Team v Fiorentina

[carpediem991]

For the first leg nearly strongest side imo. But would give Fazio a go to control Gomez and Davies and Chadli a start.

-------------------------------Lloris------------------------------------
Walker--------Fazio---------------------Verts------------Davies---
----------------------Mason----------Bentaleb-----------------------
-----Lamela-----------------Dembele-------------------chadli------
----------------------------------Kane---------------------------------

Subs: Vorm, Rose, Dier, Stambouli, Townsend, Eriksen, Soldado

Save Eriksen for final 30 minutes and West Ham I'd say with a look to Wembley soon. Lamela knows how to play against italian sides and Dembele is on form at the moment.

 

[DEFchenkOE]

Eriksen has to start for me, even if he was quiet against pool.

 

[Teddy Klinsmann]

Would be tempted to keep some powder dry for West Ham game.

I'd rest Eriksen and Lamela with Townsend and Chadli coming in.

Fazio for Vertonghen, Stambuli for Bentaleb and Vorm for Lloris.

 

[eddiev14]

Lloris

Chiriches - Fazio - Verts - Davies

Stambouli - Capoue

Townsend - Lamela - Chadli

Soldado​

 

[Snarfalicious]

I'd go with our best XI here. We really need to go into the match thinking we desperately need a couple goal cushion so we can rest some players ahead of the 2nd leg in preparation for Chelsea in the C.O.C. Final.

 

[nightgoat]

I'd go with our best XI here. We really need to go into the match thinking we desperately need a couple goal cushion so we can rest some players ahead of the 2nd leg in preparation for Chelsea in the C.O.C. Final.

This. We don't have a game for eight days so there's plenty of time to get everyone rested. We need to blitz Fiorentina in the first leg so we can go to the second leg in a position where we can start Kane and Eriksen on the bench and only bring them on if desperate.

 

[Spursidol]

Fiorentina (H) EL - Thursday 19th
West Ham (H) PL - Sunday 22nd
Fiorentina (A) EL - Thursday 26th
Chelsea - Wembley Final - Sunday March 1
Swansea ((H) PL - Wednesday 4th

Possibly a set of matches which if we get it wrong, we need to choose between EL and PL and a cup !

As others have said we need to try to get as big a lead as possible in the home match against Fiorentina, so that we can rest players in the away leg in preparation for the Wembley final. And if we don;t get the goals it may well be that we bow out of EL.

But unless we rest players in the second leg, its going to be tough at Wembley just a few days later.

I also see a strong team at West Ham too - no point in not trying to take all 3 points against West Hame as well to maintain whatever PL challenge we think we are into.

Our strongest team at the moment must be from :

Lloris
Walker, Dier/Fazio, Vertonghen, Rose/Davies
Mason, Bentelab
Lamela/Townsend, 2 from Dembele, Eriksen and Chadli
Kane
​

So I'd imagine these are the players who will play against Fiorentina (first leg) and West Ham - the only other possibility is Stambouli. And the same squad for the Cup Final.

The more interesting question is going to be which other players get used in the 2nd leg of the Fiorentina game, Vorm, Soldado and/or Adebayor, Paulhino probably, Chiriches but Kaboul and Capoue ? Not sure that any of our youngsters not on loan are experienced enough to start in the EL, and Yedlin is not eligible.

 

[rocklink]

Lloris

Chiriches - fazio - dier - davies
stambouli - dembele
townsend - lamela - chadli
kane

 

[amardilo]

I think some player may have to be rested (not that I'd want to rest them just that we might need some fresher players out there)

GK - Lloris
LB - Davies
CB - Vertonghen
CB - Dier
RB - Walker
CM - Stambouli
CM - Dembele
AM - Chadli
AM - Lamela
AM - Townsend
SK - Kane

Subs - Vorm, Fazio, Rose, Bentaleb, Eriksen, Soldado & Adebayor

 

[sweyid]

I think playing Townsend and Rose will benefit us. Their speed should present Fiorentina with some real problems.

I'd put Stambouli and Dembele in the middle of the park.

Hugo
Walker - Fazio - Vertonghen - Rose
Dembele - Stambouli
Townsend - Lamela - Chadli
Kane​

 

[Mr Pink]

I'm not Townsend's biggest fan but I'd play him in this, and its not just to do with changing things with West Ham in mind.

I've watched Fiorentina three/four times over the last few weeks and they leave loads of space for pacy attackers to exploit in the channels. I'm sure they'll come with a game plan to WHL though but they havn't impressed me whatsoever.They play at a very slow rate and it was only when they brought Salah (ex Chelsea) on, in their game at the weekend, did their attacking play speed up.

Agree with the OP, sling in Fazio to handle Gomez.

So I'd go:

Lloris

Walker
Fazio
Vertongen
Rose

Stambouli
Mason

Townsend
Lamela
Eriksen

Kane

Subs: Vorm, Dier, Davies, Bentaleb, Dembele, Chadli, Soldado

Lamela linked well with Kane last night and I'd like to see him in those central areas more often. We'll need Eriksen starting this as we have to get a good win IMO, with the away game being three days before the CC final.

Bentaleb, Dembele and Chadli fresh for West Ham.

 

[HotspurFC1950]

Rest all players this weekend.

 

[tttcowan]

It's that time of the year again when it's time to send the kids away to get hammered in the EL it would seem. With the cup final on the Sunday and only a 2 day rest period after Fiorentina it's an impossible balancing act. Something has to give and obviously the thing to give is not cup final.

Such a shame really but what else can we do? This is perpetually the problem with EL. Christ, we looked shattered yesterday and that was only a trip up to Liverpool with 2 days rest. It's cost us CL before and I think it will again this year. The only option is clear prioritising with the EL which the fans don't like.

 

[Blackcanary]

It's that time of the year again when it's time to send the kids away to get hammered in the EL it would seem. With the cup final on the Sunday and only a 2 day rest period after Fiorentina it's an impossible balancing act. Something has to give and obviously the thing to give is not cup final.

Such a shame really but what else can we do? This is perpetually the problem with EL. Christ, we looked shattered yesterday and that was only a trip up to Liverpool with 2 days rest. It's cost us CL before and I think it will again this year. The only option is clear prioritising with the EL which the fans don't like.

But surely the opportunity to get a CL spot through the Europa changes things now?

 

[tttcowan]

But surely the opportunity to get a CL spot through the Europa changes things now?

It's certainly easier to get top 4 than win the EL... I don't think any English team has cracked the EL PL balance yet. Certainly spurs haven't. And I'm not sure there is an answer to be honest, the PL is just too competive. And now we're faced with a cup final against Chelsea 2 days after an away game in Italy??? If the EL was on Tuesday/Wednesdays it would be different, but it's just not enough time to prep for any game let alone a cup final...

... The only option, yet again, is send the kids out to get hammered. I just don't see the point in being in it as something like this always seems to happen.

 

[Blackcanary]

It's certainly easier to get top 4 than win the EL... I don't think any English team has cracked the EL PL balance yet. Certainly spurs haven't. And I'm not sure there is an answer to be honest, the PL is just too competive. And now we're faced with a cup final against Chelsea 2 days after an away game in Italy??? If the EL was on Tuesday/Wednesdays it would be different, but it's just not enough time to prep for any game let alone a cup final...

... The only option, yet again, is send the kids out to get hammered. I just don't see the point in being in it as something like this always seems to happen.

See, as far as i'm concerned, the chance to win a big shiny trophy AND get a CL place is too good to pass up on. Win across 4 2-legged matches (do-able) and you're in the final. There's nobody absolutely insurmountable in there for us to face. Given how competitive the top 4 race is this year, i'm almost tempted to say it WOULD be easier to win the EL - its certainly not the same attritional slog of the league and we're less likely to face smaller bus-parking teams.

 

[talkshowhost86]

I think we've got to assume that Fiorentina are the better team than West Ham and so we go with the first team against Fiorentina and then rest anyone who isn't fully fit for the West Ham game.

So for Fiorentina I'd go:

Lloris

Walker Fazio Vertonghen Davies

Stambouli Bentaleb

Lamela Dembele Eriksen

Kane

Subs: Vorm, Dier, Rose, Mason, Townsend, Soldado, Chadli
​

Fazio to help deal with Gomez, and Davies because Rose looked very shaky again last night. Stambouli in for Mason to provide us with a bit of grit in the middle, and Lamela to keep his place as he looked okay last night.

​

 

[Flobadob]

Vorm

Chiriches
Fazio
Vertonghen
Davies

Stambouli
Bentaleb

Townsend
Eriksen
Chadli

Soldado

We need a lot of rotation to get through the next 2-3 weeks of football i think people! Chiriches can do a job at RB, Fazio comes in to take care of Gomez' aerial threat, Vertonghen stays put cause he's awesome, Davies can handle LB now the pace of Cuadrado is in West London, Stambouli and Bentaleb control the midfield, Eriksen pulls the strings with Soldado making runs behind and with the pacy options of Townsend and Chadli on the wings. That's my team. Not the ideal starting 11, but bare in mind we have West Ham 3 days later so we will need to rotate a fair bit. Looking forward to all this football coming up, it's a real indicator of the success we've had so far under Poch so lets hope we keep moving forward!

 

[Jimmypearce7]

Don't mind too much for first leg but no one playing in the final should even travel to Italy for the second.

 

[thinktank]

Lloris

Walker Dier Verts Rose

Mason Bentaleb

Lamela Dembele Eriksen

Kane
​

We need to go for it and kill this tie at the lane.