Tottenham vs Rubin Kazan: Match Thread

[sunnydelight786]

Just got in from the game. I took my lil one, 5 year old, to her first match today. Ok it was not the best of performances but we won against a very useful side with a shadow team out, my daughter loved every minute of it and best of all no one was swearing where we were sitting. Happy days and well chuffed she managed to see us win on her first visit!!!

 

[sunnydelight786]

To be honest, Gomes has only himself to blame. In the second half of last season the errors really did begin to mount up, and I'd guess the Blackpool game was almost certainly the last straw as far as Harry was concerned.
He is the best keeper I've seen at Spurs since Big Pat, but, to paraphrase Clive James' description of Murray Walker, even in his calmer moments he keeps goal like his pants are on fire. Tonight he turned in a great show, but even so there were moments when you felt a monumental fuck-up was only a moment away. You may not get the saves few other keepers are capable of with Friedel, but they're the icing on the cake; what you don't get are the WTF? moments. Even if they don't result in a goal, they can't do a whole lot for the defenders' confidence. I wonder who our prefer?

But why are we carping over keepers? We kicked off with just one certain starter if the whole squad is fit and held out against a seriously good ball-playing side. A great night's work. If we can't be proud of this something's got to be wrong.

100% agree with this. We have done very well to beat Rubin with a shadow team, they aint no mugs and showed that for periods during that game. Their movement was top notch. Enjoyed watching them play if I'm honest. Well done the shirts for pulling off that result!!!

 

[Piaki]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GB1YUqhP76g

 

[jonnyrotten]

Good work on the sex pistols quotes. My indie (hah, surprising eh!) gig went well and I just got home to find out we won

 

[mattdefoe]

gomes lol Really silly comments about friedal, he is the reason I dont shit myself from corners,free kicks or general shots at goal anymore.

 

[cabinfever]

gomes lol Really silly comments about friedal, he is the reason I dont shit myself from corners,free kicks or general shots at goal anymore.

Exactly!

 

[Teegart]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/15285221.stm

Don't know if anyones seen this before, but look at the name of the person who wrote the match report of last nights game for the bbc. Couldn't be more fitting!!

 

[Hoddle_Ledge]

As Pav was shaping up to take the free kick my exact words half directed to my girlfriend were probably similar to many Spurs fans:

"Come on Pav you f*ing lazy donkey wake up and do something, watch this it’s going to go about 30ft over the bar, just watch……..goal…......well... it's only 'cos he's playing against a Russian team and actually trying this time".

 

[cwy21]

Just an FYI, Spurs will go through to the knockout stages with a win next Thursday since they'll be six points up on 3rd place Rubin Kazan and head to head is tiebreaker.

 

[hughy]

Just an FYI, Spurs will go through to the knockout stages with a win next Thursday since they'll be six points up on 3rd place Rubin Kazan and head to head is tiebreaker.

Might be worth playing a slightly stronger team just to get the 3 points in that case. I'm not saying like King, Adebayor and Modric, but maybe the likes of Sandro, Bale and hopefully Gallas alongside Kaboul.

Then we can give the kids a good run-out in our last 2 games.

 

[sloth]

Might be worth playing a slightly stronger team just to get the 3 points in that case. I'm not saying like King, Adebayor and Modric, but maybe the likes of Sandro, Bale and hopefully Gallas alongside Kaboul.

Then we can give the kids a good run-out in our last 2 games.

I think the opposite, we can afford to lose and still go through comfortably with PAOK at home and Shamrock away.

I don't want a single first teamer travelling to Russia for this, send all the youth if necessary and take it on the chin if we get hammered.

This is the reason Harry risked some first-teamers against them in the home leg, he knew if we could win that it wouldn't matter if we lost this one.

 

[steve]

I think the opposite, we can afford to lose and still go through comfortably with PAOK at home and Shamrock away.

I don't want a single first teamer travelling to Russia for this, send all the youth if necessary and take it on the chin if we get hammered.

This is the reason Harry risked some first-teamers against them in the home leg, he knew if we could win that it wouldn't matter if we lost this one.

Agreed. Why send them on this journey? Sew it up here and in Dublin, no need for this trip to fatigue our first team when the Prem is all important

 

[mpickard2087]

I think the opposite, we can afford to lose and still go through comfortably with PAOK at home and Shamrock away.

I don't want a single first teamer travelling to Russia for this, send all the youth if necessary and take it on the chin if we get hammered.

This is the reason Harry risked some first-teamers against them in the home leg, he knew if we could win that it wouldn't matter if we lost this one.

This, said earlier in the season that providing we had got the results early on this is the game that we can kind of afford to 'throw' in a way. I dont want to see any of our Premier League squad travel bar say a keeper, Livermore and Dos Santos. The rest should be the youths.

 

[felmani26]

I think the opposite, we can afford to lose and still go through comfortably with PAOK at home and Shamrock away.

I don't want a single first teamer travelling to Russia for this, send all the youth if necessary and take it on the chin if we get hammered.

This is the reason Harry risked some first-teamers against them in the home leg, he knew if we could win that it wouldn't matter if we lost this one.

Absolutely! This is my reasoning for playing our strongest 11 against QPR, including King if deemed 'fit' as Bassong will likely start out in Russia and be one of our 'senior' contingent.

 

[SpurSince57]

Might be worth playing a slightly stronger team just to get the 3 points in that case. I'm not saying like King, Adebayor and Modric, but maybe the likes of Sandro, Bale and hopefully Gallas alongside Kaboul.

Then we can give the kids a good run-out in our last 2 games.

Sorry, this is madness.

With the possible exception of Dinamo Tbilisi back in '73 or '74, Kazan is the furthest a Spurs side has ever travelled for a European tie. Any team member who goes there is going to be completely knackered for the Fulham game.

We can afford to lose, and if we can't pick up six points against PAOK and Rovers we might as well pack up the project now.

 

[StartingPrice]

Sorry, this is madness.

With the possible exception of Dinamo Tbilisi back in '73 or '74, Kazan is the furthest a Spurs side has ever travelled for a European tie. Any team member who goes there is going to be completely knackered for the Fulham game.

We can afford to lose, and if we can't pick up six points against PAOK and Rovers we might as well pack up the project now.

I have to agree with this...we want to be taking full advantage of our relatively light schedule, not givenhalf of our first team travel fatigue :grin:

 

[Spursidol]

After Rubin Kazan we have an away Premiership game against Fulham where we want to collect points, and then we have a 2 week international break.

Long term injuries are Vedran Corluka (foot), Niko Kranjcar (thigh), Michael Dawson (Achilles) and Tom Huddlestone (ankle) whilst Steven Pienaar (groin), William Gallas (calf), Sandro (calf) and Ledley King (groin) could all be available. However Gallas has not trained every day this last week so may not be entirely fit, whilst Ledley - who knows until the day.

Given that injury position I cannot see Harry taking too many chances with players in crucual positions, such as Centre Back away against Rubin Kazan (I think its a mimimum 6 hour flight each way - plus a 3 or 4 hour time difference to contend with) and we are thin on the ground in some other positions.

The squad for both QPR and Fulham is likely to be from :​

Friedel/Gomes
Walker Kaboul Bassong/King/Gallas Ekotto
(4 from) Lennon Parker, Sandro, Modric Bale
VDV/Defoe/Pav
Adebayor​

This was the squad away against PAOK :

Cudicini; Walker, Bassong, Corluka, Townsend; Falque (Fredericks, 82), Carroll, Livermore, Giovani (Parrett, 90); Kane; Pavlyuchenko. Unused subs: Gomes, Barthram, Nicholson, Stewart, Pritchard.

and imo Harry will choose a side similar in experiemce to the squad against PAOK, possibly repeating Livermore/Bassong in centre back unless he is convinced of Gallas recovery in which case Gallas might be played with Bassond to strengthen the centre. Additionally Sandro may be in centre midfield to help deal with the pressure Spurs will be under in Russia. Otherwise I expect more of the kids with Pav as the main striker.

 

[boxbat]

Agree with most of the above. Harry says he wants to send a very young team out, but there's only so many kids he can play, seeing as none of them are defenders.

Cudicini and Bassong probably wouldn't make the bench v Fulham anyway, Pav has to play in Russia, and it would be good to give Pienaar this one if he's fit. The likes of Livermore Rose and Gio aren't PL starters either and should play in my view, which only leaves about 4 places for Carroll, Kane, Townsend, and whoever else (Fredericks? Luongo?).

I think the bench will be much weaker this time round though, possibly one or two completely new names.

The main difference to previous games will probably be that he leaves Walker and maybe Kaboul at home, and plugs these round holes with square pegs.

If this team could manage a PAOK style stalemate or sneak a win that would be a mighty impressive feat - though a 2 goal loss would mean we have to hope, realistically, that Rubin slip up in Greece to give us a chance of topping the group.

EDIT: forgot about Falque, who in relative terms is one of the more experienced players. We're not going to field 11 teenagers, basically...

 

[beats1]

and imo Harry will choose a side similar in experiemce to the squad against PAOK, possibly repeating Livermore/Bassong in centre back unless he is convinced of Gallas recovery in which case Gallas might be played with Bassond to strengthen the centre. Additionally Sandro may be in centre midfield to help deal with the pressure Spurs will be under in Russia. Otherwise I expect more of the kids with Pav as the main striker.

I think this will be the team

Gomes
Walker Gallas Bassong Rose
Sandro
Livermore Carroll
GDS------------------Lennon
Adebayor​

I think corluka if fit may come in for walker and whoever is fit will play in gallas position if he isn't fit, if sandro play tomorrow i expect and townsend to come in and GDS in the middle of a 4-2-3-1, or if lennon plays on today then townsend for lennon

 

[Luka Van der Bale]

I think this will be the team

Gomes
Walker Gallas Bassong Rose
Sandro
Livermore Carroll
GDS------------------Lennon
Adebayor​

I think corluka if fit may come in for walker and whoever is fit will play in gallas position if he isn't fit, if sandro play tomorrow i expect and townsend to come in and GDS in the middle of a 4-2-3-1, or if lennon plays on today then townsend for lennon

Adebayor?! Are you mad?