Team vs Stoke (away)

[Matthew Wyatt]

These threads are weird and just make me think of a bunch of kids playing one of those football video games. Also on a par "with what would win out of a lion and a tiger?". Still, all good clean fun.

 

[tototoner]

Defoe tweeted last night he had travelled

 

[archiewasking]

Opened this thread thinking "how can we still debate the team?", and in fairness still don't think we can. VDV should start ahead of Defoe. We need our pacy wingers in Lennon/Bale so no room for Sandro for one of them. And we should stick with Parker/Modric in the middle.

Still, it's a slight concern how we've coped (or not) with being put under pressure away from home (thinking WBA, Fulham) and I'm still not 100 % comfortable with Parker/Modric away from home. Nonetheless, this is the only team I can see starting and the only team that should start so end of the day fairly undebatable.

Btw, dunno if you guys get Aljazeera Sport in the UK, but Tim Sherwood's a regular on The Global Game on Fridays; this week he said that "every team that wants to be a champion needs to rotate their first 11 - which is a shame considering we always name the same 11". He then went on to name all the right reasons - keeping players happy and sharp, getting everyone used to the system, giving players rest etc. - for rotating. Seems the staff clearly recognize the need for it but they just can't find a way of doing it (or maybe Harry refuses)...

VDV is a far better player than Defoe, but Defoe has been scoring since he got in. I think he needs to start for that fact alone; if you are paid to do a job, come in and do it and then get dumped despite that, why on earth should you either stick around or even bother trying to do your best if it makes no difference to your prospects? And VDV as an impact sub, with his guile and nous (and slightly dodgy hamstring) would be fine. Defoe's pace against a not very quick defence would also be useful.

 

[Spurvert]

Big game today! A win is massive! We have a good record there so let's go and get a win!!!

COYS

 

[AJW]

I just feel that Defoe makes the ideal super sub. Not sure VDV would have the same imapct coming from the bench

 

[WhiteHart4Ever]

VDV is a far better player than Defoe, but Defoe has been scoring since he got in. I think he needs to start for that fact alone; if you are paid to do a job, come in and do it and then get dumped despite that, why on earth should you either stick around or even bother trying to do your best if it makes no difference to your prospects? And VDV as an impact sub, with his guile and nous (and slightly dodgy hamstring) would be fine. Defoe's pace against a not very quick defence would also be useful.

True, but VDV has been scoring goals as well - Harry's got no reason to drop him either. At the end of the day think he's link-up play will be vital to ensure we play our passing game and don't start doing long balls or whatnot because we're forced to it by Stoke.

Also: Defoe isn't THAT quick and with Ade, Bale, Lennon and Walker there's plenty of pace in the side.

 

[AngerManagement]

These threads are weird and just make me think of a bunch of kids playing one of those football video games. Also on a par "with what would win out of a lion and a tiger?". Still, all good clean fun.

Tiger

 

[JJetset]

All players are fit to play except for King who isn't and didn't travel.

Should be a tight game with the weather suiting them and a draw isn't a bad result.

 

[sidford]

Tiger

Lion

 

[WhiteHart4Ever]

Lion

Parker

 

[There's always next year]

Defoe is defo with the team as I have seen a post on Twitter saying he is with the lads in a hotel in Stoke.

Stoke's not renowned for 5* hotels. I think the best hotel in the area is the Day Inn at Keele Service Station.

 

[bananafish]

We're cut apart too easily in away games with just Parker and Luka in the middle, and Stoke will sit back and wait to counter so we need a sitting DM to break them. So:

Back Four (King <-> Gallas or whoever's fit)
Lennon---Parker---Sandro---Modric
----------VdV--------------------
------------Adebayor--------------

Bale and Defoe to come on if we go ahead. They won't get any space while the score's still 0-0, so we need clever technicians like Luka and VdV to unravel Stoke first.

Crouch had better not score! :evil: (Palacios btw is not getting games because his knee injury is chronic and long-term. Yes, we sold them a dud for 8m.)

COYS!

 

[CosmicHotspur]

After yesterday's results, a win today is essential and could make a huge difference to our final position in the table. The Gooners are making up ground as are Liverpool and Chelsea and they aren't that far behind us.

We need to win that game in hand against Everton too.

It could be a nail-biting game today. We have to drop some points some time - it's the law of averages. As long as some of those on our heels do as well, we can still aim for a top three finish.

 

[sloth]

VDV is a far better player than Defoe, but Defoe has been scoring since he got in. I think he needs to start for that fact alone; if you are paid to do a job, come in and do it and then get dumped despite that, why on earth should you either stick around or even bother trying to do your best if it makes no difference to your prospects? And VDV as an impact sub, with his guile and nous (and slightly dodgy hamstring) would be fine. Defoe's pace against a not very quick defence would also be useful.

You'd be correct if the only measure of a striker's worth was goals.

Of course goals are the main one (perhaps 60% of what's important), but if two strikers are scoring with the same regularity then you look to that other 40%.

You would have it that in fact the importance of morale and the message sent out to the team of rewarding good performance is more valuable than the over all contribution to the team, and I think you'd be right, if the call was seriously a close one. And if the morale distinction you find important couldn't equally be applied to both players.

But first to the quality. If we try a little experiment and score them for goal-scoring out of six and all round play out of four, then we should get a nice mark out of ten for over all value to the team.

This season imo they both get 5 out of 6 for goal-scoring, but for all-round play VdV gets 3.5 out of 4 whereas Defoe only gets 2 out of four.

This means that VdV scores a grand-total of 8.5 out of 10, and Defoe 7/10

The only other measure is what they bring out of the rest of the team in terms of the way the rest of the team plays with them on the pitch. On this I'd score them fairly equally too.

In short VdV brings far more to the team than does Defoe, for all that Defoe's game has risen several notches since last year.

On the morale issue, even if they were scored equal, your reasoning applies as much to VdV as to Defoe. VdV has been on fire, he missed a game due to injury but he does not "deserve" to be dropped and it sends out the wrong signal if he is.

But all of that aside, my own view is that we need to rotate the squad based on our opponents strengths and weakenesses and in the interest of what Sherwood is saying in WhiteHart4Ever's post:

... Tim Sherwood's a regular on The Global Game on Fridays; this week he said that "every team that wants to be a champion needs to rotate their first 11 - which is a shame considering we always name the same 11". He then went on to name all the right reasons - keeping players happy and sharp, getting everyone used to the system, giving players rest etc. - for rotating...

 

[MR_BEN]

Crouch had better not score! :evil: (Palacios btw is not getting games because his knee injury is chronic and long-term. Yes, we sold them a dud for 8m.)

COYS!

Lol. He was a dud even with good knees. Would have suited their style though. Shame for the lad mind you.

 

[gibbospurs]

All players are fit to play except for King who isn't and didn't travel.

Should be a tight game with the weather suiting them and a draw isn't a bad result.

Good news!! Regarding injuries. Really need a win tho, My next door neighbour is a stoke fan.

 

[Hot-Spur]

We're cut apart too easily in away games with just Parker and Luka in the middle, and Stoke will sit back and wait to counter so we need a sitting DM to break them. So:

Back Four (King <-> Gallas or whoever's fit)
Lennon---Parker---Sandro---Modric
----------VdV--------------------
------------Adebayor--------------

Bale and Defoe to come on if we go ahead. They won't get any space while the score's still 0-0, so we need clever technicians like Luka and VdV to unravel Stoke first.

Crouch had better not score! :evil: (Palacios btw is not getting games because his knee injury is chronic and long-term. Yes, we sold them a dud for 8m.)

COYS!

Its always a worry facing a ex player, would be typical of him to score today and then go on a 30 game scoreless run :roll:

 

[thenickh]

Good news!! Regarding injuries. Really need a win tho, My next door neighbour is a stoke fan.

haha, I live in Stafford, so I'm surrounded by stokies! Thankfully there's a good spurs contingent here though! The pub later may be interesting though...

 

[walworthyid]

After yesterday's results, a win today is essential and could make a huge difference to our final position in the table. The Gooners are making up ground as are Liverpool and Chelsea and they aren't that far behind us.

We need to win that game in hand against Everton too.

It could be a nail-biting game today. We have to drop some points some time - it's the law of averages. As long as some of those on our heels do as well, we can still aim for a top three finish.

I agree! This is the pressure that comes with being in the title race. You have to win and every game is crucial. Arsenal in particular are looking ominous and they will take great heart from us losing or even drawing. We haven't won that game in hand yet and they could be level or even ahead of us by the end of the next round of games should the unthinkable happen today.

We must win, this is the biggest game of the season so far, until next week at least................................

 

[SugarRay]

A win today isn't essential. Our season won't implode if we fail to take 3 points.
Happy with a point to keep the unbeaten run going