Given how injuries have weakened the team, it's my opinion that the team should go all in for the FA cup now. Play with maximum capabilities for these games. It's fewer games to obtain hardware, and it's an historically worthy goal.
The priority will be staying in the top 4. There is no way Daniel Levy will want to open the new stadium (whenever that will be) with a Europa League team.
Well that lineup and bench shows how seriously Poch is taking the FA Cup. Annoying how similarly this season has gone to the past few. So-so start; very good festive period; season effectively over sometime in February.
Certainly playing like shit, but Spurs have scored 2 in a half before. I would put in Lamela for Sanchez.
Scoring three goals seems unlikey so I'll say this - I'd rather lose to Palace today than have to deal with a replay.
I’m not really sure where Spurs go from here. It seems we’ve plateaued in to Arsenal where top 4 is the end all, be all. There’s not a better manager for Spurs than Pochettino, but he either can’t or won’t take Cup competitions seriously. Levy has done very well financially but either can’t or won’t spend money to make Spurs more than a squad of overachieving “nearly winners”. Maybe the stadium is the primary factor in preventing the club from taking the next step, but I just don’t see stadium revenue being the difference in signing 2-3 players to legitimately compete for a league title. I can hardly blame the likes of Eriksen and Aldeweireld for looking at another club with more ambition.
I'm as frustrated with our unwillingness to take cups seriously as anyone. I mean, I really hate it. But I'm not sure this is accurate. I don't think that Poch and Levy (well, Poch, anyway) is happy with 4th. I think he wants to win things … but he wants to win the League or the Champions League. And if domestic cups are a detriment to that, then screw 'em. I hate it when managers act as though domestic cups are beneath them - especially when they aren't winning anything else. So it's a massive understatement to say that I don't like days like today. But I do think that Pochettino is truly ambitious for Spurs - and for that I'm appreciative. If just establishing Spurs as a top four regular was his ambition, then job done … he might as well move on. But he's stated that we're not yet where he wants us to be. So he's got huge ambitions at N17. He just doesn't rate cups - which I hate.
I wish fans of other teams would decide whether Poch is a coach with low ambition who doesn't have what it takes to win trophies or whether he should be the next manager of Real Madrid.
I think that’s fair. I just don’t think the league or Champions’ League are realistic targets with the squad we have either. Every spring the team gets a bit threadbare as the season starts to take its toll.
Would we have been better with Erickson and Alderweireld? Sure. But maybe they really needed to be rested - we don't know. I don't think it's entirely fair to look at the players in the squad and interpret that as the manager not wanting to win. And if we won the FA Cup or Caribou Cup, what would all the experts say about MP? "He's never won anything, except that one FA Cup."
Bottom line is we were the only one of the top 6 sides to field a massively weakened side in Round 4. Even Palace fielded a strong side and bench and they are only 3 points above the relegation zone. I don't blame the manager though, he had to rest some of the lads with crucial fixtures against Watford and Newcastle coming up. I blame Levy, who has not given the manager the necessary resources to compete on multiple fronts. A CL team should never have to play players like Nkoudou, Skipp, Walker-Peters and Llorente in an important game.
Actually I thought Skipp was pretty good yesterday. And Llorente actually scored against Chelsea. And two of the three horrible plays were by our "good" players, Sanchez and Trippier. Until the money starts rolling in from the new stadium, MP has to manage on a shoestring budget. They need to find young talent and then teach them how to play the MP way. I wanted them to at least get somebody in on loan, but then I realized that nobody would be able to slot right in to the line up, they would need to learn the MP style. And by the time that happens, the season is over. So I think we just take our lumps. As for this past week - two cup ties in less than a week. Not everyone is going to be able to play both. And every PL game is crucial, no matter who they are playing. You can't afford to drop points against anyone. Don't get me wrong, I think they should have signed some players this past summer, too, but MP can't go back and change that now.
Getting someone in on loan might be the only way to strengthen the team right now. If we were offered someone like Isco for $120,000 week, do you think we're really in a position to say no just because he might not learn the style quickly enough? Sometimes talent trumps familiarity. I'm worried that Poch cares too much about not rocking the boat that he ignores the holes in the ship.
I think one of the main issues of Champion's League is the huge money teams make from it. It is completely rational to prioritize finishing in the top 4. From a game theory perspective, spending the necessary money to get top 4, at the sacrifice of other competitions, for several top flight and high income matches and other rewards for Champion's league play is excellent. A maximum return on money spent. The marginal increase in income for the team for winning FA cup, or even winning Champion's league is not as rationally supported by analysis. Said more simply: Champion's League is ruining domestic cup competitions due to completely rational cost benefit analysis. Champion's league maybe should have the money allocated differently: The money goes to the national FA to distribute as they please. The idea being, Champion's League money can be used to support promoted and relegated teams, boost the payoffs for winning domestic cups, and reward the teams that finish in the Champion's League slots (but not so much that it is the only goal worth pursuing). I know that won't happen. But, IMO, it would solve the problem faced by the FA and fans.
Right. And if you think CL revenue distribution hurts in England, consider the smaller leagues. When Platini got the big job with UEFA, he put all that effort into getting smaller leagues' champions into the group stages. And that seems perfectly fair and reasonable, rather than channeling all the money to England, Spain, Italy, and Germany. But when you look at what it does when it gets there … it just makes the clubs that get there that much more dominant within their own domestic leagues. CL prize money really distorts those competitions.