***OMT Tottenham Hotspur v Everton***

[Bedfordspurs]

I'm not so sure. Last year ( pre-Toby), Verts had his fellow Belgian national in his pocket (iirc). I don't think Lukaku has ever done much against us has he ?

Vlad had him in his pocket

 

[braineclipse]

I would be surprised (and disappointed) if Son doesn't start. Poch normally plays goal scorers in the following game and his winner against Watford should give him a starting place.

Could possibly see Alli moved into the deeper midfield position to replace Dembele and Son come into the attacking midfield trio - quite possibly with Eriksen moving centrally.

Alli did well in that role earlier in the season. This probably isn't the perfect game to play him there, but with Carroll perhaps not being a great fit either, Mason only returning from injury and Bentaleb short on match fitness and form it might be the best option.

If not Alli into that deep midfield role I suppose Son could replace Eriksen or Alli in the attacking midfield trio. But it's a close fight either way between those 3 with Lamela arguably being the only one absolutely secured to start based on his recent form.

 

[braineclipse]

I'm not so sure. Last year ( pre-Toby), Verts had his fellow Belgian national in his pocket (iirc). I don't think Lukaku has ever done much against us has he ?

Vertonghen seems to know his weaknesses quite well. Most or all centre backs will get bullied by Lukaku at times, the key will be to not let him get set up in situations where that will be decisive. Vertonghen is good at judging when to go for the duel and when to stay on his feet and in control of the overall situation. He's also rather good at the dark arts of centre back play shirt pulling, shoving and challenging for a duel rather than trying to win the ball. Would expect him to do alright against Lukaku again. But of course if they manage to put him through one on one for a 50/50 duel or put a perfect cross towards him all of our players will probably struggle.

 

[Spurs7891]

The time schedule of this match is really annoying ! With 8 matches coming today, they could have scheduled this match much earlier instead of late evening on Sunday. With Monday being the first work and school day of 2016, you know people will be busy with all kinds of preparations. This match comes at 12 midnight on Sunday here in Asia, meaning most of the school children won't be able to watch it. My 11yo and 9yo nephews are Spurs fans and badly want to watch this match but not sure they can. Feels bad for them ! The 11yo nephew has been Spurs' lucky charm since the 2008 Carling Cup Final. So, we need to find our luck from somewhere else ! Really annoyed !

 

[Yiddo]

We are going to spurs this up.

 

[diego_maradona]

Really wondering what Poch will do tomorrow. So many options.

Could just play Alli and Dier in the CM 2 and play Son, Eriksen and Lamela further forward. Or he could play Carroll again. Or Mason. Or Bentaleb, Or Chadli.

Bentaleb played brilliantly at left back in the last game of the season here last year. I'd quite like to see Nabil given a start. I think Mason and Dier could give us some real bite in that midfield.

 

[Hashegotthesackyet?]

Vertonghen seems to know his weaknesses quite well. Most or all centre backs will get bullied by Lukaku at times, the key will be to not let him get set up in situations where that will be decisive. Vertonghen is good at judging when to go for the duel and when to stay on his feet and in control of the overall situation. He's also rather good at the dark arts of centre back play shirt pulling, shoving and challenging for a duel rather than trying to win the ball. Would expect him to do alright against Lukaku again. But of course if they manage to put him through one on one for a 50/50 duel or put a perfect cross towards him all of our players will probably struggle.

Riding his luck at times! Fingers crossed.

 

[SUIYHA]

Lennon is going to score the winner isn't he?

 

[AdamB]

Really wondering what Poch will do tomorrow. So many options.

Could just play Alli and Dier in the CM 2 and play Son, Eriksen and Lamela further forward. Or he could play Carroll again. Or Mason. Or Bentaleb, Or Chadli.

Bentaleb played brilliantly at left back in the last game of the season here last year. I'd quite like to see Nabil given a start. I think Mason and Dier could give us some real bite in that midfield.

I think the bolded part is most likely, given that its includes most of the people who Poch seems to trust most. Only other option I see is Mason in CM and Alli further forwards in place of Son.

However you look at it though, it'll be a tough game and cant see there being more than a goal in it either way

 

[PLT]

The time schedule of this match is really annoying ! With 8 matches coming today, they could have scheduled this match much earlier instead of late evening on Sunday. With Monday being the first work and school day of 2016, you know people will be busy with all kinds of preparations. This match comes at 12 midnight on Sunday here in Asia, meaning most of the school children won't be able to watch it. My 11yo and 9yo nephews are Spurs fans and badly want to watch this match but not sure they can. Feels bad for them ! The 11yo nephew has been Spurs' lucky charm since the 2008 Carling Cup Final. So, we need to find our luck from somewhere else ! Really annoyed !

Yep I'm pretty annoyed by the kick off time!

Could have had the all London affair between Palace v Chelsea at 4pm and ours at 1.30pm so I'd be getting back home at a reasonable time not sometime after 10pm!

 

[the dza]

I am feeling more confident as the game approaches.

 

[the dza]

And I have a feeling Carroll will be starting, I'm just not sure whether he'll be playing number 10, with Alli next to Dier or vice versa.

 

[paxtonwolf]

Yep I'm pretty annoyed by the kick off time!

Could have had the all London affair between Palace v Chelsea at 4pm and ours at 1.30pm so I'd be getting back home at a reasonable time not sometime after 10pm!

We're the same but for home games. That's why i dont mind the 12.45pm Sat/1.30pm Sun kick-offs, get home at a reasonable time, like you say, especially when its a Sunday match, hate Sunday 4pm's

 

[alekaras]

Lennon is going to score the winner isn't he?

In some game eventually. Not in this one.

 

[glorygloryeze]

Actually, now i've thought about things a bit deeper, i believe that @Huddy has actually done us a disservice with this OMT; Lots f subtlety but little on actual detail...

So he and the mods better just focus on the inevitable:

A good set of options it has to be said..

 

[GrimsbyYid]

If Carroll starts in the middle two we'll lose again. Like last time. If he starts at all it'll make things hard for us. I'm desperately hoping for Dier and Alli no son behind Kane. If not then bentaleb, but he doesn't seem to be close to the first time at the minute.

I think this is a hard hard game. A draw wouldn't be terrible. Win would be an incredible result.

 

[We are Tottenham]

Come on you Spurs.........

Almost there
Were almost there..
How magical how wonderful
Our life could be..

Were almost there......

 

[metalgear]

If Carroll starts in the middle two we'll lose again. Like last time. If he starts at all it'll make things hard for us. I'm desperately hoping for Dier and Alli no son behind Kane. If not then bentaleb, but he doesn't seem to be close to the first time at the minute.

I think this is a hard hard game. A draw wouldn't be terrible. Win would be an incredible result.

its hard to say until we see the line up and formation.
right now poch has lots of options and can set us up very differently.

 

[Maltese Falcon]

Lloris

Walker - Toby - Verts - Davies

Dier - Mason

Lamela - Alli - Eriksen/Son

Kane​

 

[Spurs7891]

Whether we like it or not, we are now officially in the title race. So hope the players will have the mentality to keep on fighting for the league title. Now every match will be a must-win match for us, as long as our rivals keep on winning. This will be the case with this match against Everton. We once had excellent record against Everton but lost it when they were under Moyes. But now we have regained the good record since Martinez took over Everton, winning 3 and drawing 3 of our last 6 matches. Hope we will continue that good record here.

I think Kane will be a key player for us as we need to make use of any goal scoring chances we get. He didn't score against Watford but atleast we won that match. It was nice to see us beating Watford without Kane scoring for once ! It proved we can win matches even if Kane doesn't score ! But to do that, we need to get goals from other players. Lamela and Son did well to get us the goals against Watford. Hope they will be motivated to score again. Somehow, I feel we need to score 2 goals to win this match. Hope Kane, Lamela and Son will combine to get us that much needed goals.

I think this match will be won or lost in midfield. Everton have very capable midfield who can hurt us if given the chance. So, we need to dominate the midfield from start to finish. Too bad Dembele is out injured. His workrate and ball control would have been very useful for us. Hope Dier can partner someone like Mason or even Bentaleb to control the midfield. Don't want to see Carroll starting as he is not ready to start in league matches yet. Disappointingly, players like Eriksen and Chadli are badly out of form despite being capable of scoring for us. It will be a badly needed weapon if Eriksen can score again from his trademark freekicks.

We may have the best defensive record in the league. But we cannot afford to concede easy goals. It will help us greatly in title race if we can keep more clean sheets. Our defence did well to keep 2 clean sheets against Southampton and Norwich. But it was disappointing to concede the goal like that against Watford. Hope Pochettino will play the right formation and players in defence. Will prefer if Pochettino tell the defenders to concentrate fully in defence and avoid getting involved in attacks. Afterall, Lukaku has been in great goal scoring form for Everton this season. We cannot afford to give any goal scoring chance to him. Hope Lloris, Vertonghen and Alderweireld will be alert all the times.

With Arsenal and ManCity winning yesterday, we have no other choice but to beat Everton to stay in the title race. Besides, we cannot afford to slip up now as there are 3 or 4 times below us who can take advantage of that. We have won 3 matches in a row. Hope we will make it 4 wins in a row by beating Everton here.