Tottenham Hotspur vs. Manchester United

Worrired about today, is Rafael fit as I'm in the mood for him placing Bale in his pocket again.
 
From the Telegraph match preview

Tottenham (Probable, 4-4-2): Friedel; Walker, Kaboul, King, Assou-Ekotto; Kranjcar, van der Vaart, Modric, Bale; Adebayor, Saha.
Out: Gallas (calf), Huddlestone (ankle), Bentley (knee), Jenas (Achilles).
Tests: Bale (hamstring), van der Vaart (calf), King (knee).

Suspended: Parker.

Manchester United (Probable, 4-4-2): De Gea; Rafael, Ferdinand, Evans, Evra; Jones, Carrick, Scholes, Giggs; Nani; Rooney.
Out: Smalling (head cut), Lindegaard (ankle), Cleverley (ankle), Valencia (hamstring), Owen (thigh), De Laet (calf), Fletcher (bowel condition), Vidic, Bebe (both knee).

Referee: Martin Atkinson (Matches 19, R7 Y63).

Weren't the Spuds crying about a few injuries earlier on in the thread?

They don't know what injuries are.
 
I just hope friedel doesn't put on another heroic performance against us. Seriously he's either been trying to get fergies attention for years or just hates us with a passion.
 
We CANNOT play Giggs, Scholes and Nani within a midfield four because we will get over-run just like against Norwich, only this time, we would be punished dearly. I am of the opinion that playing Young is a must to pin back Walker and stop Evra from getting overloaded from the Lennon & Walker pair.

I'd play Jones with Carrick in the middle of the park to allow Nani & Young to drift high up the field and cause havoc and I'd play Rafael on the wing for a bith width down the flank. I would play Hernandez over Welbeck because I think he'd best exploit King and Dawson lack of form/fitness.

DDG

Rafael Rio Evans Evra
Carrick Jones
Nani Rooney Young
Hernandez
 
This United team is a touch short of where it needs to be. I think we'll drop points and that'll hand City the initiative. The cnuts.
 
How similar are Spurs to United 99?

Bale - Giggs
Modric - Scholes
Parker - Keane
Lennon - Beckham (x)
Adebayor, Saha, Defoe, Van Der Vaart - Sheringham, Cole, Yorke, Solskjaer.

Everyone know's my respect for Spurs at the moment, but even though they have lost games they have often played very very good football. The loss against Man City was a perfect example of this, Arsenal less so.
 
Always look forward to playing Spurs,although we have a great record against them i'm expecting a tougher game. 1-2
 
We CANNOT play Giggs, Scholes and Nani within a midfield four because we will get over-run just like against Norwich, only this time, we would be punished dearly. I am of the opinion that playing Young is a must to pin back Walker and stop Evra from getting overloaded from the Lennon & Walker pair.

I'd play Jones with Carrick in the middle of the park to allow Nani & Young to drift high up the field and cause havoc and I'd play Rafael on the wing for a bith width down the flank. I would play Hernandez over Welbeck because I think he'd best exploit King and Dawson lack of form/fitness.

DDG

Rafael Rio Evans Evra
Carrick Jones
Nani Rooney Young
Hernandez

I don't think it's an issue playing giggs or scholes as long as Rooney comes deep. That was the problem against norwich, although welbeck would help out he's not suited to the deeper role and do we lost the link between the midfield and the attack. If Rooney drops into the hole behind welbeck I think we'll be fine with either of those two in the middle. I'd rather have their finesse over jones raw power personally.
 
Rafa's kept him in his pocket twice.

Even if he did, doesn't mean it'll happen for the third time, and Bale has become a better player ever since. One less problem to contain if he's out, especially if Lennon is going to start on Evra's side. Not so concerned about VdV, he's a passenger when Spurs don't have the ball
 
Depends how they intend to use Bale, I don't think he's been as effective when giving licence to drift in and play centrally, and it causes Spurs problems as it leaves BAE to exposed

Nani could have a big day today
 
From the Telegraph match preview



Weren't the Spuds crying about a few injuries earlier on in the thread?

They don't know what injuries are.

This; every time I see our injuries listed like that it's horrendous :(
 
From the Telegraph match preview



Weren't the Spuds crying about a few injuries earlier on in the thread?

They don't know what injuries are.

Yes, when it was rumoured that on top of the guaranteed absentees of Gallas and Huddlestone, Friedel, King, Walker, Bale and VDV might also be out.

So..it would have been 9 players out to your 9. And unlike your list, which includes Vidic, one of Cleverly/Fletcher and probably Valencia as guaranteed starters, ours would have featured 5 starters and one of the men who would come in and replace him. As well as the suspended Parker.

Who cares about players like Jenas, Bentley, De Laet and Bebe on these lists anyway?
 
How similar are Spurs to United 99?

Bale - Giggs
Modric - Scholes
Parker - Keane
Lennon - Beckham (x)
Adebayor, Saha, Defoe, Van Der Vaart - Sheringham, Cole, Yorke, Solskjaer.

Everyone know's my respect for Spurs at the moment, but even though they have lost games they have often played very very good football. The loss against Man City was a perfect example of this, Arsenal less so.

Did you just compare Scott Parker to Roy Keane?
 
Everytime they face each other.

They've played each other twice I believe. And the one where you were all raving about Rafael keeping him in his pocket...came about a week after the powerhouse of Phil Neville and just a few months after Stam had also kept him in his pocket. His performance levels weren't the same as they are now.

Not to say that Bale is necessarily going to do anything, especially if his hamstring isn't 100% but I don't see the relevence of past performances between the two in this one.

I think we'll line up something like this:

---------Friedel------

Walker--Kaboul--King--BAE

Lennon--Sandro--Modric--Bale

-------VDV-----

------Adebayor-----

Maybe Saha for VDV if he isn't 100% fit. Also a bit worried about Sandro, he's been out for a long time and looked very rusty against Arsenal last week.

I'd prefer Bale to stick on the left for most of the match in this one, give BAE some protection but with license to drift inside/swap with Lennon if he feels it appropriate. Would hopefully give us some good width.

VDV to try and support Adebayor as much as possible and not do what he often does and go taking the ball off Kaboul if he's not seeing enough of it. But drop into midfield if we've lost possession.

Never particularly confident about this game, especially when you lose in the manner we did last week. Still, that was probably our first shocker since the Man City game at home so hopefully the players take this as an opportunity to set things right.

Right now, I'd take a draw.
 
I'm afraid of Lennon destroying Evra. He used to trouble Evra even back when he could still defend.
 
How similar are Spurs to United 99?

Bale - Giggs
Modric - Scholes
Parker - Keane
Lennon - Beckham (x)
Adebayor, Saha, Defoe, Van Der Vaart - Sheringham, Cole, Yorke, Solskjaer.

Everyone know's my respect for Spurs at the moment, but even though they have lost games they have often played very very good football. The loss against Man City was a perfect example of this, Arsenal less so.

Are you fecking serious ?
 
How similar are Spurs to United 99?

Bale - Giggs
Modric - Scholes
Parker - Keane
Lennon - Beckham (x)
Adebayor, Saha, Defoe, Van Der Vaart - Sheringham, Cole, Yorke, Solskjaer.

Everyone know's my respect for Spurs at the moment, but even though they have lost games they have often played very very good football. The loss against Man City was a perfect example of this, Arsenal less so.

You are paying more respect to the Spurs players than you do to that treble winning side. Not cool.
 
They don't really belong in the same sentence, do they.

Not really, I might reconsider when Parker drags his team back from the brink against their European nemesis in a Champions League Semi-Final.
 
How similar are Spurs to United 99?

Bale - Giggs
Modric - Scholes
Parker - Keane
Lennon - Beckham (x)
Adebayor, Saha, Defoe, Van Der Vaart - Sheringham, Cole, Yorke, Solskjaer.

Everyone know's my respect for Spurs at the moment, but even though they have lost games they have often played very very good football. The loss against Man City was a perfect example of this, Arsenal less so.

is this a joke? you cant just casually drop cole and yorke that season in the same sentence as saha and defoe! :lol: they were absolutely lethal,do you not remember what they did to teams in the league and all over europe that season? juve,barca,inter....as for the parker/keane thing. im a big parker fan but do you remember who roy keane was?and what type of player he was? he was probably our best captain ever and just an incredible footballer. the only similiarity you can really have is that in bale they have a left footed winger on the left wing, modric they have a creative central mid, parlker they have a tough midfielder and lennon they have a right footer on the right....but so do my local team! crazy.

regards the game, a loss will leave us with possibly too much to do unfortunately while a win i think would tilt in in our favour. huge game. 1-3.
 
Why is someone comparing a 3rd placed PL team to the Treble winners? :wenger:
 
Calm down tards, he is entitled to his opinion.

Looking forward to this, got a feeling there will be lots of goals.
 
How similar are Spurs to United 99?

Bale - Giggs
Modric - Scholes
Parker - Keane
Lennon - Beckham (x)
Adebayor, Saha, Defoe, Van Der Vaart - Sheringham, Cole, Yorke, Solskjaer.

Everyone know's my respect for Spurs at the moment, but even though they have lost games they have often played very very good football. The loss against Man City was a perfect example of this, Arsenal less so.

:lol::lol::lol:
 
Contenders even

I'm sorry, they're having a really good season don't get me wrong but they are not contenders at this point. Let's give them a win today in a hypothetical scenario... They'd be 10 points behind Man City and 5 points behind us.. and that's with a win! If they were in second place 10 points behind City, and with some kind of experience in chasing a title, I'd mayybe give the contender status. But there's not a chance in hell that both teams above them will slip up so badly that they could take advantage of it.
 
Calm down tards, he is entitled to his opinion.

Looking forward to this, got a feeling there will be lots of goals.

Everyone is calm, but I'm pretty sure the houllier smilie has been used in less houllier-ish situations.
 
I think he was talking about the style as opposed to the quality of the players and in some ways its a fair comparison, particularly in midfield and attack. I mean parker, modric and bale are similar to keane, scholes and Giggs if not as good (though that's more in parkers case than the others). Lennon and Beckham is an odd comparison though.
 
How similar are Spurs to United 99?

Bale - Giggs
Modric - Scholes
Parker - Keane
Lennon - Beckham (x)
Adebayor, Saha, Defoe, Van Der Vaart - Sheringham, Cole, Yorke, Solskjaer.

:lol:
 
I'm sorry, they're having a really good season don't get me wrong but they are not contenders at this point. Let's give them a win today in a hypothetical scenario... They'd be 10 points behind Man City and 5 points behind us.. and that's with a win! If they were in second place 10 points behind City, and with some kind of experience in chasing a title, I'd mayybe give the contender status. But there's not a chance in hell that both teams above them will slip up so badly that they could take advantage of it.

I meant 3rd team contenders. Not a 3rd placed team. :)