***OMT Tottenham Hotspur Vs Leicester City (FA Cup)***

[Gazza Dazzla]

I think your team is still good pirate and I think it would be interesting to see, but I don't think there's anyway Poch is making that many changes.

4 or 5 at most for me and I prob wouldnt argue too much with that sort of rotation.

 

[Pirate55]

I think your team is still good pirate and I think it would be interesting to see, but I don't think there's anyway Poch is making that many changes.

4 or 5 at most for me and I prob wouldnt argue too much with that sort of rotation.

I agree with you GD. I don't think that will be the team Poch plays, but that is what I personally would like to see.

 

[DublinSpur]

I take the FA Cup seriously. During my own time as a fan 1980-1982 has definitely been the high point.

At the same time though, I also take our current squad seriously.

I think players like Bentaleb, Mason, Son, Chadli and so on are perfectly capable of beating a Leicester second string. So when people (like myself) suggest heavy rotation for this game, I very much doubt any of us is doing it with an eye on losing the match. I just think we have a good enough - and deep enough - squad to challenge on more than one front, and we should use that depth.

Having said that, I suspect Pochettino is likely to do some rotation but far less than people have suggested.

 

[DubaiSpur]

Luckily Pochettino seems perfectly capable of standing up to whatever flak both fans and the press will throw his way.

I don't think one example of us rotating and not getting the immediate result is a reason to never rotate again. In fact it hardly qualifies as reasoning at all...

The reasons to rotate have been outline many times. I really can't imagine you find yourself completely unaware of them at this point.

Considering that I'm the first proponent of an expensive, deep squad that the manager can call on at any time to keep up momentum and seamlessly charge forward towards trophies/CL qualification, I'd be quite hypocritical if I then also blindly espoused the selection of the same eleven throughout the season.

Look, there are places where rotation is useful, and there are places where the risk outweighs the reward. Against Monaco at home, for example, was one place where rotating every one of our players out and bringing the squad/youth lads in was a strategy that, to my eyes, was feasible and necessary - ditto the home and away games against Qarabag. But against Leicester, a formidable but still conquerable team, at the beginning of our cup run? No, I'd say that isn't a place to take risks that could leave us with one fewer cup to pursue.

 

[Mr_B]

A lot of our players looked out on their feet at goodison, poch is not one to rotate but we really should take it easy here, leicester are clearly on a little slide now, i hope we play conservative and scrape a 1-0 in a forgettable game.

 

[AdamB]

I don't think Poch will rotate as much as everyone seems to think.

You're mis-reading things. I don't think anyone expects Poch to rotate much given he hasn't done historically, however a lot of us on here are saying that we would rotate a lot more in the FA Cup game. Obviously if we don't change much for the FAC but still finish strongly in the league then no-one will think anything of the FAC selections, but if we fade then it will be picked up on

 

[AdamB]

People who don't want to rotate the squad for Saturday seem to forget that Wimmer, Bentaleb, Mason, Chadli and Son are all full internationals, whilst Trippier and Rose certainly don't lose us much and Onomah is one of our most promising youngsters. So bringing all those in isn't too much of a punt in terms of ability - the only risk is lack of familiarity with that group playing together, however to me that risk is worth it in order to give some others a day off

 

[Ade's folks are ok really]

People who don't want to rotate the squad for Saturday seem to forget that Wimmer, Bentaleb, Mason, Chadli and Son are all full internationals, whilst Trippier and Rose certainly don't lose us much and Onomah is one of our most promising youngsters. So bringing all those in isn't too much of a punt in terms of ability - the only risk is lack of familiarity with that group playing together, however to me that risk is worth it in order to give some others a day off

The risk for me is where the goals will come from if we rest the likes of Kane and Alli, as we don't have anyone of note that I would feel confident of in front of goal.
Son? Possibly, but he hasn't excited me much of late. His first touch is also atrocious and don't feel he's settled to the pace of our league.
Chadli? He has the ability but isn't reliable enough to be a real threat.
Eriksen? Def needs to step up (if he's even selected) and become a threat in front of goal again.

 

[Coys300]

Vorm
Trippier-Fazio-Wimmer-Rose
Mason-Bentaleb
Son-Carroll-Eriksen
Chadli

 

[Vega]

Poch can rotate as he sees fit, although i would like to see a strong enough side to win the game.

But please GHod not Vorm in goal.

 

[Lemonade Money]

People who don't want to rotate the squad for Saturday seem to forget that Wimmer, Bentaleb, Mason, Chadli and Son are all full internationals, whilst Trippier and Rose certainly don't lose us much and Onomah is one of our most promising youngsters. So bringing all those in isn't too much of a punt in terms of ability - the only risk is lack of familiarity with that group playing together, however to me that risk is worth it in order to give some others a day off

The issue for me is if you rotate too much, you lose continuity, and you end up with a 11 players not used to playing with each other. I prefer the Fergie way, you rotate 1 or 2 per game over the whole season, rather than wholesale changes for one off matches.

 

[braineclipse]

Considering that I'm the first proponent of an expensive, deep squad that the manager can call on at any time to keep up momentum and seamlessly charge forward towards trophies/CL qualification, I'd be quite hypocritical if I then also blindly espoused the selection of the same eleven throughout the season.

Look, there are places where rotation is useful, and there are places where the risk outweighs the reward. Against Monaco at home, for example, was one place where rotating every one of our players out and bringing the squad/youth lads in was a strategy that, to my eyes, was feasible and necessary - ditto the home and away games against Qarabag. But against Leicester, a formidable but still conquerable team, at the beginning of our cup run? No, I'd say that isn't a place to take risks that could leave us with one fewer cup to pursue.

For me the beginning of a cup run is exactly the time to accept more risk. If we get to a quarter- or semi-final we can't accept risk. If you had said that we can't ever accept the risk in a cup run against a good team that at least would have been consistent. But I really struggle to see an argument for why the beginning of a cup run is a particular time to be risk averse.

The issue for me is if you rotate too much, you lose continuity, and you end up with a 11 players not used to playing with each other. I prefer the Fergie way, you rotate 1 or 2 per game over the whole season, rather than wholesale changes for one off matches.

I'm not a big fan of wholesale changes for the sake of rotation either (with some exceptions). I think Ferguson rotated significantly more than 1 or 2 per game. If it was up to me I would like to see more than 1 or 2 changes between the two Leicester games. Most of the players I would like to see "rotated" in for this game are players that should wish to make a claim for a regular starting place in the team.

You lose continuity by rotating too much. On the other hand with little to no rotation your squad players will lack match fitness and be far from ready when necessarily called upon later in the season or as subs. This is part of our problem right now, look no further than Chadli and Son in the Everton game.

 

[AdamB]

The issue for me is if you rotate too much, you lose continuity, and you end up with a 11 players not used to playing with each other. I prefer the Fergie way, you rotate 1 or 2 per game over the whole season, rather than wholesale changes for one off matches.

Yep, but we don't really rotate 1 or 2 per game. I would have thought that, for example, Alderweireld and Vertonghen could have played every other EL game with Wimmer playing all 6 group games. We had some enforced rotation in certain positions from injuries but I worry about burn-out for Dier, Alli and Kane (particularly given the lack of like for like replacements for Dier or Kane) and also about an injury to TA/JV and then Wimmer coming in for key PL games having not really played all season

 

[Craig_J]

The risk for me is where the goals will come from if we rest the likes of Kane and Alli, as we don't have anyone of note that I would feel confident of in front of goal.
Son? Possibly, but he hasn't excited me much of late. His first touch is also atrocious and don't feel he's settled to the pace of our league.
Chadli? He has the ability but isn't reliable enough to be a real threat.
Eriksen? Def needs to step up (if he's even selected) and become a threat in front of goal again.

I agree but surely that's all the more reason to rest them? Kane's started to look tired and if one or both of him and Ali were to end up burnt out or worse yet injured then we are screwed for the rest of the season and a 3rd round win over Leicester is no where near worth that risk.

 

[Ade's folks are ok really]

I agree but surely that's all the more reason to rest them? Kane's started to look tired and if one or both of him and Ali were to end up burnt out or worse yet injured then we are screwed for the rest of the season and a 3rd round win over Leicester is no where near worth that risk.

that is also very true! So i guess the question is whether we risk them in cup so we have a goal threat or rest them for league as it's 3rd end only….or perhaps the more obvious answer is Levy get your cheque boom out and strengthen our attacking options PROPERLY!!

 

[Coys300]

I wouldn't worry to much about goal scorers, even in the absence of Kane and Alli. Lamela is already on eight goals. Son has four. Eriksen can score those freekicks. Chadli has been injured for the most part, but scored a lot last season, so we know he can do it as well.

 

[braineclipse]

that is also very true! So i guess the question is whether we risk them in cup so we have a goal threat or rest them for league as it's 3rd end only….or perhaps the more obvious answer is Levy get your cheque boom out and strengthen our attacking options PROPERLY!!

Son was a proper strengthening of our attacking options. Yes he hasn't yet settled in, but he's not going to do so if we don't risk playing him...
Similarly Chadli isn't going to regain his form if we don't play him.

Buy, buy, buy. But this is not how our success has been made. We've gotten success under Pochettino by being a bit patient with players and by trusting them to up their game when called upon. Signing a player at the level of Son and playing him instead of Son would be a massive (and perhaps expensive) sideways step. And if we couldn't find better than Son in the summer, why would we expect that in the difficult January transfer window?

 

[Gutter Boy]

Son and Njie both looked excellent as false 9s against Monaco and Qarabag respectively. I'd have reasonable confidence in trying either of them in that role again against EPL opposition.

 

[billyiddo]

Son and Njie both looked excellent as false 9s against Monaco and Qarabag respectively. I'd have reasonable confidence in trying either of them in that role again against EPL opposition.

A shame N'Jie is injured as I would have liked to seen something similar to the Monaco line up

 

[wiziwig]

My prioity is the league, then EL and lastly the FA Cup but I'm happy and confident with whatever line-up Poch decides for this game. Okay, perhaps if he picks Vorm over Hugo, I'd be a tad more nervous.