Tottenham Vs Tromso: Match Thread

[Basil Brush]

Eriksen's goal...

Spoiler

That's awesome. I actually thought one of the weakest parts of his game was his shooting.

Shows how little I have seen of him, or possibly just how little I actually know.

 

[spurs9]

With regards to the arrogance, its not - well not with me anyway. I think at the end of the day its because its a second rate tournament. Yes we'd all still love to win it, of course, but when you see the failures of the Champions League just dropping into it, well it really does the tournament such a disservice. And its a slog of a tournament playing teams from God knows where.

There is always that undercurrent to it, like its not treated and respected that seriously. Kudos to AVB for taking it seriously, but I'm of the opinion that playing weaker sides now and protecting key assets would probably give you a better chance of winning it in the latter stages, if you can navigate the group stages with minimal resources, by being able to combine the League and cup games more effectively in tandem with a fresher and fitter squad on the whole.

When I say weaker sides, I suppose I'm not talking huge differences to what we saw tonight - just more airing on the side of caution against sides like that, who we should be beating with a considerably weaker side than we see in the League every week.

Yes injuries can strike at anytime, but this competition seems to bear a fair few of them.

Maybe AVB is planning to to play strong sides in the home games and send off teams that aren't in his plans for the following league games for the away games (with the amount of travel involved). If we can win every home game (Anzhi should be the only challenge at home) then we probably only need a draw in one of the 3 away games to qualify and it means that we are taking the EL seriously and 3 out of the 6 games our team that is playing in the league will be fully rested.

 

[sim0n]

all competitions so far this season 7 games: 6W, 1L, 15 goals scored, and only 1 goal conceded...

We all understand that Spurs have some fortune in the EUROPA draw so far, but enjoy the moment all,... COYS!!!

 

[Dazza86]

First of all thank you! Somebody disagreeing, but doing so in a respectful way. Not that common on here these days.

To be honest mate, I would say the fact that we are a Club very much on the up, have been in and around the top 4 for the last four years, have a state of the art training facilities, ditto with plans for new stadium, and of course decent wages on offer are continuing to help us attract fantastic quality. The Levy, AVB and Baldini affect is also a very efficient means of attracting top talent. Also our relatively recent excursions in the Champions League, beating the holders etc, will have attracted a lot more attention that bowing out to Basel on penalties. That attention has built our image of a Club, that's when more people started to take notice.

I understand and respect what AVB is trying to do here. Its not that I'm against it by the way, its just I wish we could of planned to take the group stages of this competition slightly less seriously. In other words, of course we try to progress but at this stage the League, IMHO, should definitely be the priority. If we progress, using a group of players who should be good enough to do so anyway, then we could alter the team and enhance the quality of it as we advance in the competition.

Thus the overall toll on that first 15/16 group of players is reduced, allowing us to combat the rigours of the League and knock out phases of the Europa League more effectively in tandem.

Just my opinion mate, not saying its right at all - but its definitely my take on it. Its too gruelling a competition to play too many first teamers right through out it.

This I agree with a lot more.

I mentioned in my post that we could be including youngsters more at this stage, with first team squad players, which would still likely see us win and not risk our league players. I do whole heartedly agree that the league (and CL qualification) should be the priority.

The reason I posted was that I saw a lot of people agreeing that the Europa was pointless but I'm sure everyone inside the club would disagree. We at a minimum need to be in this thing, which year on year strengthens our brand globally and let's us attract people like Baldini, Eriksen, etc. if we didn't qualify for a few years, we'd certainly see the effects and then all be screaming for qualification again.

It is also a competition I really like in the final stages. Playing Inter last year and demolishing them was great! I was also nervous the days leading up to the Basel games - I love that. I don't feel that at this stage, which makes the injuries hard to take but it's still more than I feel these days watching England.

 

[Wardy]

Here's a question.... who's first goal for the senior team's was better - Holtby or Eriksen?

 

[Wardy]

Also worth mentioning I lobbed bets on before the game:

Special: Defoe to score first and Spurs 3 or 4-0
Defoe to score a brace
Spurs not to conceed
2.5 Goals
Spurs to win

Winner!

 

[Huddlestone22]

Also worth mentioning I lobbed bets on before the game:

Special: Defoe to score first and Spurs 3 or 4-0
Defoe to score a brace
Spurs not to conceed
2.5 Goals
Spurs to win

Winner!

Nice, how much do you bet mate?

 

[Spurger King]

Also worth mentioning I lobbed bets on before the game:

Special: Defoe to score first and Spurs 3 or 4-0
Defoe to score a brace
Spurs not to conceed
2.5 Goals
Spurs to win

Winner!

How is that worth mentioning?

 

[Yid-ol]

Here's a question.... who's first goal for the senior team's was better - Holtby or Eriksen?

Why the need to compare? Both were good goals.

 

[Wardy]

Nice, how much do you bet mate?

wasn't much mate, about £10 in total, so returned about £65. Was just more impressed they all came in

How is that worth mentioning?

Thought it was impressive. Sure didn't bet much, but all of them came in

Why the need to compare? Both were good goals.

Purely out of interest as they were both decent

 

[RogerTCB]

Holtby vs Eriksen - there's at least a discussion to be had.

Really? Wouldn't it be rather brief?

 

[Gassin's finest]

Eriksen is sexual...

 

[Colston]

If you get to the final of both there is only 2 less games in the champions league (from the group stage to the final). Like you say the quality is higher, so it is even harder to cope with juggling the CL and challenging for the top 4 and the financial rewards don't stop our players from getting tired or injured.

If we cant cope with the EL & a top 4 challenge we will find it even harder challenging for the top 4 when we are in the CL.

Spot on. The challenge isn't to get a CL spot, it is to keep it.

Even more so when we know that there is simply no way in hell we'd even be considered underdogs without increasing the overall quality of our squad over several seasons.

 

[Kendall]

Here's a question.... who's first goal for the senior team's was better - Holtby or Eriksen?

Eriksen. That effortless bend and dip was something else. Lewis' goal was great, but a lot of people could've put their laces through it like that - not many people could pull off what Eriksen did and you got the feeling he executed exactly what he wanted to do.

 

[Colston]

I've just come away from watching Spurs win 3-0 in Europe. Playing composed, assured football. I then come on my here to revel and celebrate and am absolutely shocked by some people on here.

Those saying who cares, fotget the EL, all I can say is Fuck off! You must have such short memories! Who the hell do you think you are? AVB got it spot on tonight, get the game won, squeeze them and keep the ball.

Injuries happen, that's what squads are for!

Couldn't agree more man!

Imagine what it's like for clubs like Tromso who play in a stadium with a maximum capacity of 5000, their players have fought tooth and nail to get an opportunity to play at a place like this, against one of the best clubs in the world, and then we won't even play one of our stars..

Now put us in their shoes, right. We've managed 4th and got to the group stages, and we finally get the chance to play at Camp Nou, and Barcelona fields half their b-team and not a single star player, but the power gap is still too big for us to properly compete, how would we feel? What a wasted chance right? So proud that we're showing respect for the game.

Who cares if it's not the biggest competition in the world, there are 14 other clubs in the premiership, many of them has a history as grand as our own, who'd love to play in this competition.