*** Tottenham Hotspur vs Qarabağ FK OMT ***

[Coys300]

We need to nail this to make sure the Monaco match is a dead rubber.

Lloris

Walker-Alder-Verts-Rose

Dier-Alli

Lamela-Dembele-Son

Kane

Subs: McGee, Davies, Wimmer, Bentaleb, Mason, Eriksen, Onomah

This is madness, you're throwing the Chelsea match away. I would much rather play a strong team against Monaco, who we play at home, while we have Saudi Sportswashing Machine on the late Sunday afternoon to look forward to.

Besides, you can play the first-team players all you want, but there is hardly any guarantee they will do better. I've seen a lot of EL matches in recent years to know that many of our players don't particularly care that much either, they are not putting in the same effort they do on the weekend. We're most likely better off playing reserves anyway since they have something to prove. The first-team players will only try to conserve energy and avoid injuries for Sunday. Also, I can understand the need to play some first-team players because we might not have great alternatives, but Trippier instead of Walker, Davies instead of Rose and Bentaleb for Dier would hardly be a disaster.

Chel53a are in Israel this week, so it's not just us.

They play today, they might actually already be back in London before we even depart to Azerbaijan...

If people aspire to be in the CL, we have to show we can cope with demands like this

We didn't play in Europe the year we qualified for the CL, that didn't seem to stop us from performing very well in the CL.

 

[Gutter Boy]

We need to rotate players, and this is a good game to do it. Wimmer, Fazio and others have hardly had any game time at all. We need everyone in the squad to be macth fit in case they are needed later, so give the "reserves" some playing time.

13 Dec - Saudi Sportswashing Machine H
26 Dec - Norwich H
28 Dec - Watford A

They are the games to give Wimmer, Trippier, Njie etc some time.

 

[AdamB]

13 Dec - Saudi Sportswashing Machine H
26 Dec - Norwich H
28 Dec - Watford A

They are the games to give Wimmer, Trippier, Njie etc some time.

No, those are games to ensure we get 9 points from, rather than rotating. Even if our second string lose at Qarabag we have the chance to rescue things against Monaco; if we lose against Chelsea, those points are gone and a big rival has gained 3 points on us

 

[mudshark]

 

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

Two draws puts us through chaps. Play the reserves against Qarabag:

- if we win then great, we're through
- if we draw then a point against Monaco is enough
- if we lose, we still have the chance to save ourselves against Monaco

Far too sensible, lets knacker our plays like we did for the League Cup final

 

[Gutter Boy]

Far too sensible, lets knacker our plays like we did for the League Cup final

Damn we nearly won something. For only the second time in 15 years.

So glad we finished 5th/6th again, like we always do.

 

[Gutter Boy]

No, those are games to ensure we get 9 points from, rather than rotating. Even if our second string lose at Qarabag we have the chance to rescue things against Monaco; if we lose against Chel53a, those points are gone and a big rival has gained 3 points on us

Things even themselves out over 40 games. The league ultimately always correlates to wage bills

Cups are one-shot. Death or glory. What the game is about. And certainly what our club is about

 

[Hotshot-Tottenham]

Wholesale changes please.

----------------- Vorm

Trippier -- The Faz -- Wimmer -- Davies

------------ Mason -- Carroll

--- Onomah --- Alli --- Townsend

----------------- Son

Play for your places, boyos.

 

[Modric THFC]

Cups cups cups - show me the glory

We can win the league. Send the youth team.
All we have to do to qualify for the next round any is lose in this pointless game and win 1-0 at Home to Monaco

 

[Jordinho]

Things even themselves out over 40 games. The league ultimately always correlates to wage bills

Cups are one-shot. Death or glory. What the game is about. And certainly what our club is about

Except this game isn't death or glory, it's glory or try again.

 

[Gutter Boy]

We can win the league. Send the youth team.
All we have to do to qualify for the next round any is lose in this pointless game and win 1-0 at Home to Monaco

We can't win the league when there are 3 teams paying £100-150m pa in wages more than us.

Monaco are a good side and our group is very tight. We'd be setting ourselves up for another dead rubber spring - players already on the beaches/nothing to care about apart from our usual (pointless) 5th/6th battle with Liverpool

 

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

Damn we nearly won something. For only the second time in 15 years.

So glad we finished 5th/6th again, like we always do.

To be honest I never thought we challenged Chelski in the final, it was just a matter of waiting for them to score and kill the game off.

 

[Gutter Boy]

Except this game isn't death or glory, it's glory or try again.

I'd consider 25 years of finishing 3rd-16th, with nothing more than 2 LCs (1 tainted because of Graham), pretty death like. Mid-table obscurity champions - woop woop.

 

[Modric THFC]

We can't win the league when there are 3 teams paying £100-150m pa in wages more than us.

Monaco are a good side and our group is very tight. We'd be setting ourselves up for another dead rubber spring - players already on the beaches/nothing to care about apart from our usual (pointless) 5th/6th battle with Liverpool

So much for the Glory option then.
If it wasn't for a Gerrard fudgeup Liverpool would have won the League with 4 teams playing more wages than them.
The league is a mess this year and it could be our only opportunity to win it in our lifetimes.
Now or never go all out for it.

If we lose on thursday and beat monaco we will be in the next round anyway.
Even if we draw with Monaco we will likely qualify.
And we can still go through on gd if we lose both games.

 

[Jordinho]

I'd consider 25 years of finishing 3rd-16th, with nothing more than 2 LCs (1 tainted because of Graham), pretty death like. Mid-table obscurity champions - woop woop.

I don't see how any of that relates to this game.

Throwing league games for the odd chance of cup success is the road to mid table obscurity though.

 

[AdamB]

Draw our last two games and we're through. We don't need to win on Thurs so we don't need to send our first 11

 

[Kandi1977]

We can't win the league when there are 3 teams paying £100-150m pa in wages more than us.

Monaco are a good side and our group is very tight. We'd be setting ourselves up for another dead rubber spring - players already on the beaches/nothing to care about apart from our usual (pointless) 5th/6th battle with Liverpool

Sometimes the amount of crap that comes from you is amazing GB, especially considering that other post from you are quite sensible. Maybe we should just lay down and roll over, because there a several clubs in both the EL and FA Cup that have bigger wages than us, so we can't ever win them. According to you.

 

[Jurgen the German]

Lol at the comedy of GB.

I agree with Adam B among others, we shouldn't even entertain the idea of taking Kane, Eriksen, Dier, Walker, Rose or the CB's let alone starting them.

Even if we do lose which, we can still beat Monaco and possibly win the group.

 

[Jurgen the German]

We'll get hammered if we don't play a decent team. Just because Qarabag isn't an overly familiar name, they are no mugs, especially at home. The Sky hype arrogance means people unfairly belittle our EL opponents (Anderlecht are a damn fine team at the moment).

We've got a young, fit team and coasted through West Ham at the weekend (30 minute warm-down at the end).

Get through these next 2, and then we've got 5 easier games in December (assuming Monaco is a dead rubber), all at weekends too except the Watford one.

You think we'll get hammered against Qarabag if we play a weakened team but will be fine if we rest players against teams like Norwich and Saudi Sportswashing Machine who have caused us trouble in recent seasons?

 

[Jurgen the German]

Lol Gutter.

Leave at home - Lloris - Walker - Toby - Verts - Rose - Dier - Eriksen - Kane

Starting 11 - Vorm - Trippier - Fazio - Wimmer - Davies - Alli - Winks - Mason - Onomah - Lamela - Townsend

Subs - Mcgee - CVV - Son - and whoever from the kids

This game being sacrificed doesn't mean Europa is not important, it means Chel53a is more important.

It would be mental to expect the players to do a 6 hour flight Thuersday night and trainFriday - they would need to rest Friday amd then only Saturday prep for an early kick off Sunday. Or return Friday after training over there and and rest after 6 hours and then Saturday prep and an early kick off.

Both options are fekeries.

Poch has a tough tough decision to make as this isn't about fitness, it is about mental travel times in a short period leading up to a game that could help us push on with a relatively easy run coming afterwards.

Completely agree. Let's see how good our youth system is.