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KAA Gent A (EL) Thurs February 16th 18.00

skiathospurs

skiathospurs

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1920px-Gent_Ghelamco_Arena_panorama.jpg


Europa League round of 32 finds us away to Gent 6th in the Belgian league at their 20,000 seater stadium the Ghelamco arena.Hein Vanhaezebrouck is the manager,heard of him?no,probably same for the squad then.
In 2015 at their 1st attempt they got out of a champions league group of Zenit,Lyon and Valencia coming runners up in their group.That should be warning enough that they are maybe not as lightweight as we hope!
Only thing I can find to pad this intro out is Kevin De Bruyne was a youth player there.

Who knows what team Poch will pick,except rose,vertongen,lamela are almost certain to watch it on BT sport with the rest of us.We play Fulham on sunday following this in the fa cup,before the return at wembley the following thursday.A decent result in the away game would obviously help in "resting" whoever in the home leg before we play stoke at home.
 
Don Diaz

Don Diaz

Zero tolerance of Numpty's
Founding Member
I think we'll play a strong squad team with emphasis on the defensive players....need a bounce back from Liverpool. If I had to make a choice which cup I'd like to progress in I'd go FA Cup, but we ought to be able to do both, with the squad we have. We'll have great support so the players need to respond to that and put in a performance.
 
S

spursman18

Member
I do a lot of betting on footy and these lot have been woeful recently. If we play well we should walk both games.

They've won 2 games in their last 10
 
J.spurs

J.spurs

Well-Known Member
Founding Member
I have never heard of a single player on their team. I also see that they just lost to some team called Eupen that I've also never heard of. After this weekend, my sense of well-being demands that we beat the fuck out of this team.
 
Thfcire

Thfcire

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I do a lot of betting on footy and these lot have been woeful recently. If we play well we should walk both games.

They've won 2 games in their last 10
Dr Tottenham will see you now
 
skiathospurs

skiathospurs

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Tactics for this in 7 secs,Play Jannsen upfront,rest Kane
 
Don Diaz

Don Diaz

Zero tolerance of Numpty's
Founding Member
I don't mind if we play something like:

Vorm
Trippier, CCV, Wimmer, Davies
Dier, Winks
Son, Sissoko, Eriksen
Janssen

bench: Lopez, Walker, Alderweireld, Dele, Kane, Onomah, Edwards

and then best available vs Fulham please.
 
Liam

Liam

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Founding Member
I'd go for a similar line up to that but would lie to see Dier at the back for one of ccv or wimmer which would mean wanyama alongside winks. I'd also like us to go with pace and power in the 3 behind Jansen, sissoko, alli, son would o the job and give us the chance to have a draw or win to take to the lane. With the league pretty much out of reach bar a miracle I'd love top 4 and a trophy. Whilst I have no memory of the 91 da cup and would love us to win it this year, the idea of us getting a European trophy really sits well with me. Top 4 and Europa would represent a nice step forward on last season, so would top 4 and fa cup though..
 
birdonaball

birdonaball

Well-Known Member
I think I'm the opposite. Surely, after that pants performance at the weekend the worse thing for the main 1st 11 would be to go on an extended break. Get their ass out there and hammer it into their heads that no team, no competition is bigger than anyone. You want a rest? Earn a result on Thursday and the return leg will be much more easier and then we have the the opportunity to rest.

With the talent we have (injuries aside right now) there should be no way we're sitting around scratching our heads wondering how to cope with two cup games against quite weaker opposition this week.

If we don't show the respect and take these games seriously we could be sitting here on Sunday night quite possibly out of two competitions, pinning all our hopes and dreams on finishing top 4..... and that will be a fight probably down to the final day of the season.

Play the game that is in front of you. Not the one in two weeks time.

Rant over:mad:
 
boo

boo

Well-Known Member
Founding Member
It's a real tough situation to be honest. There isn't enough depth (or so it would seem) to compete across the yearly four cups that we challenge for. After spending a good sixty million on three players, you'd have expected them to 'thicken' the squad a little by adding some options. Janssen, N'Koudou and Sissoko haven't exactly stepped up to the plate or covered themselves in glory. OK, it's not a fair assessment after the little game time they have had but, after spending soo much, it's hard not to feel disappointed by the investments we made last summer.

So, going into the 'three cup week' we should probably prioritise the team's strength to suit challenging for one of them and play less first team players in one or tuther. The is the tough situation though; which cup should we go for it in? Of course, on paper we should be able to cope with all three of these games but then, if Pochettino doesn't swap the starting eleven around, the squad could well lose interest, thinning down our options even further.

The UEFA cup is round 32 at the moment, which means there are shed loads of games left to play. The dippers and the chavs have no European football which would suggest they have an advantage during the league run in. Le arse will more than likely be playing their last game again after the group stages which would leave the oil riggers, manure and us left in Europe and fighting to finish as high as possible in the league.
 
J.spurs

J.spurs

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Founding Member
Think @birdonaball is right. Sort Gent out on Thursday, and we can rest most of the squad on the following week. Even with injuries we've got a strong enough squad to handle it, and besides there are players (Davies in particular) who could do with an opportunity to sort themselves out thru more time on the pitch. So I'd say plan on playing the strongest squads possible, allowing for a couple of changes like Winks obviously, Thursday and Sunday.
 
birdonaball

birdonaball

Well-Known Member
I'm just getting a little tired of hearing fellow Spurs fans (none on here mind you) wittering on about this being a 'worthless competition' its a 'mickey mouse cup' only thing that matters is the league blah blah blah...

When did we become so feckin pretentious? Must have missed all the seasons when we were stuffing the trophy cabinet filled with our riches. There is a prize at the end of this cup... its called CL football for the winner. Guaranteed. A little matter of thing called a trophy. I know it's been a while since we last saw one, but surely we haven't forgotten what it looks like. An opportunity for a very young team to experience what winning something feels like. It's makes you want more to experience that excitement, that adrenaline all over again. Makes you push that bit harder.

This same philosophy applies imo to the FA Cup and the long gone League Cup for us.

I'm not saying it'll be easy, but what in life is easy? Injuries have been a feckin nightmare this season but we're 3rd in saying all that. We are capable with this squad at winning something this season so why not give it our best shot?

Finishing top 4 will be brilliant considering how much money everyone else around us have spent, but that shouldn't be the only thing we fight for....

:)
 
skiathospurs

skiathospurs

Well-Known Member
Founding Member
I'm just getting a little tired of hearing fellow Spurs fans (none on here mind you) wittering on about this being a 'worthless competition' its a 'mickey mouse cup' only thing that matters is the league blah blah blah...

When did we become so feckin pretentious? Must have missed all the seasons when we were stuffing the trophy cabinet filled with our riches. There is a prize at the end of this cup... its called CL football for the winner. Guaranteed. A little matter of thing called a trophy. I know it's been a while since we last saw one, but surely we haven't forgotten what it looks like. An opportunity for a very young team to experience what winning something feels like. It's makes you want more to experience that excitement, that adrenaline all over again. Makes you push that bit harder.

This same philosophy applies imo to the FA Cup and the long gone League Cup for us.

I'm not saying it'll be easy, but what in life is easy? Injuries have been a feckin nightmare this season but we're 3rd in saying all that. We are capable with this squad at winning something this season so why not give it our best shot?

Finishing top 4 will be brilliant considering how much money everyone else around us have spent, but that shouldn't be the only thing we fight for....

:)
All due respect to our american brothers here,who are not the same as the people I am about to refer to,american sports fans are completely alien to secondary competitions,or even draws in a lot of sports.Though its not only stateside fans who would rather not even enter or qualify for EL or league cup.To me its madness,more games,more revenue,more chances,more players getting a chance,more spurs on tv and maybe a cup at the end.I can totally understand resting players for a 3rd rnd game home to gillingham,I didnt understand it at all when it was arsenal at home.Put a team capable of winning out,not just give 11 players a week off incase they are tired.

I think a lot of football fans around the world want their team in the CL as a kind of kudos or having banter rights,when infact looking at arsenal that record has become something of a joke.Get in CL make money,buy better players blah blah and then they flip it lets dump out of EL which is still more money than not being in it,completely irrational if finance is the argument.oh its only £20m earnt in EL still better than not being in it,Players earn their £75,000 a week playing on a thursday or sitting at home eating a kebab.

Please note you american spurs guys here it is a sweeping generalisation,aimed at the people you know who they are,no offence intended to you or any other serious fan who knows their history :)
 
Don Diaz

Don Diaz

Zero tolerance of Numpty's
Founding Member
Someone ;) once said....

"It's magnificent to be in Europe, and this club - a club like Tottenham Hotspur - if we're not in Europe.... we're nothing. We're nothing."
 
skiathospurs

skiathospurs

Well-Known Member
Founding Member
Someone ;) once said....

"It's magnificent to be in Europe, and this club - a club like Tottenham Hotspur - if we're not in Europe.... we're nothing. We're nothing."
And I think bfwolf called bill nic an idiot over this if my memory serves me right,quickly retracted when the fury began.How much do you have to know about spurs to know Bill Nic is off limits for any bad mouthing.
 
skiathospurs

skiathospurs

Well-Known Member
Founding Member
Pictured travelling;
C4tvGeEWcAAgYh7.jpg

C4tvGdyWYAIBARY.jpg

C4tvGeDWMAA675X.jpg

C4tvGd0WcAAkZwm.jpg


Also a video of Kane.
 
Don Diaz

Don Diaz

Zero tolerance of Numpty's
Founding Member
Why has Dele got a fag in his ear?
 
J.spurs

J.spurs

Well-Known Member
Founding Member
All due respect to our american brothers here,who are not the same as the people I am about to refer to,american sports fans are completely alien to secondary competitions,or even draws in a lot of sports.Though its not only stateside fans who would rather not even enter or qualify for EL or league cup.To me its madness,more games,more revenue,more chances,more players getting a chance,more spurs on tv and maybe a cup at the end.I can totally understand resting players for a 3rd rnd game home to gillingham,I didnt understand it at all when it was arsenal at home.Put a team capable of winning out,not just give 11 players a week off incase they are tired.

I think a lot of football fans around the world want their team in the CL as a kind of kudos or having banter rights,when infact looking at arsenal that record has become something of a joke.Get in CL make money,buy better players blah blah and then they flip it lets dump out of EL which is still more money than not being in it,completely irrational if finance is the argument.oh its only £20m earnt in EL still better than not being in it,Players earn their £75,000 a week playing on a thursday or sitting at home eating a kebab.

Please note you american spurs guys here it is a sweeping generalisation,aimed at the people you know who they are,no offence intended to you or any other serious fan who knows their history :)
Couldn't agree more. Many gave me shit last year when I said I wanted to win the EL even if trying to do so weakened our CL chances, but that's pretty much how I've always felt. Like most, I'm not that enamored with the EFL Cup (though winning it was a great day) but the FA Cup and the EL are very much worth trying to win. It's really a moot point, or ought to be, as we have a strong enough squad to compete on all fronts for the first time in forever. With a title challenge seemingly just beyond us, a dream season for me would see us beating Mourinho in the EL final or Wenger in what might be his last game in the FA Cup. Or both, fuck it. If there's anything I've learned over the years supporting this club, its that success can be a fleeting thing, and we can't take it for granted. Time to try to win some trophies.
 
skiathospurs

skiathospurs

Well-Known Member
Founding Member
Kristof Terreur is a UK-based Belgian journalist covering football for Belgian newspaper Het Laatste Nieuws. Specialising in Belgian players operating in the Premier League, he also keeps his finger on the pulse back in his homeland and is ideally-placed to give us the inside track on our opponents in the UEFA Europa League on Thursday night, KAA Gent…
How have Gent been doing on the pitch lately?
Kristof: “They’re not having their best season so far but that’s because they lost a number of key players in the summer and have just replaced them with new ones. They lost, for instance, Sven Kums, a deep-lying playmaker who is on loan at Udinese. Matz Sels, who was twice elected as Goalkeeper of the Year in Belgium, joined Newcastle, where he is second choice goalkeeper at the moment and they lost striker Laurent Depoitre to Porto. They were very important players so since then, the manager, Hein Vanhaezebrouck, has been looking for the right system. During the winter they paid a lot of money for a few players to reinforce their squad. They’ve bought a good goalkeeper, Lovre Kalinić, who is the second goalkeeper of the Croatian national squad. He’s a tall guy, similar to the height of Thibaut Courtois, just over two metres and they’ve also brought in a Japanese striker called Yuya Kubo, but he can’t play on Thursday as he’s already played Europa League football for his previous club, Young Boys in Switzerland. The squad they’ve got now is completely different to the squad that was struggling in the league a few months ago, but they’ve still only played five games together so it’s really difficult to know which level they’re at. For the most part, it’s a new team and they’re performing with ups and downs. They beat reigning champions and current league leaders Club Brugge two weeks ago, but got beaten by relegation candidates Eupen last weekend. There's currently a bit of worry at the club because they're eighth in the league table and with four games to go in the regular part of the league season, they’re not in the play-off places. If they want to play in Europe next season, they'll have to get in the top six and that's why there's a chance they might prioritize next weekend's league game against Standard Liege over the match with Spurs, which is supposed to be their 'gala' game in Europe.”

inside_instory1.jpg


What about ex-Spurs academy defender William Troost-Ekong?
Kristof: “He was on loan to Norwegian side Haugesund for one-and-a-half years but I'm not convinced that he will play a lot this season. He’s not one of their regulars and they’ve brought in another defender recently too, Samuel Gigot. Troost-Ekong was unknown when he returned to Belgium in November but he played a few games in January. He's not on their final list for the Europa League either, so he won't be in the squad on Thursday."

What formation do they play?
Kristof: “The manager likes the 3-4-3 formation – he’s quite flexible with it. He used three at the back in 2006 or 2007 when he was with Kortrijk in the second division and he always laughed about it, saying that everyone talks about Guardiola changing to three at the back at Barcelona in 2008 but he already played with that system at Kortrijk!”

inside_instory2.jpg


Tell us a bit more about their manager…
Kristof: “Hein Vanhaezebrouck (pictured, above) is quite well known for his tactical knowledge. Along with Michel Preud'homme (Club Brugge) he is the best manager in the Belgian league. He was a useful player, a sweeper, in some smaller Belgian first division teams, but he made his name as a pundit on a Belgian TV station that broadcasts all the games in England, Spain and Italy and that’s where he managed to see a lot of foreign matches. He worked his way up from the lower leagues using the knowledge he’d gained and he’s gone on from there. He likes to talk – and he can entertain. You'll really like to listen to him because he breathes and talks football."

Do you expect him to deploy a 3-4-3 shape against us?
Kristof: “He used it recently and he’s made his team with it, but in the last game he switched to a 4-3-3. We'll see what he does on Thursday. The success Gent had two seasons ago when they won the Belgian league and qualified for the Champions League was all built on this strong 3-4-3 formation but, on the other hand, I’ve worked with him once before and he doesn’t like to talk about systems and formations – he says it’s all fluid and that three at the back is sometimes four at the back, it just depends on what the players do on the pitch. In the starting positions, usually there are three centre-backs but maybe for Spurs he will do something different – you never know. Maybe the wing-backs will drop deep and there will be five at the back, but he’s never been a defensive manager, he always like to play his football a little bit like the Barcelona way. He loves that kind of football and one of his former players once told me that he’d shown them videos of Barcelona to make them aware of what to do in some situations. I’m really looking forward to seeing how they play. In the Champions League last year, they really played football, not like the old-fashioned Belgian way of being too cautious in European games. They did well last season and they even qualified for the knockout rounds – only the second Belgian team ever to do that in the Champions League.”

inside_instory3.jpg

Above: Gent midfielder Danijel Milicevic in Europa League action.


What about their home ground, the Ghelamco Arena?
Kristof: “It’s new. They’ve played there for three years and it’s really the only new stadium that’s been built in the last few years in Belgium. You have some grounds that have been rebuilt but it’s the only recent stadium built in the country. It’s a nice stadium and certainly for the big games there is a good atmosphere.”

Who are their main footballing rivals?
Kristof: “Club Brugge. It’s 40 kilometres further down the road but they’re still quite local. The way it works with the regions in Belgium, you have West Flanders where Bruges is the capital and in East Flanders, Ghent is the capital so the rivalry between the two cities and football teams is something that goes back to the middle ages. Ghent is one of the bigger cities in Belgium so you’ll always find fans there, but it was after Gent won the cup and, certainly, when they moved into their new stadium that the hype really started. They became champions, then they had the Champions League campaign last year so everything suddenly fell into place like a jigsaw. It’s a team that a lot of people like because they play nice football."
 
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Flump

Flump

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Founding Member
Strongest possible line up please Poch, get the job done tonight and then you can rest players next week if need be. I want to win this fucker. COYS
 
wilson

wilson

Well-Known Member
Bit of a tricky one. On the one hand I'd love to see the strongest XI to get back to a good groove following the disappointment of the Liverpool game. But I'm also desperate to see Janssen get amongst the goals! Call me crazy but I actually want him at Spurs and think he will eventually prove to be a good buy. So this is the lineup I'd be happy with..

Vorm
Trippier, Dier, Wimmer, Davies
Wanyama, Winks
Son, Dele, Eriksen
Janssen

I also really want a trophy this season and would love it if we won the Europa league. Who cares if it's the shit, unwanted sibling of the Champs League? A European trophy is still an awesome achievement and would show a massive step in the right direction.
 
skiathospurs

skiathospurs

Well-Known Member
Founding Member
Lloris (C),Walker, Alderweireld, Dier, Davies, Wanyama, Dembele, Winks, Sissoko, Dele, Kane
Subs: Vorm, Trippier, Wimmer, Eriksen, Onomah, Nkoudou, Son.

Not fucking about here are we!!
coys
 
Don Diaz

Don Diaz

Zero tolerance of Numpty's
Founding Member
Better team than I initally
Lloris (C),Walker, Alderweireld, Dier, Davies, Wanyama, Dembele, Winks, Sissoko, Dele, Kane
Subs: Vorm, Trippier, Wimmer, Eriksen, Onomah, Nkoudou, Son.

Not fucking about here are we!!
coys
Jeez.....that's way stronger than I expected. I want that team or similar on Sunday as well. Just win lads, don't care how or by how many just win.
 
Don Diaz

Don Diaz

Zero tolerance of Numpty's
Founding Member
I notice the Welsh runt at the other place, who has been whining on about not taking the cups seriously, now can't bring himself to praise the team selection this evening. As a result of being incapable to offer anything positive he has instead launched a diatribe against Poch, questioning his ability and helping us with his assessment that 'is Poche all that?'

This utter twat is my new favourite complete wanker. Please go and support someone else, you're a disgrace.
 
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