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Borussia Dortmund Vs Tottenham: Match Thread

Crowedem

Well-Known Member
Dec 5, 2014
74
268
You can't categorically state that N'jie is not a striker, he's young, from a weaker league and has been injured for most of his time with us. Chadli and Son are not strikers, they have proven time and time again that they are far more useful from a deeper position, but N'Jie has barely played.
 

Spursidol

Well-Known Member
Sep 15, 2007
12,636
15,834
This is the thing that concerns me. It's like Poch had no idea that running our key players into the ground earlier in the season would lead to fatigue. And if he didn't really trust certain squad players early on then why did we do nothing in Jan to freshen things up, even on a short term basis?

You have to pace your team to peak at the business end of the season. Fergie consistently talked about this during his time at Utd.

What's the point of playing your strongest teams early in the competition only to just fuck it off when you come up against the best team in it?

A number of people, including myself ,were critical of Poch playing too strong a side pre-Christmas against sides where there was no need. Rotation needs to start early as fatigue is cumulative throughout the season.

However at the time a n umber of other posters were adamant that we must always play 'our best players'. Strangely they don't seem to have learned from the Wham and Arsenal showings that there was an issue which is why Poch started the team he did against Dortmund,

Can't do anything this season, but lets hope Poch does learn for next season.

Incidentally it was a point that people made when Poch was appointed that Southampton had exhibited 'burnout' under him at a similar stage of the season.....so Poch is still relatively inexperienced to manage a team at this level, but he needs to learn not to play the likes of Kane against Colchester or some of the EL group ties, so as to have better rested players at this time of the season. That in turn will mean that Poch needs to play the likes of Onomah and Winks more which will aid their development which has a long term benefit
 

worcestersauce

"I'm no optimist I'm just a prisoner of hope
Jan 23, 2006
26,895
45,043
So VW takes no responsibility for the dodgy emissons team ? Thats not quite how it works.
Not really, if today the club still claim that Kane started the game your analogy may have some validity.
Mind you there is one similarity, I don't give a toss about the VW emissions either.
 

1882andallthat

Well-Known Member
Feb 2, 2009
2,821
4,157
Didn't we win 3-0 in the first leg against Inter a few years back and then end up shitting ourselves in the replay? I'm not saying I expect it to be a close tie, but if Dortmund rest a number of their big-hitters we've got a sniff of a chance.

It's a European night and it's White Hart Lane. Leicester are 5 points clear at the top of the PL... all I'm saying is stranger things have happened!
Whilst I admire your optimism, and yes stranger things may have happened, they won't this time even if they rest a few, I cannot see us keeping a clean sheet in the 2nd leg which means we will have to score 5 if they score 1 or 6 if they score two and so on....
 

Styopa

Well-Known Member
Jan 19, 2014
5,136
14,177
Obviously, none of us know exactly what Pochettino was thinking and can only speculate. My own view is even had we played our strongest team there would remain a strong possibility, perhaps even probability, we would lose this tie. Dortmund are an excellent team playing full of confidence. Or to put it another way, we are unlikely to face a team anywhere near as good as them for the rest of the season. There is the school of thought that says you should never play your weakest team, especially in a game of such magnitude, and you should always believe you can win no matter the opposition. But the flip side of that is playing the percentages and selecting a team you think can do enough and saving some of the key players for more achievable challenges coming up.

Beat Aston Villa, Bournemouth, Stoke, West Brom, Southampton and Newcastle plus one of either Liverpool, Manchester United and Chelsea, and we will have a superb chance of winning the Premier League.

Based on that surely everyone can understand yesterday's team selection even if they don't agree with it?
 

Derryank

Well-Known Member
Aug 2, 2014
1,002
1,875
Not to get off topic..but this team is tired. It's quite obvious in the past few games that they're making mental mistakes that they hadn't been through the first half of the season. It's to be expected. Management know it, the players have been declaring the importance of rotation all year and now we're at the last hurdle. What a great position to be in. All credit to Morrie and his staff to have this squad of players punching above their weight...only a few rounds to go. That Dortmund team last night would've torn our best 11 to pieces on a good day. You know it. I know it...most importantly, so did Morrie-his post match analysis said it all. Somewhere through this...there is victory in defeat. He will build upon it and move on...this season has proven that. COYSTID!
 

Derryank

Well-Known Member
Aug 2, 2014
1,002
1,875
Obviously, none of us know exactly what Pochettino was thinking and can only speculate. My own view is even had we played our strongest team there would remain a strong possibility, perhaps even probability, we would lose this tie. Dortmund are an excellent team playing full of confidence. Or to put it another way, we are unlikely to face a team anywhere near as good as them for the rest of the season. There is the school of thought that says you should never play your weakest team, especially in a game of such magnitude, and you should always believe you can win no matter the opposition. But the flip side of that is playing the percentages and selecting a team you think can do enough and saving some of the key players for more achievable challenges coming up.

Beat Aston Villa, Bournemouth, Stoke, West Brom, Southampton and Newcastle plus one of either Liverpool, Manchester United and Chelsea, and we will have a superb chance of winning the Premier League.

Based on that surely everyone can understand yesterday's team selection even if they don't agree with it?

I really cant understand why the team selection argument still exists. He's been rotating the squad all year, particularly in this competition. Don't get me wrong, I agree wholeheartedly with your analysis above...Sunday can't come soon enough
 

Sir Henry

Facts > Feelings
Aug 18, 2008
2,706
2,817
Not really, if today the club still claim that Kane started the game your analogy may have some validity.
Mind you there is one similarity, I don't give a toss about the VW emissions either.

You said that the guy (who represents spurs) doesnt know who Poch is going to pick (who represents spurs) and rightly so, how does he. So then dont sell us the mouth watering prospect of kane and dembele against their equivalents, If I see that, but a ticket and dont get whats sold to me, I'm gonna be pissed of. It's the clubs responsibility.

VW aint gonna say to the media, we dont know what the guy in emissions has done, how would we know. So accept your emissions, thanks very much.

I dont care about the emissions either, but the point still remains.

p.s. neg voters, you can kiss my fucking fat cock.
 

OneBaxter

Well-Known Member
Aug 7, 2013
203
435
Was just thinking, perhaps the team selection was based on future planning. It's more than likely that we will be in the CL next season and it's teams like Dortmund we will be playing so perhaps Pochettino played some fringe players to see if they were of suitable quality to play against these teams. Players like Chadli, Carroll etc. are on the fringe and if Pochettino can't see them playing anywhere near the level required against teams like Dortmund then it might have been a worthwhile sacrifice as he will know he needs to improve the squad next season
 

Sir Henry

Facts > Feelings
Aug 18, 2008
2,706
2,817
That's another thing, say we play Barca in the CL next year, I take it we'll play a B team due to having a huge tie against Villa (if not relegated) at the weekend ?
 

johnny69

Active Member
Mar 13, 2006
408
240
Just glad that I didn't buy a ticket for the home leg can't see us even trying to win the tie

just hope it's not as embarrassing as last night and I'm sure Dortmund will field a weaker team
 

bigfrooj

Well-Known Member
Nov 11, 2011
2,797
8,133
I love Pochettino and its been a fantastic season but this game has left a bitter taste. Doesnt stop me of dreaming of winning the tie still - because thats what Spurs fans do!
 

Vulcan10

Well-Known Member
Aug 20, 2013
844
1,020
I cannot believe there are people defending this team selection. The first thing I did last night was text my mate who travelled and expressed my disgust - going to all that trouble and expense for that?
Like the man said you don't take a knife to a gunfight.

Just to play devils advocate, do you not go to away european matches to support the club, have an enjoyable couple of days away & a few beers with your mates etc? Not just for the result.
Poch would have picked the team with the best interests of the club and the players needs in mind. He can't continue to flog the players just because (our excellent) away fans have travelled.
I agree, if he was going to take it easy now it would have been better to rest them for the Fiorentina home game with West Ham & Arsenal in mind but I'm trusting that he had his reasons and we will enjoy the benefits in the long run.
 

Locotoro

Prince of Zamunda
Sep 2, 2004
9,328
13,927
A number of people, including myself ,were critical of Poch playing too strong a side pre-Christmas against sides where there was no need. Rotation needs to start early as fatigue is cumulative throughout the season.

However at the time a n umber of other posters were adamant that we must always play 'our best players'. Strangely they don't seem to have learned from the Wham and Arsenal showings that there was an issue which is why Poch started the team he did against Dortmund,

Can't do anything this season, but lets hope Poch does learn for next season.

Incidentally it was a point that people made when Poch was appointed that Southampton had exhibited 'burnout' under him at a similar stage of the season.....so Poch is still relatively inexperienced to manage a team at this level, but he needs to learn not to play the likes of Kane against Colchester or some of the EL group ties, so as to have better rested players at this time of the season. That in turn will mean that Poch needs to play the likes of Onomah and Winks more which will aid their development which has a long term benefit

I'm not sure I agree with the idea that we are starting to burnout. There was a recent article in an online newspaper where it indicated that our average distance covered seems to be increasing on a game by game basis. That means we are covering more ground now than we were a few months ago. So it doesn't make sense to say we are burning out.

I would suggest that our performance at both West Ham and Dortmund were more to do with a) having a bad day at the office/form and b) (in Dortmund's case) the quality of the opposition.

If you consider that our form has been highly impressive there was always going to be an instance where we couldn't maintain form and dropped points. Even Real and Barca will drop points from time to time.
 

EQP

EQP
Sep 1, 2013
7,960
29,661
A number of people, including myself ,were critical of Poch playing too strong a side pre-Christmas against sides where there was no need. Rotation needs to start early as fatigue is cumulative throughout the season.

However at the time a n umber of other posters were adamant that we must always play 'our best players'. Strangely they don't seem to have learned from the Wham and Arsenal showings that there was an issue which is why Poch started the team he did against Dortmund,

Can't do anything this season, but lets hope Poch does learn for next season.

Incidentally it was a point that people made when Poch was appointed that Southampton had exhibited 'burnout' under him at a similar stage of the season.....so Poch is still relatively inexperienced to manage a team at this level, but he needs to learn not to play the likes of Kane against Colchester or some of the EL group ties, so as to have better rested players at this time of the season. That in turn will mean that Poch needs to play the likes of Onomah and Winks more which will aid their development which has a long term benefit


Yup, fatigue is accumulated. Dortmund are a great team but reason they looked so fresh is due to the winter break In Germany.
 

Borks

Well-Known Member
Jun 22, 2014
1,524
3,300
Didn't we win 3-0 in the first leg against Inter a few years back and then end up shitting ourselves in the replay? I'm not saying I expect it to be a close tie, but if Dortmund rest a number of their big-hitters we've got a sniff of a chance.

It's a European night and it's White Hart Lane. Leicester are 5 points clear at the top of the PL... all I'm saying is stranger things have happened!

On the way to the Madrid home leg I was thinking to myself that a couple of early goals and anything could happen! I would love it if we could score early vs Dortmund, you just never know what could happen but obviously it's highly unlikely we'll play anyone other than the reserves.
 

Mullers

Unknown member
Jan 4, 2006
25,914
16,413
Yeah but you'd surely rather take a knife than a gun with no bullets.

If people just want us to play our strongest team again and again then fair enough that's your opinion. But in this day and age it's a daft opinion and one that would lead us to eventually fail on all fronts.

The main thing last night highlighted was our lack of depth in certain key areas (central midfield and striker most notably) but taking any other conclusions from it seems to be to be actively looking for negatives in a season full of positives.
Well we havent played our strongest teams in the cups and we are left with one front left as it is extremely unlikely we will turnover a 3-0 deficit. As the game changed so much from the time Jol got us 5th, Fa cup quarter final, league cup semi final and Uefa cup quarter finals on a squad that is not better than the one we have now? I dont think it has. I wish we would just try for once to play our strongest teams in the cups and see where it takes us, you never know we might win something.
 

philip

Well-Known Member
Jan 4, 2009
1,347
2,490
It's very simple. Pochettino has a whole organised system which tells how fit or tired players are.

If the first team players are too tired to play and we'll risk injuries, we can't play them.
Otherwise we end up like ManU or Arsenal with key players missing significant parts of the season.
 
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