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***** OMT Tottenham Hotspur v Chelsea FC *****

So if Dembele is out what are our options? Huddlestone, Siggy, Dempsey? None of them instill confidence in me against a side of Chelsea's class at CM. Sandro will have to play a blinder
 
If we have someone else available at LB I'd play Vertonghen in midfield.

and then we might discover that not only is SuperJan our best centreback and our best left back, he maybe also our best midfielder

Total Football....his Dutch predecessors would be proud of him
 
Yes, but none of this has anything to do with the topic of this thread, so if you all could be so kind as to stay on it. Ta very much.
 
...................Lloris

Walker..Gallas..Vertonghen..Vertonghen

..........Sandro..Vertonghen

....Lennon....Dempsey.....Bale

.................Adebayor

no way Chelsea would beat us
 
So looks like international break has screwed us again with the possible loss of Dembele?

Not sure who you can replace him with that would still boss that midfield with Sandro?? No one springs to mind that fills me with confidence... Moutinho? ;)

Anyway whos going? Im off down there on me own, meeting a mate in the Bill Nic for a swift one pre match.
 
and then we might discover that not only is SuperJan our best centreback and our best left back, he maybe also our best midfielder

Total Football....his Dutch predecessors would be proud of him

Not this again...

I'm thinking Carroll next to Sandro if Mousa is out, would be a baptism of fire for sure, but I think it would work if he's fit.
 
Not this again...

I'm thinking Carroll next to Sandro if Mousa is out, would be a baptism of fire for sure, but I think it would work if he's fit.

If it goes wrong, and he fails to perform when faced with one of the best midfields in world football, would he have the confidence to boss a game again? Would he perform in a top-level premier league game, after nothing but lower league and reserve football for the most part of his career? Would we be patient and not immediately expect him to replace Dembele's impact on the game? And would we have confidence in his abilities to the extent where we continue to encourage him from the stands? Considering the reaction some of our players get after a bad game, I doubt it.

So, while it's a decent idea in theory, I wouldn't really want his career to be permanently damaged because we thrust him in at the deep end against Chelsea.
 
To expand a bit more on that, I sometimes think we need a growling leader of men more than we realize. when we play the young lads, they will be under pressure to perform, and the crowd will be expecting much more from them than at another, less expectant club. Additionally, opposition PL players with years of experience and a lifetime of accumulated cynicism will deliberately intimidate them on the pitch, just to gain a competitive advantage. A lot of youngsters won't make it when faced with that amount of pressure on them. But with a grizzled, vocal type of captain alongside them, shielding them from the opposition, guiding them through games and protecting them from the crowd's ire, I wager they'd stand a much better chance of performing regularly, and developing their skills. The support of the manager alone isn't enough; the manager, for all his moral encouragement, can't step onto the pitch to shield the lad. But a vocal, senior player can. We need someone like that to truly free up our youth products to perform. We've seen Caulker grow under Gallas' tutelage; we could do with some other pro doing the same for our midfield youngsters. For all our team's technical skill and determination, they aren't really the sort to stand up for each other in the face of aggression. We saw this last season with the Balotelli stamp on Parker and the season before with Adam's tackle on Bale. Someone who will yell like a maniac could be just what we need to complete the team.

Anyway, returning to the topic, and assuming Dembele's out;

-----------Lloris-----------

Naughton-Gallas-Vertonghen-BAE

-------Sandro---Hudd-----

Lennon-----Dempsey------Bale

------------Ade-----------

Subs; Friedel, Caulker, Walker, Livermore, Sigurdsson, Townsend, Defoe
 
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