CL Round of 16 - Spurs vs. Milan match thread

Going to be a great tie. As I posted a few days ago: Spurs have the energy and pace, Milan have the experience and pedigree.

Redknapp's playing some games regarding Bale's fitness. I have a sneaky feeling he might just be fit for Tuesday

without bale, vdv and modric, there is not much quality left for spurs

and cassano, vanbommel cup tied

lets hope merkel plays from the start, i think spurs will make the difference in england, they can really outpace them at home when all fit

hard to predict, too many injurys and cup tied players

I'm pretty sure both Bale and VDV will play.

no bale is not even in the squad that travels to milan

No Bale...no Modric...and Crouch is a doubt I think.

Milan have to take advantage of this!

Our line-up tomorrow will probably be as follows:

Abbiati; Abate, Nesta, Silva, Antonini (shoot me now); Flamini, Gattuso, Seedorf; Robinho, Ibrahimovic, Pato

Allegri may play Silva in midfield, moving Yepes to central defence. In that case Pato may drop out, which would not be the end of the world. Ibra-Robinho has worked well before.

VDV will probably make it but Kranjcar has been playing very well so it would be harsh for him not to get a start.

Bale will be a big miss, don't think Pienaar is anyhwere near as effective. Same with Modric, he'll be a massive miss.

Injuries came at a really bad time for Spurs and it will be extremely difficult for them to go through, they'd have to focus more on defence than attack and I don't think they can set up like that.

Bale is a big miss for us, but Modric is bigger, given the paucity of decent options to cover him:

Huddlestone still out
Jenas out

Means it's likely to be Sandro and Palacios - not much in the way of creativity in there, and neither has played anywhere like enough games to be settled.

Harry may play one of Pienaar or Krankjcar in the centre, but not the best of games to be giving either their central debut for the club.

Hopeful team:

-------------- Gomes --------------

----Corluka-----Dawson---Gallas-----BAE

---Krankjcar----Pienaar--Sandro/Palacios-----Lennon

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

------------Defo-----------------------------

Lennon on the left? Really?

That central midfield partnership is very very weak. Would it not be better to throw Jenas in there? He has some experience whereas Pienaar doesn't really in that position at the highest level.

EDIT: just seen you saying Jenas is out.

Latest: Modric is flying to Milan to join his teammates (goal.com).

Even Ibra can't fail to look good in the CL when up against Dawson !


All the beatings English teams have given out to Italian teams over the years - its not rocket science: pace and width does the trick.

Lazio 0-4 Chelsea - Duff was a key player.

Inter 1-5 Arsenal and Roma 1-3 Arsenal - Henry who played from the left.

Inter v Spurs games - Bale

Milan 2-3 United - valencia made the difference.


Italians don't produce these sort of players and their fullbacks aren't used to facing them.

So to miss Bale is really unfortunate - Lennon should definitely play on the right.

Robinho-Ibra-Pato is a hell of a front 3 and they should get plenty of chances.


I'm going to miss this game to see a horrendously out of form Watford take on bottom of the table PNE managed by Phil Brown

Luis wrote:VDV will probably make it but Kranjcar has been playing very well so it would be harsh for him not to get a start.

Bale will be a big miss, don't think Pienaar is anyhwere near as effective. Same with Modric, he'll be a massive miss.

Injuries came at a really bad time for Spurs and it will be extremely difficult for them to go through, they'd have to focus more on defence than attack and I don't think they can set up like that.

Milan also missing several key players through injury, whilst some others are cup tied. Looks like both sides will field relatively weak midfields.

Pierre Littbarski wrote:Even Ibra can't fail to look good in the CL when up against Dawson !


All the beatings English teams have given out to Italian teams over the years - its not rocket science: pace and width does the trick.

Lazio 0-4 Chelsea - Duff was a key player.

Inter 1-5 Arsenal and Roma 1-3 Arsenal - Henry who played from the left.

Inter v Spurs games - Bale

Milan 2-3 United - valencia made the difference.


Italians don't produce these sort of players and their fullbacks aren't used to facing them.

So to miss Bale is really unfortunate - Lennon should definitely play on the right.

Robinho-Ibra-Pato is a hell of a front 3 and they should get plenty of chances.


I'm going to miss this game to see a horrendously out of form Watford take on bottom of the table PNE managed by Phil Brown

Serie A teams (generally speaking) are quite keen on narrow formations without natural wingers. From a defensive perspective, if the other team plays genuine wingers, then it leaves the fullbacks quite exposed/the opposition fullbacks don't get picked up.

I don't think we can afford to carry both Krancjar and VdV tonight. Possibly we could start Defoe ahead of Crouch to compensate this? Maybe even shift Lennon to the left and Hutton to the right? We must have multiple pacey threats in the side.

Zlatan vs. Dawson has the potential to get ugly for us - still not convinced that Dawson's "up and at 'em" approach is the best thing at this level. Kaboul is also a big miss IMO as well as I believe he's a better all-round player than Dawson.

The Santa Stalker wrote:I don't think we can afford to carry both Krancjar and VdV tonight.

I don't think you can afford *not* to...

A chess match against Italians is something you'll lose for sure, just go all out balls to the walls....you might be surprised at the result

Luis - LEnnon on the right, I've never been good with my lefts and rights.

Pierre is spot on about Italian teams struggling against width/pace. Hence why I reckon Harry might sacrifice Krankjcar on the left and shift Pienaar out there.

Don't agree with Dawson having much to worry from Ibra - on the contrary, he'll have more to worry from Robinho who is smaller and more tricky and more capable of catching Big Mick flat footed. Still, once again not buying this odd criticism of Dawson - he's far better than Puritan Pierre gives him credit for. However, as a back 4, we've had problems all season (usually when Dawson hasn't been playing, but there you go), so expect us to concede at least a couple tonight.

VDV has looked a little uninterested in recent weeks. Hopefully he can pull off a big performance tonight, use all his experience and lead the team.

If Modric plays, I'm confident we can get a decent result for the second leg.

I'm going to predict a 3-2 to Milan, with us going through with a 2-0 win at home. Got to be confident about these things given our CL form to date

This will be a tough tie for us, but I can see us squeaking a win at San Siro.

The return leg will be much tougher, and Bale will be back by then.

First Leg:

Milan 1-0 Tottenham

Second leg:

Tottenham 1-1 Milan


Milan to go through.

Worth checking out - http://www.zonalmarking.net/2011/02/15/milan-v-tottenham-tactical-preview/

Anyone going to watch Valencia-Schalke??????

Jaime wrote:Anyone going to watch Valencia-Schalke??????

..................Fumble

Corluka......Dawson....Gallas.....BAE

Lennon......Sandro.....Palacios...Pienaar
...................VDV
...............Goal Machine


Modric on the bench

Pretty big occasion for someone like Sandro.

Jaime wrote:Anyone going to watch Valencia-Schalke??????

here

Kroos wrote:

Jaime wrote:Anyone going to watch Valencia-Schalke??????

here

Emery's team is very bland (and very narrow). I think Schalke will get something out of this.

Guys, is there any bad blood between VDV and Ibra from their Ajax years?

COTR wrote:

...............Goal Machine

Bet T/S is enjoying this

EVERYTHING is going straight to the big man

Good start from Spurs

Shit I forgot about this, I was too busy installing my new computer.

COTR wrote:Bet T/S is enjoying this

EVERYTHING is going straight to the big man

Good start from Spurs

Looks like the might've murdered the keeper.

Poor guy got a little bruise on his head and has decided to go off

All Spurs so far

COTR wrote:Poor guy got a little bruise on his head and has decided to go off

All Spurs so far

Looks like his menstrual cycle is also today so no performance today.

Is Milan's main tactic to claim they've been hit in the face? They sure do whine a lot.