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*** Tottenham Hotspur vs Scum OMT ***

I think we need to be prepared for the Gooners to high press us for the first 20 minutes or so, just as they did to Chelsea this season so, I'd be tempted to start with N'Koudou and play him high up the pitch to give us an out ball,:oops: Pulis style.

Shame no Toby, Dembele and Lamela, all big misses for us.

Can't think what forward options we will have off the bench, Janssen apart.


..................Lloris..................
Walker.....Dier....Verts......Rose..
.........Wanyama......Eriksen.......
Son...............Alli........N'koudou
.................Kane...................
 
wiziwig said:
I think we need to be prepared for the Gooners to high press us for the first 20 minutes or so, just as they did to Chelsea this season so, I'd be tempted to start with N'Koudou and play him high up the pitch to give us an out ball,:oops: Pulis style.

Shame no Toby, Dembele and Lamela, all big misses for us.

Can't think what forward options we will have off the bench, Janssen apart.


..................Lloris..................
Walker.....Dier....Verts......Rose..
.........Wanyama......Eriksen.......
Son...............Alli........N'koudou
.................Kane...................
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That's why I'd like to see Kane and Janssen upfront, we can go direct to them and play from there.
 
the dza said:
That's why I'd like to see Kane and Janssen upfront, we can go direct to them and play from there.
Click to expand...


I think a sense of pragmatism by our side is needed in the opening stages of the game. We're not in a great place, confidence wise so I think we need a no nonsense approach early on. Let's not be predictable and look to play it out from our defense every time is what I'm saying.

A few long balls in the first half to an upfront two of Kane and Janssen, who both are good at hold up play is a good shout.

I feel we're in a moment where Poch needs to vary the tactics.
 
wiziwig said:
I think a sense of pragmatism by our side is needed in the opening stages of the game. We're not in a great place, confidence wise so I think we need a no nonsense approach early on. Let's not be predictable and look to play it out from our defense every time is what I'm saying.

A few long balls in the first half to an upfront two of Kane and Janssen, who both are good at hold up play is a good shout.

I feel we're in a moment where Poch needs to vary the tactics.
Click to expand...

Good call. They will no doubt go out all guns blazing trying to force us into making mistakes and punishing us early on. If we can ride it off by hitting long balls towards Kane/Janssen for the first 20 mins, that could work. I'm sure Poch will try to prepare them for a start like that, so we should have some clue about what is going to happen.
 
Just noticed we need to win by 3 or more to move up the table thanks to our relative goal-shyness.
 
the dza said:
Position isn't important yet, only points. We just gotta stay in touching distance for now. I'm starting to get nervous about tmrw, this is the only fixture that does that to me.
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I get what you're saying, but one sort of goes along with the other, and staying in touch really requires that we win tomorrow, IMO. Many more draws and we'll find ourselves just another one of the chasing pack again. I think we'll probably know 10 minutes in what the story's likely to be.
 
DubaiSpur said:
That's true, but he is still our best presser. His job is multi-faceted - create chances, orchestrate play, take set-pieces and, perhaps most importantly, press and press well. He's doing horribly on three of those four requirements, but he's maintaining his high standards on the fourth, so I think his place in the team's still safe enough.
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I think your reasoning is ridiculous. He has been playing abysmally for most of the season, he is bottling challenges even when they are 60 -40 in his favour, cannot take a decent corner and has not scored a goal since March when we were already 2:0. More importantly people keep telling me he is the most creative attacking player we have yet he is not showing it. He should be doing for us what Ozil is doing for the Arsenal but he is disappearing. I am amazed that you would want to play him when he has been so poor just because he can press. It means fuk all if our most creative player can press but can do fuk all else. Or are you one of those Spurs fans that think Eriksen can never be dropped no matter how poor he is playing simply because he can "press"?
 
mudshark said:
I get what you're saying, but one sort of goes along with the other, and staying in touch really requires that we win tomorrow, IMO. Many more draws and we'll find ourselves just another one of the chasing pack again. I think we'll probably know 10 minutes in what the story's likely to be.
Click to expand...

While I agree with your logic when I consider our injuries, our poor form and their good form I too would take a draw tomorrow. Ironically before the Emirates Marketing Project match I told a mate that if I was offered a draw against City I would not take it because I was confident
 
If Dembele makes the 18 as well as Kane, that'll be an unexpected and welcome shot in the arm. I'll believe it when I see it. Lack of creativity remains our big problem, though, and that means someone stepping up where it hasn't been happening so far.
 
Despite the optimism here, I still fear the worst. Not sure I'll even watch the game, because I fear we'll lose quite badly. Things can change quickly in football, but it'll take a miracle for us to get anything from the game.
 
NaijaSpurs said:
I think your reasoning is ridiculous. He has been playing abysmally for most of the season, he is bottling challenges even when they are 60 -40 in his favour, cannot take a decent corner and has not scored a goal since March when we were already 2:0. More importantly people keep telling me he is the most creative attacking player we have yet he is not showing it. He should be doing for us what Ozil is doing for the Arsenal but he is disappearing. I am amazed that you would want to play him when he has been so poor just because he can press. It means fuk all if our most creative player can press but can do fuk all else. Or are you one of those Spurs fans that think Eriksen can never be dropped no matter how poor he is playing simply because he can "press"?
Click to expand...

It's not as simple as that. Like it or not (and I'm ambivalent on the issue), our single tactic is the press, and the resultant situations that arise from it. Klopp laid it out on MNF, and I have little doubt that Poch's tactics are just a more extreme version of Klopp's in that regard (Klopp prefers a medium pressing block, we prefer a high one that goes right up to the keeper). No one's denying that Eriksen is in pretty miserable form at the moment - his shots lack confidence, his passes are uninspiring (accurate, but uninspiring) and his set-pieces are atrocious. But given our reliance on the press as a means of generating chances, we need ten effective pressers on the field at all times. And if you want to drop Eriksen, the resultant question then becomes - who would you play in his place, given that any replacement would need to be as good at pressing as he is?

Lamela's one option, but he fouls a bit too much when pressing (the opposite of Eriksen, who seems lightweight in the challenge but who usually wins the ball without fouling his man) - that leads to attacks breaking down and momentum being lost. Son doesn't press as well as Eriksen does. Alli's guaranteed a starting role anyway. So who do we replace Eriksen with? Kane deep with Janssen up top could be an option, but we run into issues of mobility there - part of the press is being agile enough to close off options quickly, and both Kane and Janssen have different strengths that don't necessarily include a great deal of agility. Beyond Kane, the options dry up - GKN is still new to the side, Sissoko's solid enough but not as good a presser as Eriksen is (even if I think he gets a lot of unfair stick from some posters here - not necessarily you, just an observation), Dembele and Winks are suited to deeper roles.

So, if we do decide to drop Eriksen, who do we put in his place given these realities? Understand - people fixate on his pressing ability not because of some fetish for the art of pressing or anything. Pressing is a means to an end - in our system, it is the only means to the end, which is scoring goals and winning. It is vitally important, perhaps more so than any other trait a player may possess. I don't particularly like how reliant we are on that one tactic (when it comes off, it's beautiful - when opponents figure us out, we struggle) , but that is the reality at present. And Eriksen, for all his present faults (and he has many) is very good at it, and his alternatives have many flaws of their own. That's why we need to keep him in.

The minute we get a player better in the press than Eriksen (perhaps Lamela, if he cuts out the fouling), by all means drop him and let him ride the bench for a while - lord knows, he might need it. But we don't have alternatives at present. So dropping him isn't really an option.

(Also, as an aside, I get the logic behind asking Eriksen to be our Ozil, but it's more than a little unfair - Ozil is four years older than Eriksen, has played at much higher levels for a lot longer, and plays in a better side technically and in terms of experience at the top level, as much as it may pain some of us to admit it.)
 
DubaiSpur said:
It's not as simple as that. Like it or not (and I'm ambivalent on the issue), our single tactic is the press, and the resultant situations that arise from it. Klopp laid it out on MNF, and I have little doubt that Poch's tactics are just a more extreme version of Klopp's in that regard (Klopp prefers a medium pressing block, we prefer a high one that goes right up to the keeper). No one's denying that Eriksen is in pretty miserable form at the moment - his shots lack confidence, his passes are uninspiring (accurate, but uninspiring) and his set-pieces are atrocious. But given our reliance on the press as a means of generating chances, we need ten effective pressers on the field at all times. And if you want to drop Eriksen, the resultant question then becomes - who would you play in his place, given that any replacement would need to be as good at pressing as he is?

Lamela's one option, but he fouls a bit too much when pressing (the opposite of Eriksen, who seems lightweight in the challenge but who usually wins the ball without fouling his man) - that leads to attacks breaking down and momentum being lost. Son doesn't press as well as Eriksen does. Alli's guaranteed a starting role anyway. So who do we replace Eriksen with? Kane deep with Janssen up top could be an option, but we run into issues of mobility there - part of the press is being agile enough to close off options quickly, and both Kane and Janssen have different strengths that don't necessarily include a great deal of agility. Beyond Kane, the options dry up - GKN is still new to the side, Sissoko's solid enough but not as good a presser as Eriksen is (even if I think he gets a lot of unfair stick from some posters here - not necessarily you, just an observation), Dembele and Winks are suited to deeper roles.

So, if we do decide to drop Eriksen, who do we put in his place given these realities? Understand - people fixate on his pressing ability not because of some fetish for the art of pressing or anything. Pressing is a means to an end - in our system, it is the only means to the end, which is scoring goals and winning. It is vitally important, perhaps more so than any other trait a player may possess. I don't particularly like how reliant we are on that one tactic (when it comes off, it's beautiful - when opponents figure us out, we struggle) , but that is the reality at present. And Eriksen, for all his present faults (and he has many) is very good at it, and his alternatives have many flaws of their own. That's why we need to keep him in.

The minute we get a player better in the press than Eriksen (perhaps Lamela, if he cuts out the fouling), by all means drop him and let him ride the bench for a while - lord knows, he might need it. But we don't have alternatives at present. So dropping him isn't really an option.

(Also, as an aside, I get the logic behind asking Eriksen to be our Ozil, but it's more than a little unfair - Ozil is four years older than Eriksen, has played at much higher levels for a lot longer, and plays in a better side technically and in terms of experience at the top level, as much as it may pain some of us to admit it.)
Click to expand...
Re. The last bit. Spot on. Expecting Eriksen to be as good as Ozil has just become (given his own inconsistency) is ridiculous. Forcthe valud reasons Dubai gave. Eriksen is certainly disappointing this season, but let's keep his game in perspective.
 
Right I had few beers and have decided we are going to beat Arsenal tomorrow. Two fairly momentous losing streaks have been put to bed in and by Chicago this week and they have given me renewed hope. fudging gooners. Let's show a bit of courage on the pitch tomorrow and beat these pretenders. Wanyama to be man of the match and a brace for Kane assisted both times from Janssen. COYS.

(I'll regret posting this tomorrow no doubt)
 
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