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Next Seven Games

Well if any of those that played last night trot out I'm leaving because I want win trophies line, then I suggest we replay that game to them, because it sure as fudge didn't look like it last night.
 
Time is precious, they say. Time off will be even more precious to Mauricio Pochettino as he tries to navigate the most hectic part of the calendar. To call the next two months congested is a huge understatement. Even without domestic cup games, it's heavy sledding and squad depth will be crucial.

From the end of the loss to West Ham until just after the CL round of 16 in mid-Feb (FA Cup 5th rnd), here are the number of days Spurs will have off to train or recuperate between games. Green numbers indicate gap to a CL game:

2-3-3-(12 - int'l break, n.b. Eng. plays Ger & Braz)-3-2-4-2-3-3-2-3-2-6-2-3-1-4-6-6-6*-3-2-6-3-2*-3

The bolded, underlined #6 indicates the gap Spurs receive between Dec. 16 @ Emirates Marketing Project and Dec. 23 @ Burnley for NOT having to play the league cup QF. It can hardly come quick enough.

The mauve #6s indicates gaps where the two midweek league cup SF's take place in January, when the other four clubs currently in the top five meet to knock lumps out of one another. The asterisks on the #6 and #2 indicate dates where Spurs might receive 9-day breaks should they not advance past the 3rd or 4th rounds of the FA Cup.

To court further controversy, losing in the 3rd round of the FA Cup would give the team from Sunday, Jan. 21 until Tuesday, Jan 30 to prepare for this demanding stretch of games:

Wed. Jan 31 - Man U
Sat. Feb. 3 - @ Liverpool
Sat. Feb 10 - Arsenal
Tue/Wed. Feb 13/14 - CL round of 16 first leg

And after that is the FA Cup 5th round and the possibility of another 9-10 day gap. There'll be 11 league fixtures remaining, plus any CL action we might advance toward.
 
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greatwhitenorf said:
Time is precious, they say. Time off will be even more precious to Mauricio Pochettino as he tries to navigate the most hectic part of the calendar. To call the next two months congested is a huge understatement. Even without domestic cup games, it's heavy sledding and squad depth will be crucial.

From the end of the loss to West Ham until just after the CL round of 16 in mid-Feb (FA Cup 5th rnd), here are the number of days Spurs will have off to train or recuperate between games. Green numbers indicate gap to a CL game:

2-3-3-(12 - int'l break, n.b. Eng. plays Ger & Braz)-3-2-4-2-3-3-2-3-2-6-2-3-1-4-6-6-6*-3-2-6-3-2*-3

The bolded, underlined #6 indicates the gap Spurs receive between Dec. 16 @ Emirates Marketing Project and Dec. 23 @ Burnley for NOT having to play the league cup QF. It can hardly come quick enough.

The mauve #6s indicates gaps where the two midweek league cup SF's take place in January, when the other four clubs currently in the top five meet to knock lumps out of one another. The asterisks on the #6 and #2 indicate dates where Spurs might receive 9-day breaks should they not advance past the 3rd or 4th rounds of the FA Cup.

To court further controversy, losing in the 3rd round of the FA Cup would give the team from Sunday, Jan. 21 until Tuesday, Jan 30 to prepare for this demanding stretch of games:

Wed. Jan 31 - Man U
Sat. Feb. 3 - @ Liverpool
Sat. Feb 10 - Arsenal
Tue/Wed. Feb 13/14 - CL round of 16 first leg

And after that is the FA Cup 5th round and the possibility of another 9-10 day gap. There'll be 11 league fixtures remaining, plus any CL action we might advance toward.
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I appreciate the effort that went into this.

Really, I do.

But I will absolutely not accept us throwing the FA Cup under *any* circumstances. None whatsoever.

So I'm 100% fine with assuming that we won't have those nine-day gaps - in fact, anything else would be a massive disappointment for me.
 
DubaiSpur said:
I appreciate the effort that went into this.

Really, I do.

But I will absolutely not accept us throwing the FA Cup under *any* circumstances. None whatsoever.

So I'm 400% fine with assuming that we won't have those nine-day gaps - in fact, anything else would be a massive disappointment for me.
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So if we're leading the PL standings at the time of the FA Cup ties, would you reconsider? Because I would. If we're up there, I would focus everything on the PL and CL. We can win a cup in a year when we're not challenging for anything else.
 
alekaras said:
So if we're leading the PL standings at the time of the FA Cup ties, would you reconsider? Because I would. If we're up there, I would focus everything on the PL and CL. We can win a cup in a year when we're not challenging for anything else.
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No. We can't 'win a cup in a year when we're not challenging for anything else', because we've challenged for the square root of f*ck all for most of the 26 years since our last FA Cup win - and still haven't managed another FA Cup in all that time. I don't quite think it works that way, unfortunately.

Bird in the hand, not two in the bush. If we're leading the PL standings, we have a *fantastic* chance of winning the FA Cup, while the league itself may still slip from our grasp in a hundred different ways. No sense dropping the cup given that reality - especially since doing so might well lead to another trophyless season anyway, and then all we'll have to point to is our great 'challenged for the league' medal.
 
DubaiSpur said:
No. We can't 'win a cup in a year when we're not challenging for anything else', because we've challenged for the square root of f*ck all for most of the 26 years since our last FA Cup win - and still haven't managed another FA Cup in all that time. I don't quite think it works that way, unfortunately.

Bird in the hand, not two in the bush. If we're leading the PL standings, we have a *fantastic* chance of winning the FA Cup, while the league itself may still slip from our grasp in a hundred different ways. No sense dropping the cup given that reality - especially since doing so might well lead to another trophyless season anyway, and then all we'll have to point to is our great 'challenged for the league' medal.
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But that's the thing: it's not a bird in hand. You say it as if we would walk it, if only we took it more seriously. Even if we played our strongest team, in a one-off game we could get eliminated. Whereas in the league we will have many chances to make up for a bad result.
 
alekaras said:
But that's the thing: it's not a bird in hand. You say it as if we would walk it, if only we took it more seriously. Even if we played our strongest team, in a one-off game we could get eliminated. Whereas in the league we will have many chances to make up for a bad result.
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Equally, we are up against teams that outspend us by massive margins, who can afford to make error after error and still win games while we have to rely on being canny and switched on every single time. Over the long slog of a league season, that matters more than it does in a one-off cup game, where it really comes down to who really cares more on the day - who turns it on when the game begins. Which we can absolutely excel at, if necessary - Poch can definitely send out committed teams that outwork their opponents every single time, and that will win you games in cup competitions when mixed in with the bits of technical brilliance that we can also regularly produce.

Whereas the correlation between spending and league positions is more ironclad. So it isn't necessarily more advantageous to privilege the league over the cups using that argument, imo.
 
StephenH said:
We will see on Saturday.

I believed we could Sunday night. By Wednesday night I had doubts.

Maybe thats the true cost of the lackluster second half yesterday night, belief?
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I'm they can survive having flaky supporters who lose belief in them after a single defeat
 
We'll almost certainly play heavily rotated sides in the early rounds of the FA Cup anyway, so the point is moot imo. The big hitters will get the rest they need.
 
the dza said:
We'll almost certainly play heavily rotated sides in the early rounds of the FA Cup anyway, so the point is moot imo. The big hitters will get the rest they need.
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Aren't third (and fourth?) round games weekend games without much fixture congestion around them?
 
HarryHotSpur31 said:
I love Poch but saying that the Carabao and FA Cup aren't important, well isn't that kind of an out for not winning those? If we finish 2nd in the PL and make the CL semis what do we have to show for that?
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We have modern football - Nothing shiny. No proper, grand day out at Wemberly. No seeing Lloris hoist a trophy and the lads taking a lap of honour. Just more CL football and more CL money for our first season at New White Hart Lane aka Corporate Sponsor Stadium.
 
HarryHotSpur31 said:
I love Poch but saying that the Carabao and FA Cup aren't important, well isn't that kind of an out for not winning those? If we finish 2nd in the PL and make the CL semis what do we have to show for that?
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Bit of a straw man arguing against those cups as not important. People are saying that the league and CL are more important. I think there's a distinction.

I still remember Bale at San Siro, Crouch at San Siro. The draw at home against Milan to take us through. Bale at WHL against Inter. We didn't get a trophy, but we had great games, and for me set least great memories.

Already this season the games against Dortmund and Real... Must there be a trophy to be "something to show for it?" If so I reject your question as too narrow.
 
Christ are people really that stupid that they read/hear : "the CL and PL are more of a priority for us than than the domestic cups" and believe that means we don't want to win them?
 
I don't think anyone questions the desire to win. I think it's just an interesting way of someone covering themselves if they lose a competition.
 
90291Spur said:
Of course. And some would also be complaining about fixture congestion.
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Not really the point though, is it? We did put out a team good enough to win against a severely weakened West Ham side, we put ourselves in a really strong position to get into the quarter finals of what was probably our most winnable trophy, and we completely capitulated.

Anyone who reads my posts on here knows that I am almost always upbeat, but I am still severely tinkled off by Wednesday evening. We were unprofessional. We reinforced the idea that when it comes down to it we are flaky. We put ourselves under more pressure tomorrow, because lose that and the media will be building up the Real game as ‘Spurs set to lose three in a row.’

It was all entirely avoidable. If we didn’t care then play the kids. If we did care, see the game out. As it is, we played a really strong team and fluffed it up. Mourinho is clever enough to have used it over the past few days - to Utd players we’re no longer the team who drew in the Bernabau, not the team who convincingly best Liverpool. We’re the team who threw a two goal lead ‘at home’ to a poor West Ham side.

Anyhow, no more posts from me about Wednesday! Hope we confound my expectations about tomorrow.
 
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