Tottenham Vs Wycombe Wanderers: Match Thread

[Shadydan]

I'm moaning at your attitude mate.
I'm also moaning because we got out of jail. You can't see beyond the win which is incredible.
Look Alan Shearer's also moaning and he knows a little bit about football.

Go educate yourself, show some respect and lose your nasty little retorts.

Changes made to Starting X1

Leeds. 10. LOST 0-1
Soton. 10 LOST 0-5
Brighton. 9 LOST 1-3
Liverpool. 9 LOST 1-2
Newcastle. 9 LOST 0-3
Spurs. 9 WON and got fucking lucky 4-3
Watford. 7 LOST 0-1

Rather predictably you still haven't addressed my statement, we were playing a league 2 team, we have players who are on the fringes of the first team as well as youth players and we need to preserve our first teamers and keep them fresh physically and mentally for the season. If you can't rest a whole host of first teamers for a team 3 divisions below us then there is literally no point in having a squad. none at all.

Your argument about other teamers resting a whole host of players is utterley flawed, we have a stronger squad than all of these teams you mentioned, therefore we can afford to rest players...you're comparing apples and pears.

Edit - Funny how you failed to mention that there was more wins than losses for teams who rested a whole host of players this weekend.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/38788645

 

[2bearis2do]

And they dont? God forbid if we had lost, you would have had a stroke!

Too right.

 

[easley91]

Even Brighton and Newcastle made several changes yesterday. Pretty much every Prem side did. Why are people having a go at Poch for making changes? We had injuries as well anyway. We won. Move on.

 

[2bearis2do]

Rather predictably you still haven't addressed my statement, we were playing a league 2 team, we have players who are on the fringes of the first team as well as youth players and we need to preserve our first teamers and keep them fresh physically and mentally for the season. If you can't rest a whole host of first teamers for a team 3 divisions below us then there is literally no point in having a squad. none at all.

Your argument about other teamers resting a whole host of players is utterley flawed, we have a stronger squad than all of these teams you mentioned, therefore we can afford to rest players...you're comparing apples and pears.

Yeah? - Go tell a Liverpool fan that! Or go ask some Spurs fans who were at the Palace game with me last year or Leicester the season before.
I love MoPo - I think he's brilliant but he got of jail yesterday and I don't want to see that again.
We didn't preserve our first teamers; in the end - we needed them to get us out of the muck we were in. Dembele came on, Alli came on in the 61st minute when we were losing and we actually used our 30million man at half-time. Wouldn't it have made more sense to play 4/5 key players and then sub them for the youth rather than the other way round?

I want to win the damn thing and not take risks. It's just 4 more games and every chance of winning a trophy - there's not a team we can't beat in that competition. We should go all out to win it. You want us to rest our whole first team because we have an outside chance of winning the league? And you think it would drain them to play against Wycombe?!

Just how tired mentally and physically are our first x1 going to get in 90 minutes of thumping a 4th tier team? Don't change them all, keep the spine - change 4 or 5 and the rest at half time - that's strategy. Yesterday was MoPo playing his hand All In without seeing his cards - it was risky and it almost backfired.

What's going to happen when we embark on the Europa League again? Another 9 games to win that. What would you rather do? Because MoPo won't be resting all 9 senior players for those games and throwing the youth out to get experience. He'll try and balance it and ultimately they'll all get tired and we'll probably fail again and that will be detrimental to our title challenge (again).

Take the easier path for a glorious trophy please. It's not rocket science. We've had one pathetic EFL trophy in 16 years - which players like Ledley King quote as being the highlight of their entire career. We've won 2 in the last 26 years and we're taking unnecessary risks in this year's FA Cup?

I think you and me are done. We can agree to disagree.

 

[Shadydan]

Even Brighton and Newcastle made several changes yesterday. Pretty much every Prem side did. Why are people having a go at Poch for making changes? We had injuries as well anyway. We won. Move on.

Because it's fashionable and "Poch doesn't give a shit about cups" apparently.

The truth is that the club's no1 priority is CL football as has been for a considerable amount of time whether people want o subscribe to that or not, some fans really need to get used to it.

The last time we took the FA cup seriously and we didn't rest players we got to the Semi Final and Chelsea beat us 5-1, the funny thing is that we tailed off that season and we were physically and mentally tired come the end of the season...wonder why

 

[Saoirse]

Because it's fashionable and "Poch doesn't give a shit about cups" apparently.

The truth is that the club's no1 priority is CL football as has been for a considerable amount of time whether people want o subscribe to that or not, some fans really need to get used to it.

The last time we took the FA cup seriously and we didn't rest players we got to the Semi Final and Chelsea beat us 5-1, the funny thing is that we tailed off that season and we were physically and mentally tired come the end of the season...wonder why

The other time we took it seriously and had a very disappointing result was when we lost the semi final to Portsmouth. We then beat Arsenal, Chelsea and Man City to qualify for the Champions League.

 

[Tit&Ham]

Yeah? - Go tell a Liverpool fan that! Or go ask some Spurs fans who were at the Palace game with me last year or Leicester the season before.
I love MoPo - I think he's brilliant but he got of jail yesterday and I don't want to see that again.
We didn't preserve our first teamers; in the end - we needed them to get us out of the muck we were in. Dembele came on, Alli came on in the 61st minute when we were losing and we actually used our 30million man at half-time. Wouldn't it have made more sense to play 4/5 key players and then sub them for the youth rather than the other way round?

I want to win the damn thing and not take risks. It's just 4 more games and every chance of winning a trophy - there's not a team we can't beat in that competition. We should go all out to win it. You want us to rest our whole first team because we have an outside chance of winning the league? And you think it would drain them to play against Wycombe?!

Just how tired mentally and physically are our first x1 going to get in 90 minutes of thumping a 4th tier team? Don't change them all, keep the spine - change 4 or 5 and the rest at half time - that's strategy. Yesterday was MoPo playing his hand All In without seeing his cards - it was risky and it almost backfired.

What's going to happen when we embark on the Europa League again? Another 9 games to win that. What would you rather do? Because MoPo won't be resting all 9 senior players for those games and throwing the youth out to get experience. He'll try and balance it and ultimately they'll all get tired and we'll probably fail again and that will be detrimental to our title challenge (again).

Take the easier path for a glorious trophy please. It's not rocket science. We've had one pathetic EFL trophy in 16 years - which players like Ledley King quote as being the highlight of their entire career. We've won 2 in the last 26 years and we're taking unnecessary risks in this year's FA Cup?

I think you and me are done. We can agree to disagree.

Think everybody, including Poch, wants to win everything. But to do that, you have to take risks. We sent out a team yesterday that should be more than able to beat wycombe at the Lane.

It didn't go smoothly, but we had a back-plan with dele and dembele. It worked and the crowd got a memorable experience as well.

We Also gambled in the CL and we will most likely gamble vs genk.

These are decisions Poch has to make, and we can sit back and jugde with evidence in our hands.

Now, a lot of us were critical to Poch' CL tactics, but we cannot be critical of a win were we rested all our best players?? Thats what we want isnt it? To win with as much reserves as possible?

The league is the main priority, and rightly so. It is the foundation for our club to keep growing. We all want to win the FA cup, the Europa League as well - but let's wait until the END of the season to jugde ...

 

[Ionman34]

In truth, on reflection, there's merit in both arguments, if you stop the pissing contest, take a step back and think about it.

Large, wholesale changes can be detrimental, especially when players haven't played competitively together. Key players do provide leadership that fringe players thrive off. That extra bit of calm and direction that can see a younger player take up a better position or make a better choice.
Conversely, you run a risk playing key players, not just because you can fatigue them when the business end of the season is on us, but because an injury could wreck the team cohesion in the higher priority competitions.

Let's not kid ourselves, the league is, and always will be, a higher priority for a club with our aspirations.

So a balance needs to be sought. I agree that winning a trophy is important, very important in fact as it gives the team that taste of success, makes them winners which provides the kind of confidence that can be taken into other competitions. So those who want us to "go for it" with the FA Cup are correct. But those who argue for resting our first teamers are also correct..

Or both are incorrect as both argue the extreme end of each argument whereas, I believe, the correct answer lies somewhere between.


I missed my calling, should have been an arbitrator!

 

[Shadydan]

Yeah? - Go tell a Liverpool fan that! Or go ask some Spurs fans who were at the Palace game with me last year or Leicester the season before.
I love MoPo - I think he's brilliant but he got of jail yesterday and I don't want to see that again.
We didn't preserve our first teamers; in the end - we needed them to get us out of the muck we were in. Dembele came on, Alli came on in the 61st minute when we were losing and we actually used our 30million man at half-time. Wouldn't it have made more sense to play 4/5 key players and then sub them for the youth rather than the other way round?

We did preserve our first teamers, we bought on two players who were used as insurance policies to rescue the match Alli and Dembele yet we still didn't have 7 first teams regulars on the pitch, also our £30m man (no need to call him that to add weight to your argument) or Sissoko doesn't start in our first team at the moment so playing him is not a risk. We bought on Janssen at half time who again isn't a starter. Poch is totally vindicated in playing that team because we won the match, there is literally no argument you can make out of this and I suspect you're having a moan for the sake of it.

We have a Premier League game on Tuesday evening and then another one on Sunday, we are one of the teams who play at high intensity and our players do a lot of sprints therefore they need to be fit and fresh and more importantly we are involved in a title race so expecting us to play a couple of more first teamers against Wycombe bloody Wanderers is just nonsensical and just total squad mismanagement.

I want to win the damn thing and not take risks. It's just 4 more games and every chance of winning a trophy - there's not a team we can't beat in that competition. We should go all out to win it. You want us to rest our whole first team because we have an outside chance of winning the league? And you think it would drain them to play against Wycombe?!

Yeah of course I said that didn't I lol I want the manager to rest players and rotate accordingly, If he had played Eriksen and Wanyama against a League 2 side then I'd question his sanity and wonder why they'd be starting when we have a game on Tuesday. All teams take risks fella, all teams rest players in earlier rounds against weaker competition. it's nothing new then they introduce them against harder opponents, I expect Poch to do the same in latter rounds.

Just how tired mentally and physically are our first x1 going to get in 90 minutes of thumping a 4th tier team? Don't change them all, keep the spine - change 4 or 5 and the rest at half time - that's strategy. Yesterday was MoPo playing his hand All In without seeing his cards - it was risky and it almost backfired.

It's about keeping the team fresh and focused for the league and giving the non starters a chance and why are you so sure that if we had played a stronger team we would have thumped Wycombe there's no guarantees either way? You say that it's a risk in itself to play our non starters yet at the same time if you play first teamers then you are still risking injuries and like I said burnout at the end of the season.

Your argument rests on an outcome 'almost' backfiring, but that said outcome didn't actually happen, it's utterley bizarre.

What's going to happen when we embark on the Europa League again? Another 9 games to win that. What would you rather do? Because MoPo won't be resting all 9 senior players for those games and throwing the youth out to get experience. He'll try and balance it and ultimately they'll all get tired and we'll probably fail again and that will be detrimental to our title challenge (again).

Take the easier path for a glorious trophy please. It's not rocket science. We've had one pathetic EFL trophy in 16 years - which players like Ledley King quote as being the highlight of their entire career. We've won 2 in the last 26 years and we're taking unnecessary risks in this year's FA Cup?

I think you and me are done. We can agree to disagree.

Of course he's not gonna be resting 9 players but we're not going to be playing League 2 sides in the Europa League, rest and rotate according to opposition. Let me ask you this when you looked at that team before kick off yesterday what was your honest reaction? If you think that the team that Pochettino put out wasn't good enough before kick off then you should be on the coaching staff at Spurs.

 

[Shadydan]

The other time we took it seriously and had a very disappointing result was when we lost the semi final to Portsmouth. We then beat Arsenal, Chelsea and Man City to qualify for the Champions League.

When we didn't have any European football that season.

 

[Khilari]

Pochettino's job is to get results.
But he has to do that playing "the Tottenham way", keeping players fit and avoiding burnout, giving youth a chance and maintaining an element of cohesion in the squad, one of the key elements of a Pochettino team.

So as most people can imagine he needs to balance games, players and he may sometimes get that balance wrong.

With a game against Sunderland 3 days later, who on earth would have played any differently against a team in the bottom tier of our league? I'm confused.

 

[buttons]

Just out of interest, did we bust out the 'you're f*cking sh*t chant' when we went 4-3 up?

 

[rio bryan]

From here:
http://liveonsat.com/los_soc_br_uk_irish_CUP.php

Website layout is a bit crappy but the info is always spot on.

Thanks

 

[cookiemonster]

Think everybody, including Poch, wants to win everything. But to do that, you have to take risks. We sent out a team yesterday that should be more than able to beat wycombe at the Lane.

It didn't go smoothly, but we had a back-plan with dele and dembele. It worked and the crowd got a memorable experience as well.

We Also gambled in the CL and we will most likely gamble vs genk.

These are decisions Poch has to make, and we can sit back and jugde with evidence in our hands.

Now, a lot of us were critical to Poch' CL tactics, but we cannot be critical of a win were we rested all our best players?? Thats what we want isnt it? To win with as much reserves as possible?

The league is the main priority, and rightly so. It is the foundation for our club to keep growing. We all want to win the FA cup, the Europa League as well - but let's wait until the END of the season to jugde ...

The selection was ok except one

Onomah and Winks in central midfield

Two relative lightweight against bigger stronger cloggers in a pivotal position

Just asking to be overrun

 

[Sweech]

Of course nothing is guaranteed - but at least the club and the manager should be wanting to win the damn thing.

Sure, but you're acting and writing as if we threw a sure thing for the cup entirely away instead of throwing a better chance at the cup away. There's a very strong line between the two things.

Also I can't blame Poch for not taking it seriously, or just making the league the absolute priority. Managers get fired for league position alone. Look at all the previous cup winning managers and then look at how the vast majority of them are fired either at the end of the season they win it or the year after. Poch is doing the same thing any sane person does and that's putting an emphasis on their job security.

 

[Sweech]

Yeah? - Go tell a Liverpool fan that! Or go ask some Spurs fans who were at the Palace game with me last year or Leicester the season before.
I love MoPo - I think he's brilliant but he got of jail yesterday and I don't want to see that again.
We didn't preserve our first teamers; in the end - we needed them to get us out of the muck we were in. Dembele came on, Alli came on in the 61st minute when we were losing and we actually used our 30million man at half-time. Wouldn't it have made more sense to play 4/5 key players and then sub them for the youth rather than the other way round?

I want to win the damn thing and not take risks. It's just 4 more games and every chance of winning a trophy - there's not a team we can't beat in that competition. We should go all out to win it. You want us to rest our whole first team because we have an outside chance of winning the league? And you think it would drain them to play against Wycombe?!

Just how tired mentally and physically are our first x1 going to get in 90 minutes of thumping a 4th tier team? Don't change them all, keep the spine - change 4 or 5 and the rest at half time - that's strategy. Yesterday was MoPo playing his hand All In without seeing his cards - it was risky and it almost backfired.

What's going to happen when we embark on the Europa League again? Another 9 games to win that. What would you rather do? Because MoPo won't be resting all 9 senior players for those games and throwing the youth out to get experience. He'll try and balance it and ultimately they'll all get tired and we'll probably fail again and that will be detrimental to our title challenge (again).

Take the easier path for a glorious trophy please. It's not rocket science. We've had one pathetic EFL trophy in 16 years - which players like Ledley King quote as being the highlight of their entire career. We've won 2 in the last 26 years and we're taking unnecessary risks in this year's FA Cup?

I think you and me are done. We can agree to disagree.

A) You can't tell Liverpool fans things. They are morons - it's a broken premise to begin with.

B) If you want to reference Crystal Palace we played a strong lineup. The lineup was:
Kane
Onomah - Alli - Son
Bentaleb - Dembele
Rose - Wimmer - Dier - Walker
Vorm

That's minimal rotation and we've won a few league games even this year with a nearly identical lineup to that. Even when watching that game it was clear to see we were unlucky and while we weren't blowing them away offensively we outshot them by nearly double.

That game was actually a better example of me saying you can't simply expect to win them all even with a strong lineup.

 

[Ionman34]

The selection was ok except one

Onomah and Winks in central midfield

Two relative lightweight against bigger stronger cloggers in a pivotal position

Just asking to be overrun

We had 75% of the possession...

How is that being overrun?

 

[Tiberius Gracchus]

Went to the game yesterday and a really flat crowd contributed to a really flat performance.

It was pretty raucous where I was (south stand lower, behind the goal and slightly to the right). I find north and west are usually pretty flat but south and shelf side had a good volume throughout

 

[sparx100]

Ah thats fair. I was in north which was pretty drab!

 

[nightgoat]

We didn't preserve our first teamers; in the end - we needed them to get us out of the muck we were in. Dembele came on, Alli came on in the 61st minute when we were losing and we actually used our 30million man at half-time. Wouldn't it have made more sense to play 4/5 key players and then sub them for the youth rather than the other way round?

We completely rested Lloris, Walker, Alderweireld, Rose, Wanyama, Eriksen and Kane. That's most of our first choice XI.