OMT - Tottenham Hotspur FC vs Tamworth FC

[mudshark]

I guess things have moved on a bit from Kenilworth Road in the 80s ...

 

[Muttley]

You're right, since PL era there have been 50 games against NL teams, 2 have beaten PL sides, one with Harry Kane in it, 8 have been draws, that's a pretty good record given the gap.

At the same time, it would be nice for our players to go and make hay in the sunshine. They've had such a tough season, that getting a nice convincing win and scoring a few goals could be what they need.

Could this one be about resting Kulu, Solanke and Porro out of necessity but allowing guys like Madds, Johnson and Sonny to click back into the high gears? Only the GK and 5 outfield players need to play 90 anyway.

 

[K.D.D.D.D.Soc]

It's more that modern pitches are very different from the old Luton and Oldham ones. They play identical to grass - there's no big bounces or quick skids. The one difference from grass is that they do burn more if you try slide on them.

I've barely played on grass the past 2 years though. They are so ubiquitous down the pyramid now. I think all the groundsmen go laid off during Covid and grass has never really come back.

I played regularly on them in the 70's and they where terrible, bouncy and skiddy when wet and I took about 8 inches of skin off my thigh and had to have artificial skin in place.

 

[Pandy]

Absolutely zero point in starting Austin or Forster. The former only played due to a crisis and the latter has been replaced.

 

[Muttley]

I played regularly on them in the 70's and they where terrible, bouncy and skiddy when wet and I took about 8 inches of skin off my thigh and had to have artificial skin in place.

I'm reading that the Tamworth pitch also has a slope. Reminds me of days in my youth watching Maidstone Utd play away at Underhill.

 

[K.D.D.D.D.Soc]

I'm reading that the Tamworth pitch also has a slope. Reminds me of days in my youth watching Maidstone Utd play away at Underhill.

That's going back, my nephew was playing for them when the original club went bankrupt.

 

[Muttley]

That's going back, my nephew was playing for them when the original club went bankrupt.

Barry Fry was a Maidstone manager between his 2 Barnet spells. We had John Still when we got promoted to the old 4th division.

We used to sing "He's fat, he's round, he's bouncing on the ground, Barry Fry". There was also another chant that I better not put into my digital footprint

 

[K.D.D.D.D.Soc]

Barry Fry was a Maidstone manager between his 2 Barnet spells. We had John Still when we got promoted to the old 4th division.

We used to sing "He's fat, he's round, he's bouncing on the ground, Barry Fry". There was also another chant that I better not put into my digital footprint

I use to play in our company team with a bloke who played with David Sadler down there.

 

[monkeybarry]

I guess things have moved on a bit from Kenilworth Road in the 80s ...

Not in Luton

 

[Raziel]

The 5 absolute starters for this for me have to be Kinsky, Dorrington, Moore, Lankshear and Yang. And Solanke, Porro and Kulu have to be no where near the squad. So perhaps something like:

----------------------Kinsky
----Spence-----Gray------Dorrington----Regulion
------------------Hall-----Sarr
------Yang----------Maddison---------Moore
--------------------Lankshear

Kinsky for sure, he needs more time with our squad
Back line is fine, although I'd consider Dragusin or Gray (or 45 mins each)
Biss could probably do 45 minutes as well
I'd actually play Werner for first 45-60 minutes
If Richi is ready, he should play.

And yes, priority will be Deki, Porro, Solanke, Son get zero minutes if possible (some may need to be on bench, just in case)

 

[SteveAWOL]

 

[Muttley]

Always enjoy the bromance between Ange and Ali Gold !!!

 

[Lilbaz]

Any of the keepers
Spence Dragusin Dorrington Reguilon
Gray Sarr
Yang Maddison Moore
Lankshear
​

Richalison to get some game time.
I don't think it matters which keeper. Kinsley to get more game time with us, Austin after his last performance, Forster to get some game time after illness.

​

Aren't fifa rules that you can't play for 3 teams in a season? Playing yang would rule out a loan. Which if we are getting in muani or whoever he'll need.

 

[Lemonade Money]

It's more that modern pitches are very different from the old Luton and Oldham ones. They play identical to grass - there's no big bounces or quick skids. The one difference from grass is that they do burn more if you try slide on them.

I've barely played on grass the past 2 years though. They are so ubiquitous down the pyramid now. I think all the groundsmen go laid off during Covid and grass has never really come back.

Pretty much all my son's academy games are played on 3G, but virtually all his mens first team games are played on grass.

 

[Raziel]

Aren't fifa rules that you can't play for 3 teams in a season? Playing yang would rule out a loan. Which if we are getting in muani or whoever he'll need.

We aren't going to loan Yang out immediately

6 months to work with team, learn system, provide some depth, either he fits for now or loan in summer.

 

[Gazza Dazzla]

Whose they guy who asked about VAR?

 

[Raziel]

Ange Postecoglou held his FA Cup press conference on Friday as Tottenham prepare to take on non-league Tamworth in the third round.

Spurs will head up to Staffordshire to face National League side Tamworth in Sunday afternoon's lunchtime kick-off and ahead of the game Postecoglou provided an update on Rodrigo Bentancur and the concussion the Uruguayan suffered just six minutes into Wednesday night's 1-0 victory against Liverpool in the Carabao Cup semi-final first leg.

He also spoke about various other topics around the club and here is the full transcript from the press conference at Hotspur Way.

What's the latest team news and how is Rodrigo Bentancur?

I'll start with Rodrigo, mostly positive news, he obviously went to hospital after the game. He was concussed and they did every check needed to do and I understand he's gone home now. So that's real positive news for us because it was a bit of a distressing situation to deal with for everyone.
I think the players, Pedro did a great job initially of notifying the medical team, he did a great job. Now it's just about recovery for him. There are set protocols in place but aside from those set protocols, we'll make sure we give him as much time as he needs to get back.
And then, aside from that, nothing coming out of the other night, everyone got through that pretty well and no one really coming back in from the guys who have been out, apart from Pape and Madders, who are available.

It felt like a real statement win the other night and you saw at the final whistle that connection with the fans and the players and yourself on the pitch again, how much did everyone around the club need that as proof of what this team is capable of?

Yeah, yeah, I mean I don't know about proof, but I think reward is important. I don't think one win changes anything, but we've been through a pretty tough time and as I said, all along not through the want of trying and I mean I can't commend the players highly enough in terms of their efforts.
They've been giving their maximum every week, but obviously without the ultimate reward, and I said after the game, the players, the staff who are doing everything in their power to change our fortunes and our supporters have obviously had to ride through that as well. So just that feeling you get after a win and like you said a significant win against a top team and in a pretty pivotal game for us in terms of keeping our hopes alive of making a cup final. It was important and that kind of stuff sort of fuels hopefully what's ahead.

It's quite a contrast to the next cup match after you play one of the best teams around at the moment in Liverpool now coming up against a non-league team on their pitch, how important is it that everybody has their attitude spot on?

Yeah, absolutely, I've got no doubt the attitude of the players and I think all along the boys have a great understanding of every game's importance and we certainly will go into Sunday's game with the same sort of mindset of making sure that we do things we can control, play our football, put a real big emphasis on the things that we do really well.
That's because there's always challenges out there. I get there's there's a fair difference in terms of the levels of football we're playing at, but I'm sure Tamworth see this as a great opportunity for themselves and we've got to be ready for that.

Have you done anything different with your preparation, given the fact that it's it's an artificial pitch, does that change anything?

Yeah, we'll train on an artificial one tomorrow, on one of ours. I've done that consistently throughout my career, I've kind of experienced a few times in different leagues, even up in Scotland, where you're playing on artificial pitches and it always sort of served a good purpose just to give the players an understanding. They're never always identical, but just what they're going to face on Sunday, so we'll have a session on the artificial one here tomorrow.

You must be relieved there is no VAR in this game after all the games you’ve had it and your comments before and after?

Ah, yeah.

You are relieved?

Was that the question?

It was a question leading into an answer?

My answer is yes. You asked me if I was relieved and I said yes, so…

How relieved?

Look, I had my say after the game and felt I had to because I had to clarify my position on it, but at the same time I am also mindful that I think sometimes I have overstepped the mark because in some of those situations I talk as an individual and as a person who loves the game and is passionate about the game, but I am also representing this football club. I have just to be careful about how much I talk about it and I would rather talk about football to be honest. I think I have had my say on those kind of bits and I’ve left it for other to judge. I would much rather talk about football.

Let’s talk about the FA Cup, it starts on Thursday and ends on Monday, as an outsider do you think we’re losing the tradition of FA Cup?

Ah, look I don’t know but I still think it’s a really important competition for that particular reason that it includes pretty much every tier of football. There are always great storylines within it and already there has been in the early rounds of the cup. I still think FA Cup final day is one of the marque days in the global football calendar and I still feel like it’s a really important tournament that maintains the right kind of tradition. Certainly in my eyes I still see it as a really important part of the football calendar.

For most neutrals, they want Tamworth to win, what can you get out of Sunday?

Yeah but you say there is nothing for us to win, there is something for us to win and that’s to get into the next round of the FA Cup. There is a prize there. We may not get the plaudits but we do get the opportunity to go into the next round. We won’t go into this game with any other mindset than preparing as we always do for a game of football. We will respect the opponent because you always need to respect the opponent. I have enough experiences in my life of being the underdog and I know you are kind of almost hoping the team you play underestimate you but we won’t.”

My colleagues from ITV are at Tamworth's ground now, Astroturf pitch and apparently the dressing room is barely a cabin, how much of a shock will it be for your multi-million pound players?

They are actually not multi-million dollar players, they are human beings. They are very sort of understanding, they are good people so they would never go to a place like that and disrespect it. Most have come from places like that. Some worse, let me tell you. So, I know people want to tag them as multi-million dollars and maybe spoilt but they are human beings and good people. They will go there and respect the fact that Tamworth will build it to be the biggest game of probably their lives and I am sure they will do their best to create an environment where they are proud of their ground, proud of their facilities because that is what they work with and that’s how we’ll treat it on the day. I don’t think that is an issue for us. What’s important is to prepare ourselves for a cup game.

Is there an opportunity to see some of the younger players like Alfie Dorrington, Will Lankshear and Mikey Moore?

No, it gives me an opportunity to pick a team who I think will win a game of football for us. The ones who will play will be the ones who will do that. It’s good getting Mikey (Moore) back and I think it is important we will give him some game time on the weekend but aside from that it will be a time who most importantly we think can get us through to the next round. ** Can you tell us a bit about Alfie Dorrington?**

Alfie is training with us and he has been around the first-team squad and part of the first-team squad. He had a pretty significant injury which kept him out of football for quite a while. But he is part of the squad and he probably needs to get some game time so we will look for a loan for him. ** Is there a balance between putting out a strong team and resting key players like Solanke and Kulusevski?**

We have got to be mindful of we don’t want it to turn into a tricky game for us. We want to make sure we play our best. If we can give some rest to some of those guys you said, and having Mikey back helps in that front third for sure, getting Pape and Maddison back helps us in midfield. We are still pretty restricted defensively to be honest but Sergio Reguilon at least he has had some games recently which gives us a chance. In terms of centre-half and right-back we are still pretty limited in terms of what we can do here. In terms of rotation but hopefully we can rest at least a couple of players from a full 90 minutes of football.

 

[Raziel]

Continued ..

What have you made of Radu Dragusin impressing against Liverpool after struggling in the earlier game against them and leading a young defence?

I have said all along that some of our players, at times, are getting unfairly judged at the moment because of the situation we are in. It’s not just that Radu is only 22 and still getting to grips with the Premier League. He would be okay if he was surrounded by players who are playing regularly but he has got an 18-year-old who is not a centre-back next to him. Three different goalkeepers, it is probably up to four, since he has been in the team. Different full-backs.
I just think him and Archie have been unbelievable for us considering the circumstances and we will get growth from that. I really believe that. He was great the other night. He was really focused and disciplined in his organisation and along with Toni [Kinsky] making his debut that is as solid as we have been as back four/back five. Well protected I think the midfield did a great job of working really hard to keep Liverpool.
There won’t be many games where Liverpool create as little as they did the other night and I think that was a real strong collective effort. We are happy with Radu and the way he is developing. He has had to battle. He had an illness last week and he was nowhere near 100 percent. He is probably one who does need a bit of a rest but we have no options there. Every week he mans up and gets on with it.

Do you have an excitement at being in the FA Cup again?

It’s hugely important. Last year we didn’t progress in it. We got through the first round and then dropped out. We want to stay in it. At some point in the next few weeks we will get players back as well and, even though it’s going to mean a congested fixture schedule for us, if we get the players back we are going to come back. I think we will be well placed. We want to stay in the competition and once we get to that moment where we have the squad we need hopefully we can make an impact in it.

 

[Glenda's Legs]

My colleagues from ITV are at Tamworth's ground now, Astroturf pitch and apparently the dressing room is barely a cabin, how much of a shock will it be for your multi-million pound players?

They are actually not multi-million dollar players, they are human beings. They are very sort of understanding, they are good people so they would never go to a place like that and disrespect it. Most have come from places like that. Some worse, let me tell you. So, I know people want to tag them as multi-million dollars and maybe spoilt but they are human beings and good people. They will go there and respect the fact that Tamworth will build it to be the biggest game of probably their lives and I am sure they will do their best to create an environment where they are proud of their ground, proud of their facilities because that is what they work with and that’s how we’ll treat it on the day. I don’t think that is an issue for us. What’s important is to prepare ourselves for a cup game.

I was watching the bit of the live press conference that they showed on Sky, which included the above question. It was quite an embarrassing/cringey moment, and Ange was pretty scathing in his reply.

 

[monkeybarry]

Whose they guy who asked about VAR?

Hilarious wasn't it.
And the ITV lady asking about multi million pound players.
I get the click bait troll media - but they should have learned that Ange just doesn't rise to that bs