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***OMT Tottenham Hotspur v Burnlio, Sat Jan 24th, 3pm***

Gutter Boy said:
I think it always struggles because:
1) You concede the central midfield battle by having one less player there
2) You can't do a high press because, again, you are a body short
3) You are typically a ballplayer down, as traditionally CBs are the least adept outfield players in possession
4) CBs all hate playing it. You are in the wrong part of the pitch from where is optimum to be, and you've either got too few men to mark (often) or too many

I know Hoddle pulled it off for a while, but I think that was novelty more than anything.

I do now also think it's become particularly toxic, because of Amorim and its association with anti-football. I know no one ever thought the Rory Delap would come back either, but I think us moving to it would be a big gesture of regression.
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It's an interesting discussion. Burnley appear to sometimes play a 3-4-2-1 (Walker as a wing-back), and of course the now traditional PL formation of 4-2-3-1. What makes it a tough read is that they don't like to have the ball much more than we do, and as such love to counter.

I think the system allows you to fight midfield battles higher up the pitch, and if Palhinha sits just in front of the 3 cbs it allows a seamless drop-in if there's a turnover. We wouldn't be a ballplayer down, in fact given how important Romero is and how few of them we have, we'd almost be a ball-player up! You'd have to quantify point 4 for me a little more, as what I see are two CBs who often played in a high-sitting pair last season with the FBs (as we know) bombing on. So I think they'd be fine with it personally.

I suppose the brutal truth is that expecting the generous space we received from Dortmund on Tuesday is a fool's errand. Scott Parker won't do that!

I suppose I'd be fine with a 3-4-3, but I think if he sets up as 4-2-3-1 we will end up drifting backwards time and time again. If we don't start Solanke (and I think we need to be careful with him) then I have little faith in Muani as a ploughing CF; he has to have at least one partner, and I'd favour a pair.
Maybe 4-4-1-1 is the best answer given the players we actually have available.

I had also forgotten about Bissouma, who is a great option to have.


Vicario

Romero
Danso
VdV

Porro
Odobert
Palhinha
Gallagher
Spence

Muani
Tel
 
Jurgen the German said:
Just the same intent and positivity we showed against Dortmund. I’d rather play on the front foot and go for it rather than the typical negative football we’ve seen under this manager for the most part during his tenure.
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Result way more important than performance and style right now. But it's not like the negative and risk averse football has seen us getting good enough results. I definitely hope for more of the same from the Dortmund first half.

Will be interesting to see what Frank does with regards to both selection and approach.
 
This is such an important fixture but I'm less worried about tired legs.

We'll be playing on a Tues-Sat-Weds-Sun schedule. The Tues game was at home so all the players were probably tucked up in their own beds. They then had recovery and training until Saturday. We then switch to the Weds for the away Frankfurt and get the extra day before the City game. Some mild rotation required on returning players but this isn't the worst schedule we've had.

I also like the fact we have Biss and Sarr back in the mix to keep the midfield intensity going for the entire 90 mins.
 
Muttley said:
All I remember is how tight they were at the back last season in the Championship. Didn't they set records for clean sheets / goals conceded etc?

I bet the PL has been a rude awakening though.
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Yeah they did. They kept 30 clean sheets in 46 games and only conceded 16 goals. I know the PL is a big step up but doesn’t bode well for our anaemic attack.
 
Jurgen the German said:
Yeah they did. They kept 30 clean sheets in 46 games and only conceded 16 goals. I know the PL is a big step up but doesn’t bode well for our anaemic attack.
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lol - until you look at the table like I just have. They've conceded 42 in 22 games and only scored 23.

Welcome to the Prem right?
 
Muttley said:
This is such an important fixture but I'm less worried about tired legs.

We'll be playing on a Tues-Sat-Weds-Sun schedule. The Tues game was at home so all the players were probably tucked up in their own beds. They then had recovery and training until Saturday. We then switch to the Weds for the away Frankfurt and get the extra day before the City game. Some mild rotation required on returning players but this isn't the worst schedule we've had.

I also like the fact we have Biss and Sarr back in the mix to keep the midfield intensity going for the entire 90 mins.
Click to expand...
That schedule on it's own isn't that bad, agreed. But we have players just returning from injuries (Solanke, Udogie), players seemingly playing through injury against Dortmund (Simons at least), players who have looked a bit fatigued recently (particularly Porro). But yeah, the players that couldn't play against Dortmund should help.

I prefer saving the "must win" comments to the real crunch time of the season, but this has a bit of a "must win" feeling about it.
 
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