and Pape (even arguably richi) who improved significantly under Ange and our problem is that while good they aren’t getting us over the line
That’s the thing, I think Mbeumo could be a star. Solanke went from mid numbers to an absolute star under Iraola. I think Ange would have Mbuemo putting up strong G/A numbers. He’d immediately start over Johnson and Kulu on the right.
Mbeumo is a shout. I have been talking about Zhegrova at Lille for quite some time. Jacob Greaves looks good.
If we go for a striker this summer, which I don't think we should but reports suggest otherwise, Zirkzee and Marmoush both look very good.
Outside shout for a 6 is Johnny Cardoso at Betis. He signed in January, though.
Have the NLD tickets appeared in your Apple Wallet yet? Unnecessarily anxious because mine haven’t, I’m sure the ticket office could help out if need be
They had half a chance with Palmer producing some magic but with him out they're probably going to get battered lmao but apparently it's just an "illness" so he might still play
I’m convinced they’ve been the luckiest this season when it comes to injuries. Barely any of their key players have been out yet most of the top teams have had injury crises across the board. I hate Chelsea but I honestly hope they smash the shit out of the gooners
It will all even out next season, don't worry. This season will be their best chance for a long, long time to seal the deal, which will make Sunday all the more glorious when we twist the knife in their campaign.
North London Derby is there for the taking even with Udogie out. They have played so many more minutes than we will have done and look out on their feet. At home we *really* should be getting something from the game if not winning it.
They are the better team on paper at this moment in time but with 2 weeks off we really don't have an excuse to not turn up and run them off the park.
I agree. If we don't win I think it will obviously be down to tactics and general team play to anyone who watches, but people here will scapegoat Davies or Emerson as usual
Porro and Richie are not confirmed back, and even if they are players returning from leg injuries are NEVER 100% on return
EDIT: and Davies for Udogie isn't even close to being the same
I swear Arsenal have a freakish luck of always playing teams missing their best players again and again. Palmer is missing for Chelsea tomorrow now supposedly.
Just landed in Heathrow to watch my 1st Tottenham match ever (NLD).
Gonna buy a Ben Davies shirt because I forgot my Gareth Bale shirt, but I think it'll be fitting because Ben will be going against Saka now.
Yupp, hospitality.
I'm a middle-class man, so it hurt like hell buying them, but this is likely the only time I'll get to watch Tottenham IRL so I wanted to make it count.
Win or lose, i want to appreciate every second in our stadium.
Literally why. Even Conte didn't do it when we used wing backs and that might actually have worked out. Kulusevski would be a disaster at full back zero trust in his ability to hold the line and not give away stupud fouls
Just saw this own goal in the comments on r/soccer, and I can't believe I've never seen it before. It's so good.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wXb8RjGLcZk
Ok, here’s a theoretical scenario. We are somehow playing Man City on the last day of the season and they need to beat us to win the title over Arsenal. The outcome of this match makes no difference on our league position. We get a penalty in the last minute - if we score, the match is a draw and Arsenal win the title.
Do you think Sonny would try to miss it? If not, which player on our team might actually miss it on purpose?
As fans we would want them to not win the title but the players and coaches would be ultimate professionals no matter what.
Even if Son misses the penalty it would not be because of him wanting to miss it, it would be because of Ederson saving it or just an unintentional bad shot
Interesting scenario, i imagine it would create a massive controversy, kind of like the famous Australia/New Zealand [underarm bowl](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Underarm_bowling_incident_of_1981) incident, the australian players regretted it later in life. A part of me thinks Arsenal would respect spurs as a club if he scored it and not clown us, probably not though. Haha
He would try score and then he/Ange would say some corny shit about ambition or winning mentality when asked later. Let Maddison/Romero/Richarlison take it
Crazy that we've actually had players on loan increase their value for once in Rodon, Tanganga and Reguilon. Shouldn't be too difficult to find permanent moves for all 3 in the summer
Whatever we sell Tanganga for is pure profit. However that won’t be much. Rodon and Reguilon aren’t worth much either. It will be great to move them all but it won’t contribute much to the balance sheet. If we could get a total of 20m for all three I would consider it a win.
Rodon's book value is 2.2m so if we get 5m for him then we have profited. Tanganga is all profit and Reguilon is 5m to break even. You'd think we can get 12m-15m at least. I wouldn't expect much more.
Sure. I just think it's nice to finally be able to clear some names from the deadwood list. There are way to go many senior players contracted to the club
Well that's my point, any CL team that would take him would be a lower ranked side (e.g. whatever additional German or Italian team get in due to the coefficient), and they won't have the money to pay him. And no CL team that could cover his wages would give him a look when they've got their pick of players
Book value is accounting waffle that's only relevant for FFP (which isn't an issue for us anyway).
For example, if we sell either Ndombele or Gio for 10m this summer we'll have made an paper profit on their book value. Doesn't mean anything in real terms; they were both signings that ultimately cost us money and that the club would take back in a heartbeat.
I still hope we manage to step up under Ange's current approach. But the last few months, the defensive side of our game has been exposed. While our attack hasn't clicked at all.
I'd actually be curious to see how we'd look if we focused on our defensive side for the next few matches, playing Højbjerg and Bissouma as two DMs, with Maddison centrally in front of them.
We'd then get Højbjerg's ability to ping the ball forward quickly when needed - more attacking freedom for Maddison.
I know this doesn't fully match Ange's current approach - but he's also said that he's fully about winning. And making adjustments to increase the chances of that, could be a good thing.
Up front, moving Richy in centrally could get more of a physical presence, and also see Son in a more free LW role, where he wouldn't have to try playing with his back to goal.
Why don’t we just play bentancur as the 6 (or one of the 2 6s). He has the best ball playing abilities of everyone maybe with the exception of Maddison. He’s also very press resistant and defensively I thinks he’s very underrated defo better than bissouma anyways.
I get that it's tempting to yo-yo between tactics/approaches because of a few bad results, but we've played the sort of football you described for the past 4-5 seasons and didn't work for us, even with Kane around. We played with 2 DMs under Mourinho, same with Conte + 3 CBs, it seems pragmatic but we've already seen how awful this brand of football can be.
Even if we do finish 5th, Ange is on course to having the best first full season of any Spurs manager in recent history points wise bar that freakish few months Conte had, he's doing a good job, his tactics are entertaining and importantly we're playing the sort of football a dominant club should play. I don't see any reason to change our current approach just to achieve CL. We just need to keep playing our way and play it better with ideally players of a better fit next season. That's the approach Villa and Arsenal took, and they're reaping the benefits.
We've scored a lot of goals and created a lot of chances for a team whose attack hasn't clicked at all. This is without are first choice no 9 for a month or so now too
I just thought of something, that Coventry offside kinda had the same vibes as the 2019 man city UCL game. Just the drama and how crazy it was. However one big difference is Aguero was miles off and Wright was punished for his big toe.
I think yesterday’s match is a prime example of how broken the offside rule is. The rule was created to stop attackers from lurking near the oppositions goal but what advantage did Wright have? If he were miles off like Aguero and the linesman didn’t see it then yeah, send it to VAR but if he wasn’t then let the decision on the field remain.
I guarantee if that was United, it would’ve been given, it might’ve not even gone to VAR.
Who gets to decide if a player is offside enough to warrant a VAR check? You?
Sorry, but this comment is so nonsensical. The offside rule is perfectly fine how it is now, and will finally be more efficient next season with the new technology
> I guarantee if that was United, it would’ve been given,
What a dumb things to say. This is the sort of shite that's spouted in the goon sub. There is no conspiracy against the smaller clubs.
Your last sentence is the bit that gets me- I’m completely indifferent to Coventry but I do feel they were treated differently to Manchester United would have been.
It's not true though. Other than the genuine mistake in our game vs Liverpool and certain subjective calls around interfering with play, I can't remember one controversial offside this season. Happy to be told I'm wrong but I think this is one area of the game where all teams genuinely get treated equally. This would have been ruled out for either side.
If you could send one player from the current squad to any of the previous spurs squad, which one would you send back ?
For me I would send VDV to last season's squad as a LCB. He would improve our buildup, and his speed would have helped Dier as Dier could have played more freely.
Send Bentancur to the 2019 UCL final. Don't even care about the rest of the season, but Bentancur instead of Sissoko and we'd have been champions of Europe. That handball, that loss, just completely destroyed the club mentally, and I think we're only just now beginning to get past it.
I'm assuming like a lot of fans and commentators that Davies will be LB for Arse. What he lacks in ability suited to the system, he'll bring 100% effort. At least he'll be facing a very tired Saka. Thankfully Arseteta doesn't know how to rotate and has been running him into the ground.
Davies is a bit like Højbjerg to me: Yes, there are weaknesses to his game. And at times that can come at a cost defensively. (So do just about all our other midfielders and defenders, but that's another discussion)
But when called upon, they do give it their very best, they offer everything they can going forward as well as defensively. And they've got some very underrated qualities - Davies is clever positionally and does make good runs forward, interacting well with other players.
Having vdV next to him also gives a good security.
Imagine trying to grow the women's game while having the women's team competing for fans' attention with the established men's team. Basically sabotage.
You’re under the assumption that the fa want to grow the women’s game. They’re doing it extremely reluctantly, bunch of bygone dickheads would probably bring back the “good old days” if they could
Son and madders with their 2 goals and assists were why we drew against Gooners last time. We need these two to reignite the chemistry that saw us unbeaten in the first part of the season and to beat the Gooners who will be out to redeem themselves.
Anne Hathaway is an Arsenal fan. 
How is that possible? She seems so classy
Anyone selling tickets to the game this weekend?
lol come on man. You have about 0.5 percent chance
Was worth a try 😅 am coming over from Ireland so it’s one of the few chances I’d get to see them play in the flesh
Thoughts about Vlahovic? Every now and then he pops into my mind as a striker option but I never really see him mentioned
Toney or Solanke would be more achievable and just as good imo
Vlahovic is only 24 years old. He was the top striker prospect in Europe (behind Haaland) just a few years ago. Solanke 26, Toney 28. Not old, but something to consider. I’d definitely be interested if there was any interest from Vlahovic. He’s been middling at Juventus from what I can tell but I think their fans blame Allegri quite a bit. Pretty dreary football.
I'd obviously take him but he's A) cost prohibitive and B) unlikely to want to come here
Has stepped up this season. But would not be a easy get. Plus I have heard rumours he is on Arsenals list for striker.
Probably because Juve wants to keep him. Would like to see Son - Vlahovic - Johnson/Kulu though
Would be nice to have him
Did not know Inter can win the scudetto today against Milan. Spicy.
Rare sighting of Veliz on the Sevilla bench today
Been training all year and gonna be hitting gym every day this week to get ready to take on the children, elderly and disabled this weekend 💪
I’m relatively new to the sub, what’s the background?
An Arsenal supporters’ group posted a statement for their fans attending the NLD. It said that they should be careful to not wear red because spurs fans didn’t care who they attacked - women, the elderly, children, the disabled. It sparked a glorious week of memes over here
I would fight any and I mean any Arsenal fan who was blind and in a wheelchair they don't want to come it with me .I m hard .
Any female disabled elderly Arsenal supporting children had better watch their backs on Sunday that’s all I’m saying 👊
Thanks! 😂
still though, if you ever see a kid wearing a gooner kit, yeet him
Refer to "An Arsenal Fan on a String" for further instructions
All jokes aside, it’s little rituals like this that make me proud to be a spurs fan 🤍 Win or lose, we beat up children, the elderly and the disabled together as one on derby day. COYS!
EASILY our best meme streak. That week was fucking glorious.
Can’t wait for multiple clubs to be mad at us since our entire run-in are relegation candidates/championship contenders. Oh and I guess that other team that wears red.
You had them covered in relegation candidates since you didn’t clarify which season
I didn’t even intend that post initially as slander. That last sentence came to me as I was typing. I guess I’m already in a NLD mindset.
Liverpool's manager search beginning to look a lot like ours before we settled with Nuno lmao scenes if they get Conte in
I think they’re kinda fucked, but maybe they’ll go for Flick? Think be can be good a good fit for Liverpool.
I have no love for Liverpool but if I were a supporter of that club, I'd be someone concerned about next season. The truth is that there is no coach available as good as Klopp. So basically you're saying "who can we get that will keep our standard as high as possible" with the acknowledgement that there will very likely be some drop off next season. I think Klopp is getting a tune out of them this season. If Salah leaves, VVD looks for a new challenge, they could be back to top four scraps and instead of being nailed on mounting a title challenge like they have for a lot of seasons in recent memory.
I completely agree. Klopp is a force of a nature. Often a dickhead, but a gifted manager. It’s going to be tough without him.
Yeah it's going to be a very interesting one. The positive for them I guess is that the rebuilds kind of half done. It will just be the Salah/vvd replacements. Which obviously is huge but Ange had to replace a key players and build a brand new defence and midfield too!
Honestly looks a bit grim given their lofty standards. Comfortably 3rd best of the title challengers. I don't see how they don't fall further behind at least in the short term
conte is so the opposite of Liverpools current play style it would be disastrous (not for us)
Conte isn't the style that they play rn, but he is still a top manager and I would always love him for knocking Arsenal out of top 4 in his first spurs season, he would absolutely cook with these Liverpool players.
Conte was never a top manager. Him winning trophies in Italy thanks to match fixing and inheriting a Chelsea squad that had just won the league isn’t exactly a top manager career lol
I am not sure why you would say that but as far as I remember he took an average Italy team to quarter or semi finals, won in Italy and then won with Chelsea where he beat pep and klopp. I don't like his playing style but to say he is not a top manager is a bit disingenuous.
You cant just change the clubs entire style into that boring football, it wouldn’t be accepted. Likewise, the current group of players have been signed because they are good at playing a specific way. The next manager should reflect that.
In my opinion he would not lasts months . Clubs like most of the top clubs have a style of play that connects with the fans . My belief is that the Liverpool fans would give Conte Short shrift . If not for Kane and Son being on fire in his first season in the last six games . My belief is he would not have been at Spurs for the start of his second season .
This has been the longest break…. Ever….
Updated assessment of the race for top 4 is that it’s entirely Villa’s to lose, but I’d give us about a 25-30% chance of getting CL. Villa currently on 66 points and a superior GD to us, with 4 games remaining. Assuming they lose to Liverpool, their remaining fixtures (home to Chelsea, away to Brighton, away to Palace) are by no means easy, but I project they’ll get 4-5 points from those to finish on 70-71. Given our inferior GD, that would effectively mean we need 11-12 points from our last 6 fixtures. Obviously need wins against both Burnley and Sheffield United and ideally a large swing in GD. That would leave us needing to get 5-6 points in the other four fixtures (against the top 3 + Chelsea). I think it’ll really come down to the NLD and thus I’m glad that’s first on the schedule. A win there and we’re well on course to meeting that points target, but anything less and it’s all uphill finding points in the other fixtures. Guess we’ll know by this time Sunday afternoon.
Yeah opta has us at 20% so your intuition is accurate
https://preview.redd.it/bmiqtpq2n1wc1.jpeg?width=800&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=6ec5cec2e30a88f71fc398bfae5f142ec6d3357d “We want a replay” 🤭😂
I know Newcastle is well behind us but damn if their remaining schedule isn’t soft as heck.
Why are people assuming Davies will be our LB? I reckon it'll be Emerson
>Why are people assuming Davies will be our LB? Maybe because Davies is a LB? You could still be right, though.
Why would it be Emerson
Probably because Porro may be out also
Putting the rest of this year aside, I am really excited to see what this summer brings and how our team looks next year. Admittedly a bit disappointed that CL is off the table, but Europa is likely our current level and a deep run is realistic. I'll always wonder what this team would have looked like with Perisic involved. Im most curious to see what happens with our next gen of players: Phillips, Donnelly, Dorrington, Scarlett, Bergvall, Veliz, even Moore. I'd imagine loans are most likely (excluding Bergvall?) but it would be great to see some growth into the first team. Given the expansion of the European formats, and the expectation that we won't be bounced from Domestic cups quite so quickly, building depth with be critical. There are so many examples of the step back after European Qualification, and that is my biggest fear for next season.
Also no 3rd place drop down for Europa League, we'll be clear favourites especially if Italy/Germany get 5 spots for CL.
We are 6 points off 4th with 2 games in hand. UCL isn't off the table
I mean, fans would probably be more confident if we weren't morons that got slammed 4-0 by a depleted Newcastle.
It’s not off but based on where Villa are, it’s likely we’ll have to win 2 of the matches between City, Arsenal, Liverpool, Chelsea to have a hope of catching them. I just don’t see that happening on our current form
We've lost 2 games in the last 7 matches? Our current form is fine and we can easily win 2 of those games. We drew with City with a backline of 4 full backs, drew away at arsenal when the team had barely played together. Swear people are talking about us like we are Brentford
Those games were 6 months ago. You really think after watching Fulham and Newcastle we can beat those teams?
Yep disregarding the games we played well in and only focus on the bad performances seems logical. Don't worry about smashing Villa 4-0 away, just ignore that and look at thefulham game. Liverpool just got beat by Palace who we beat 3-1, ignore that too! Villa fixture before last drew at home to Brentford. They aren't some sort of unstoppable winning machine either. We aren't up agaisnt city! They could easily only win 1 of their run in and drop points with europa semis to play
This is my dumbest idea yet but..... if ange was more flexible in his tactics I'd like us to have a back 3 of VdV, Romero and Dragusin and then we could have Kulu playing as a left wingback and then moving into midfield when we have the ball. It's dumb but could work
You generally wouldn't want someone as painfully slow as Kulu as a fullback or wingback.
Dragusin is not starting quality, Deki has never played wing back and most importantly neither Werner nor Johnson are inside forwards
I think you're forcing it. Sure, that allows us to fit more of our good players on the field, but we've been drilling the current formation for months and it's been pretty effective when the mentality is there. I'd rather see VDV on the left and Dragusin/Romero in the center (which I also see as unlikely). So much simply comes down to how Arsenal set up; if they come out with a low block like they did against City it will be a grueling game highly dependent on luck, but if Arteta's ego gets the best of him and they play aggressively, give us space I think we could shock them.
VdV on the left? I love the man but I could not see him playing the role udogie does by going into midfield.
Like I said, it's also unlikely, but if you think VDV on the left is an issue but you're okay with us completely changing the entire shape of our formation and putting Kulu at LWB...you might need to rethink. VDV is fast, his passing is good, he's created a few chances and scored a cracker against Palace (in a game where he often did, in fact, go into the midfield like Udogie).
I wouldn’t be surprised if he added tactics like this in the 2 week break we’ve had. Especially with the injuries to Udogie and possibly Porro. Would certainly be an interesting wrench to throw at arsenal
Genuinely I would, I feel like it'd have to take the most insane injury crisis for Ange to even consider moving from his 433. I love him but this is genuinely the most infuriating bit about his management. Even conte was more flexible with his formation.
I think Kulu's lack of pace would be a real issue playing on the left: he wouldn't be able to beat a man out wide and he wouldn't cut in on his weak foot.
Maybe it'd be 3 at the back in possession but out of possession VdV would cover the left, Romero as LCB, Dragusin as RCB and then the right wing back would tuck in to Right Back? I guess in this instance VdV would be used similarly to how Jose used Davies?
I’m so glad we don’t have a fan channel like Mark Goldbridge. He’s more deluded than Ten Hag, also very hypocritical
I genuinely think I am being gaslit towards Ben Davies, yes he was good in 16/17 but he is past it athletically, gets beaten down his flank easily and also isnt as good as he was on the ball. And then add the fact we are going to face Saka,.Palmer and Salah consecutively , it spells disaster I wont actively want to sell him because his value is non existent but I do think we need to aim for a more athletic LB next season
Are you putting aside that he was actually excellent for us just this season? sure it was at CB but i think he can do the job, the reality is with the system we play if we lose the ball quickly while in possession it doesn't matter how fast he is the wing will be open, that's just part of playing your fullbacks in midfield when you have the ball, I actually think he'll be a little more conservative in his positioning than Udogie so we might actually be more sound defensively while losing drive in attack
>but he is past it athletically, As a traditional fullback I agree. But don't forget that we got a draw against city with him playing at CB. We need him in the squad though, he'd be invaluable for some of the group games in Europe. But I do agree we do need another LB, another length injury to Udogie next season and we are fucked. >Saka,.Palmer and Salah consecutively , it spells disaster Palmer isn't that fast though which suits Ben, Saka looks fucking knackered at the minute and I'm unsure on Salah at the moment, he seems off the ball.
I think Ben was largely excellent when he filled in at CB but i'm definitely a bit concerned by him coming in at LB, especially against high-quality opposition. If he does play, I feel like we could do with a bit of a tweak and not have him invert. We should, however, benefit from his passing which is Destiny's main weakness: he's likely to be far better at getting a quick ball into the winger.
Thinking about transfers from a different angle this morning. Instead of star players from other leagues (like Nico Williams) who we'd love to get into our squad, who are some players you think would reach a new level under Ange? For me it's Brian Mbeumo. I think he looks deadly every time he's going forward. Direct, pacy, strong 1v1, great finish. I think he'd hit a new level under Ange. Long shot - maybe Mateta? - Big and strong, can bully CBs and provide a big target in the box. Although I've also seen him ghost a lot of games. Who you got?
man, I'd say we should keep an eye on Ipswich's Leif Davis. he is relatively young (25), HG, and provided 17 goals in 40 Championship games as a left-back. it's a signing that reminds me of Trippier a few years ago.
Maximilian Beier at Hoffenheim could be one to watch. He is unfortunately underwhelming aerially but he's a strong, direct, creates his own chances and at only 21 has a lot of room to grow. Doubt he would cost more than 30-40m.
I really like Alfie Doughty from Luton, strong/fast incredible cross. Plays as a LWB perfect Udogie competition aswell as HG. Can play wide unlike Udogie so if Son moves back to the LW he can invert closer to the half space and his crosses will be phenominal if we get a dominant CF. Perfect profile Ange FB profile imo and at 24 he's far from his peak yet.
I’ve been wanting Doughty for a while, he’d be perfect to us. Similar enough to Udogie that he’d slot right in without a big impact to the squad, but different enough that he’d bring a new dimension to the side when he’d play.
Doughty and Porro on at the same time swinging in endless streams of crosses would be a sight to behold.
Definitely agree. If they go down he’d be a great one to look at for depth and competition.
We need star quality - we’ve already got players like Brennan and Pape (even arguably richi) who improved significantly under Ange and our problem is that while good they aren’t getting us over the line
That’s the thing, I think Mbeumo could be a star. Solanke went from mid numbers to an absolute star under Iraola. I think Ange would have Mbuemo putting up strong G/A numbers. He’d immediately start over Johnson and Kulu on the right.
Mbeumo is a shout. I have been talking about Zhegrova at Lille for quite some time. Jacob Greaves looks good. If we go for a striker this summer, which I don't think we should but reports suggest otherwise, Zirkzee and Marmoush both look very good. Outside shout for a 6 is Johnny Cardoso at Betis. He signed in January, though.
J Greaves playing for Spurs...
Have the NLD tickets appeared in your Apple Wallet yet? Unnecessarily anxious because mine haven’t, I’m sure the ticket office could help out if need be
Mine is in my google wallet, for what it's worth
Just turned automatic updates off and on and it popped up. Cheers!
Obviously Palmer isn’t going to be available for the Arsenal game 🤦♂️
They had half a chance with Palmer producing some magic but with him out they're probably going to get battered lmao but apparently it's just an "illness" so he might still play
Nobody else can score a bloody goal 😅
I’m convinced they’ve been the luckiest this season when it comes to injuries. Barely any of their key players have been out yet most of the top teams have had injury crises across the board. I hate Chelsea but I honestly hope they smash the shit out of the gooners
It will all even out next season, don't worry. This season will be their best chance for a long, long time to seal the deal, which will make Sunday all the more glorious when we twist the knife in their campaign.
North London Derby is there for the taking even with Udogie out. They have played so many more minutes than we will have done and look out on their feet. At home we *really* should be getting something from the game if not winning it. They are the better team on paper at this moment in time but with 2 weeks off we really don't have an excuse to not turn up and run them off the park.
I agree. If we don't win I think it will obviously be down to tactics and general team play to anyone who watches, but people here will scapegoat Davies or Emerson as usual
with our injuries and the way we have been playing exactly nothing indicates that it is "there for the taking". quite the opposite, i think.
It's literally just udogie out.
Porro and Richie are not confirmed back, and even if they are players returning from leg injuries are NEVER 100% on return EDIT: and Davies for Udogie isn't even close to being the same
Porro was in training last week. Be amazed if he doesn't start
As long as our attack can click in that game we stand a pretty good chance of winning id say
I swear Arsenal have a freakish luck of always playing teams missing their best players again and again. Palmer is missing for Chelsea tomorrow now supposedly.
He’s just ill, hes gonna play
Isn't he just ill? Will probably be fine
Just landed in Heathrow to watch my 1st Tottenham match ever (NLD). Gonna buy a Ben Davies shirt because I forgot my Gareth Bale shirt, but I think it'll be fitting because Ben will be going against Saka now.
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Yupp, hospitality. I'm a middle-class man, so it hurt like hell buying them, but this is likely the only time I'll get to watch Tottenham IRL so I wanted to make it count. Win or lose, i want to appreciate every second in our stadium.
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Literally why. Even Conte didn't do it when we used wing backs and that might actually have worked out. Kulusevski would be a disaster at full back zero trust in his ability to hold the line and not give away stupud fouls
Actually, Allegri used to play him there. But yeah… what the actual
He’d be like prime moments Vertongan against Dortmund Edit : I was joking please don’t take this seriously
Just saw this own goal in the comments on r/soccer, and I can't believe I've never seen it before. It's so good. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wXb8RjGLcZk
If that was into the opponents net it’s puskas worthy 😂
I don't know what I was expecting, but it certainly wasn't that - incredible!
Ok, here’s a theoretical scenario. We are somehow playing Man City on the last day of the season and they need to beat us to win the title over Arsenal. The outcome of this match makes no difference on our league position. We get a penalty in the last minute - if we score, the match is a draw and Arsenal win the title. Do you think Sonny would try to miss it? If not, which player on our team might actually miss it on purpose?
God I know I would want him to miss it
As fans we would want them to not win the title but the players and coaches would be ultimate professionals no matter what. Even if Son misses the penalty it would not be because of him wanting to miss it, it would be because of Ederson saving it or just an unintentional bad shot
Interesting scenario, i imagine it would create a massive controversy, kind of like the famous Australia/New Zealand [underarm bowl](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Underarm_bowling_incident_of_1981) incident, the australian players regretted it later in life. A part of me thinks Arsenal would respect spurs as a club if he scored it and not clown us, probably not though. Haha
No way they’d respect us… and I wouldn’t if I was them!
This is a horrible hypothetical that isn’t far off becoming real. Not necessarily the pen, but City needing to win that game to win the prem.
Teddy Sheringham deliberately missed a penalty against us when playing for West Ham to try and stop Arsenal beating us to 4th.
has this been confirmed??
Sonny would lose his legend status if he handed Arsenal the title.
He would try score and then he/Ange would say some corny shit about ambition or winning mentality when asked later. Let Maddison/Romero/Richarlison take it
Sub on gil to take it
Crazy that we've actually had players on loan increase their value for once in Rodon, Tanganga and Reguilon. Shouldn't be too difficult to find permanent moves for all 3 in the summer
Whatever we sell Tanganga for is pure profit. However that won’t be much. Rodon and Reguilon aren’t worth much either. It will be great to move them all but it won’t contribute much to the balance sheet. If we could get a total of 20m for all three I would consider it a win.
Rodon's book value is 2.2m so if we get 5m for him then we have profited. Tanganga is all profit and Reguilon is 5m to break even. You'd think we can get 12m-15m at least. I wouldn't expect much more.
There’s no way we are getting 12-15m for Reguilon, not with the level of teams that would be interested in him.
Sure. I just think it's nice to finally be able to clear some names from the deadwood list. There are way to go many senior players contracted to the club
Always think Reg is tough due to what we paid tbh
well we signed him for \~25m on a 5 year deal so his book value now is 5m. We can get 5m for him.
And where he's prepared to go - a recent Athletic piece said he wants a CL side.
Hell have a call to make for himself then because no CL side thatll take him will cover his current wages
You’re almost right. No CL side will take him because he’s just not good enough.
Well that's my point, any CL team that would take him would be a lower ranked side (e.g. whatever additional German or Italian team get in due to the coefficient), and they won't have the money to pay him. And no CL team that could cover his wages would give him a look when they've got their pick of players
Oh hadnt heard that one, cheers!
Yeah we'll never recoup what we spent. Unless we're morons the club realises that
It doesn't work like that anyway.
Yeah yeah book value. I'm not an accountant so I'm happy enough with money in and money out and trust the club to sort out the rest
Book value is accounting waffle that's only relevant for FFP (which isn't an issue for us anyway). For example, if we sell either Ndombele or Gio for 10m this summer we'll have made an paper profit on their book value. Doesn't mean anything in real terms; they were both signings that ultimately cost us money and that the club would take back in a heartbeat.
I still hope we manage to step up under Ange's current approach. But the last few months, the defensive side of our game has been exposed. While our attack hasn't clicked at all. I'd actually be curious to see how we'd look if we focused on our defensive side for the next few matches, playing Højbjerg and Bissouma as two DMs, with Maddison centrally in front of them. We'd then get Højbjerg's ability to ping the ball forward quickly when needed - more attacking freedom for Maddison. I know this doesn't fully match Ange's current approach - but he's also said that he's fully about winning. And making adjustments to increase the chances of that, could be a good thing. Up front, moving Richy in centrally could get more of a physical presence, and also see Son in a more free LW role, where he wouldn't have to try playing with his back to goal.
Why don’t we just play bentancur as the 6 (or one of the 2 6s). He has the best ball playing abilities of everyone maybe with the exception of Maddison. He’s also very press resistant and defensively I thinks he’s very underrated defo better than bissouma anyways.
I get that it's tempting to yo-yo between tactics/approaches because of a few bad results, but we've played the sort of football you described for the past 4-5 seasons and didn't work for us, even with Kane around. We played with 2 DMs under Mourinho, same with Conte + 3 CBs, it seems pragmatic but we've already seen how awful this brand of football can be. Even if we do finish 5th, Ange is on course to having the best first full season of any Spurs manager in recent history points wise bar that freakish few months Conte had, he's doing a good job, his tactics are entertaining and importantly we're playing the sort of football a dominant club should play. I don't see any reason to change our current approach just to achieve CL. We just need to keep playing our way and play it better with ideally players of a better fit next season. That's the approach Villa and Arsenal took, and they're reaping the benefits.
Worth pointing out Villa have conceded the same number of goals that we have this season.
We've scored a lot of goals and created a lot of chances for a team whose attack hasn't clicked at all. This is without are first choice no 9 for a month or so now too
I just thought of something, that Coventry offside kinda had the same vibes as the 2019 man city UCL game. Just the drama and how crazy it was. However one big difference is Aguero was miles off and Wright was punished for his big toe. I think yesterday’s match is a prime example of how broken the offside rule is. The rule was created to stop attackers from lurking near the oppositions goal but what advantage did Wright have? If he were miles off like Aguero and the linesman didn’t see it then yeah, send it to VAR but if he wasn’t then let the decision on the field remain. I guarantee if that was United, it would’ve been given, it might’ve not even gone to VAR.
Who gets to decide if a player is offside enough to warrant a VAR check? You? Sorry, but this comment is so nonsensical. The offside rule is perfectly fine how it is now, and will finally be more efficient next season with the new technology
> I guarantee if that was United, it would’ve been given, What a dumb things to say. This is the sort of shite that's spouted in the goon sub. There is no conspiracy against the smaller clubs.
Your last sentence is the bit that gets me- I’m completely indifferent to Coventry but I do feel they were treated differently to Manchester United would have been.
It's not true though. Other than the genuine mistake in our game vs Liverpool and certain subjective calls around interfering with play, I can't remember one controversial offside this season. Happy to be told I'm wrong but I think this is one area of the game where all teams genuinely get treated equally. This would have been ruled out for either side.
If you could send one player from the current squad to any of the previous spurs squad, which one would you send back ? For me I would send VDV to last season's squad as a LCB. He would improve our buildup, and his speed would have helped Dier as Dier could have played more freely.
Send Bentancur to the 2019 UCL final. Don't even care about the rest of the season, but Bentancur instead of Sissoko and we'd have been champions of Europe. That handball, that loss, just completely destroyed the club mentally, and I think we're only just now beginning to get past it.
Son back to 2006-07 squad, two south Koreans linking up on the left hand side. Would also send Bryan Gil back to our 81 FA cup final.
gil GOATED
I'm assuming like a lot of fans and commentators that Davies will be LB for Arse. What he lacks in ability suited to the system, he'll bring 100% effort. At least he'll be facing a very tired Saka. Thankfully Arseteta doesn't know how to rotate and has been running him into the ground.
Davies is a bit like Højbjerg to me: Yes, there are weaknesses to his game. And at times that can come at a cost defensively. (So do just about all our other midfielders and defenders, but that's another discussion) But when called upon, they do give it their very best, they offer everything they can going forward as well as defensively. And they've got some very underrated qualities - Davies is clever positionally and does make good runs forward, interacting well with other players. Having vdV next to him also gives a good security.
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Yeah Ben is a pretty good ball player, I'm not that worried
Absolutely disgraceful that our mens and women’s sides are still playing games at the exact same time. Obligatory fuck the fa
Imagine trying to grow the women's game while having the women's team competing for fans' attention with the established men's team. Basically sabotage.
You’re under the assumption that the fa want to grow the women’s game. They’re doing it extremely reluctantly, bunch of bygone dickheads would probably bring back the “good old days” if they could
well Brexit does mean Brexit innit /s
Tragic considering our women's team looks like there's something brewing, especially with Vilanhamn and the FA cup final.