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Unhappy Villas-Boas hits out at Football League

matty182

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Apr 15, 2006
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Tottenham manager Andre Villas-Boas has accused the Football League of putting his players' careers in jeopardy with its scheduling of the Capital One Cup.

PA Sport Report – 26 minutes ago
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    Eurosport - Andre Villas-Boas

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Spurs play Aston Villa in the third round of the Capital One Cup on Tuesday, just two days after the north London club play at Cardiff in the Premier League.
Given that Spurs play Tromso in the Europa League on Thursday, Villas-Boas' squad face a hectic period of three games in six days.
The Portuguese understands the need to schedule the Cardiff game on Sunday, but he is perplexed as to why his squad will have to play at Villa Park 48 hours later, especially when some Capital One Cup fixtures are taking place on Wednesday.
"After this (Europa League) game, we have not only the Sunday game but the Tuesday game, which I found as an incredible surprise," the Tottenham manager told a press conference.
"How can a game be scheduled after two days, immediately putting the players' careers at risk with injuries?
"I find it absolutely incredible that we have to risk injuries to our players in a game that they play on that Tuesday.
"The problem is that it puts the players in a very difficult situation.
"It's also nothing new in English football. I had the same thing once with Wolverhampton and Chelsea, when I was at Chelsea, and I spoke the same way.
"The second day of recovery is the most dangerous day for a player to pick up an injury.
"If this is not taken into account I think it's bad.
"Other things have to be respected - televised games, fixture organisation, the police comes into account because of the fixtures that are being played on the Tuesday and Wednesday.
"But the problem is that in the end Tottenham was chosen to play on Tuesday, with only the Monday to recover from the last match, and that puts us in a very difficult position."
The Football League are aware of Villas-Boas' comments but are yet to respond.


Do we now have a squad strong enough to deal with this? Thursday should be relatively easy but this is Tottenham so nothing is ever straightforward!
 

camaj

Posting too much
Aug 10, 2004
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All teams have a squad for this reason. There's no reason why we have to play the same players in both games and I'd be disappointed if we didn't rest players against Villa (and Tromso)
 

Yid-ol

Just-outside Edinburgh
Jan 16, 2006
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We have the squad to cope.

It will always get to a point in the season where there are a group of games like this, but I agree the cup game should have been Wednesday and not Tuesday.
 

crokey

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Sep 1, 2012
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Couldn't care less about the Carling Cup, would rather play a stronger team at Tromso than Villa, with obviously our strongest v Cardiff
 

matty182

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Apr 15, 2006
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Strongest in the league i agree, but I would still like to win something this year
 

sloth

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Mar 7, 2005
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All teams have a squad for this reason. There's no reason why we have to play the same players in both games and I'd be disappointed if we didn't rest players against Villa (and Tromso)


Yep. I do understand where AVB's coming from, but on the other hand we chose to enter the competitions we do, and if we didn't want to do it we shouldn't enter them. we also have a biggish squad and it's up to AVB whether he wants to risk players and try and win the match, or if he plays an unseasoned team and risks losing.
 

peteblue

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Oct 14, 2005
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I agree with him. So play the kids in the League cup game at Villa, I think the Premier League and the Europa Cup are more important this season.
 

Chris Flynn

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Aug 3, 2012
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Play the same team against Villa and Tromso and Play the 'first' team against Cardif. Then everyone gets a nice rest and plenty of gametime. Is Adam Smith back with us this year? Sounded like he was doing well, if so play him at RB and Naughton LB in the 2 cup games to give Rose and Walker a break. We have 2 players for every position without havingto think to hard elsewhere in the team
 

leffe186

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Sep 2, 2004
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Yep. I do understand where AVB's coming from, but on the other hand we chose to enter the competitions we do, and if we didn't want to do it we shouldn't enter them. we also have a biggish squad and it's up to AVB whether he wants to risk players and try and win the match, or if he plays an unseasoned team and risks losing.


True, but it's entirely self-defeating for the League to schedule the Cup game so soon after a Premiership match. They simply cannot complain if we put out reserves and devalue their competition. Of course we should just deal with it, but we should certainly point out that it's fucking stupid at the same time.
 

KILLA_SIN

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May 24, 2008
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Valid Point But I was thinking Tromso and Villa would give us a chance to play a rotated squad, Chadli, Lennon, Chiriches, Defoe, Kaboul, Lamela, Friedel etc could all do with a game
 

Blackcanary

Dame sans merci
Jul 15, 2012
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We have the squad to cope.

It will always get to a point in the season where there are a group of games like this, but I agree the cup game should have been Wednesday and not Tuesday.

Arsenal are playing away at West Brom so I can understand why they didn't want the matches scheduled for the same night, with both sets of fans having to share public transport in the same direction. But it doesn't explain why we couldn't play on the Wednesday and them the Tuesday.

ETA: Oh, they're playing in the league on Sunday too. What an epic planning fail.
 

Mr Pink

SC Supporter
Aug 25, 2010
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The League cup game should of been Wednesday. Least we forget Chelsea is the Saturday morning kick off next week as well. Really is a very busy 9 day period starting tomorrow for us.

I really hope AVB has two sides in his mind for this. Pity that Lennon, Chadli and Capoue weren't available, would of made it much easier.

But effectively two sides, one for tomorrow and Villa the other for Cardiff and Chelsea. Obviously a few will over lap, but the principal of two sides for two sets of games is one I'm sure AVB will be looking at.
 

Blake Griffin

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Oct 3, 2011
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team vs cardiff will be the same as against norwich i'd imagine. that leaves us with:

friedel

naughton
kaboul(if fit)
chiriches(if work permit arrives)
??????(there is fryers but i think it's more likely we'll see rose/naughton/vertonghen share the two games)

sandro
dembele/paulinho can play a cup game each

lamela
holtby
chadli(if fit) if not then sig and townsend share

defoe
 

Monkey boy

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Jun 18, 2011
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Surely the time to complain was before we accepted the fixture date? Seems to me that villa have been very canny and somebody in our department has dropped a clanger.
 

crokey

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Sep 1, 2012
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The League cup game should of been Wednesday. Least we forget Chelsea is the Saturday morning kick off next week as well. Really is a very busy 9 day period starting tomorrow for us.

I really hope AVB has two sides in his mind for this. Pity that Lennon, Chadli and Capoue weren't available, would of made it much easier.

But effectively two sides, one for tomorrow and Villa the other for Cardiff and Chelsea. Obviously a few will over lap, but the principal of two sides for two sets of games is one I'm sure AVB will be looking at.



Yep. Would prefer 2 fairly regular sides for the 2 league games and vice versa rather than mixing and matching for the 4.
 

sloth

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Mar 7, 2005
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Play the same team against Villa and Tromso and Play the 'first' team against Cardif. Then everyone gets a nice rest and plenty of gametime. Is Adam Smith back with us this year? Sounded like he was doing well, if so play him at RB and Naughton LB in the 2 cup games to give Rose and Walker a break. We have 2 players for every position without havingto think to hard elsewhere in the team


Too many injuries to players play entirely different teams for PL and the other comps, some players will have to play both against Cardiff and Villa.
 

Lancaster Spur

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Jun 28, 2008
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I think the main problem is that Birmingham are playing Swansea at home in the Carling cup on the Wednesday night. The Police will not allow Birmingham and Villa to play on the same night. As Swansea are also in the Europa League it was a straight toss up between us and them who would get the short straw. Unlucky for us but hey, we have a good squad and have a good chance to test it.
 

Yid-ol

Just-outside Edinburgh
Jan 16, 2006
31,097
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The League cup game should of been Wednesday. Least we forget Chelsea is the Saturday morning kick off next week as well. Really is a very busy 9 day period starting tomorrow for us.

I really hope AVB has two sides in his mind for this. Pity that Lennon, Chadli and Capoue weren't available, would of made it much easier.

But effectively two sides, one for tomorrow and Villa the other for Cardiff and Chelsea. Obviously a few will over lap, but the principal of two sides for two sets of games is one I'm sure AVB will be looking at.


Is chadli definitely out?

Even if he is we have

Gomes/Friedel ......................................... Lloris​
Naughton Kaboul Chiriches Fryers....... Walker Vertonghen Dawson Rose​
Sandro Holtby.................................Pauliniho Dembelle​
Townsend Sigurdsson ?......................... Lamela Eriksen Chadli​
Defoe ........................................... Soldado​
This is before we even include the youths so could always play one at LM and have 2 totally different teams, or if Lennon does come back quicker move Townsend to the left, thought I have Chadli in the team also as for some reason I don't think he will be out for long.​
 

Chris Flynn

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Aug 3, 2012
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Too many injuries to players play entirely different teams for PL and the other comps, some players will have to play both against Cardiff and Villa.

Potentially only one, could we not stick in a youngster?

Team A
Hugo
Walker
Verts
Daws
Rose
Paul
Mose
Erik
Sigs
Towns
Sold

Team B
Brad
Smith
Vlad (or Fryers)
Kabs
Naughton
Sandro
Holtby
A YOUNGSTER
Lamela
Kane
Defoe

Think they'd be strong enough. Maybe not for the leauge cup but......meh
 

sloth

Well-Known Member
Mar 7, 2005
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Potentially only one, could we not stick in a youngster?

Team A
Hugo
Walker
Verts
Daws
Rose
Paul
Mose
Erik
Sigs
Towns
Sold

Team B
Brad
Smith
Vlad (or Fryers)
Kabs
Naughton
Sandro
Holtby
A YOUNGSTER
Lamela
Kane
Defoe

Think they'd be strong enough. Maybe not for the leauge cup but......meh


Smith's on loan and Vlad hasn't got a work-permit. I guess we could go down the seriously weak route, for some reason I doubt AVB would want to though, as it goes against the competitive ethos he's trying to instil in the side.
 
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