Dortmund 3 Spurs 0

[Glenn R]

This is our worse defeat this season. I can't see us beating them by 4-0 at WHL. Pochettino says it was a "bad day at the office". I think it was more than that. The question now will be, will he throw everything at them at the Lane or accept the inevitability and send out his second string?  If we stay in the top four we will be in the European champions league anyway, so now should we expect progressing further as a bad idea and just concentrate in our domestic league? Sunday we have Villa. On Monday Leicester face Newcastle, both should be done deals, at least in theory.

[Ruth]

If you keep making changes (7 in all) you are going to get unstuck along the line. And we came unstuck against Dortmund. A team that is favourites to win the competition I can't see them being beaten 4-0 at White Hart Lane. I can see them getting beaten, however, just not by that margin. 

[Glenn R]

It will be interesting to see what sort of line-up Pochettino makes. Will he decide that we've lost this match and put on some of the youngsters or does he believe that there is still a chance (and we are at home) and we can go for it. Personally I think he should go for it. If we are removed from this competition it would be nice to go out on a high. We've had a bad last couple of games: losing to Ham & Dortmund and drawing with Ars*nal, who we should have beaten, wasn't good. If we go out then every league game should mean we are putting out our best team.

[Spursx]

I would like us to beat Dortmund and go into the next round, but at the moment it looks slim. We shouldn't have changed our team so much. However, I am thinking, maybe, that is secretly what Spurs wants so that they can battle for the title and be in the top 4. And if we are in the top 4 it means we won't be in the Europa league next year.

[RSS61]

Without wishing to criticise Poch's rotation policy, I don't really understand why, having decided to field a weakened side, he still played Lloris Alderweireld Eriksen and Wimmer , when those 4 are crucial to our prem run in.
My hope is that he will rest those 4 for the 2nd leg, along with Kane Dembele Dier and Ali. What ever team he puts out, we ain't going through so why risk the best players !! We need to save every bit of energy and focus on a stable 11 players for the last 8 games.

[spursjoolz]

Without wishing to criticise Poch's rotation policy, I don't really understand why, having decided to field a weakened side, he still played Lloris Alderweireld Eriksen and Wimmer , when those 4 are crucial to our prem run in.
My hope is that he will rest those 4 for the 2nd leg, along with Kane Dembele Dier and Ali. What ever team he puts out, we ain't going through so why risk the best players !! We need to save every bit of energy and focus on a stable 11 players for the last 8 games.

Agreed! We have little chance to win this even at home, so let's look at the bigger picture and concentrate on our next Premier League game instead.

Sad but true!

[Glenn R]

I agree with you on the bigger picture. I think we should field the same team we did when we last played Dortmund. There is no way we are going to beat them 4-0, that doesn't mean we can't beat them on the night. On Sunday we have an important game (against Bournemouth), who are doing well. Leicester won last night and we need to keep the pressure up. They've got Palace on the weekend. Palace can be tricky, as we found out. Our goal this season is the Premier league. We are a young side and too many fingers in many pies could do us great damage. 

[Ruth]

I think Tottenham should put out a strong side this Thursday, even though I don't think we can overturn a 3-0 defeat. A pity really as I fancied out chances in this competition. 

[spursjoolz]

I think Tottenham should put out a strong side this Thursday, even though I don't think we can overturn a 3-0 defeat. A pity really as I fancied out chances in this competition. 

The problem in fielding a strong side  is that, will it be strong enough to overturn a 3 goal deficit? I think not. Chances are that they may score one and then it becomes "Mission Totally Impossible".

So, assuming that Poch does put a strong side on, would it be worth doing and possibly struggle against Bournemouth on Sunday? No.  We still stand a good chance to overtake Leicester or at least retain our second place until the end of the season. 

in any event ending above the Arse would be an added bonus that all of us would also appreciate, I am sure

Winning on the night would be a good way to say goodbye to Europa

[RSS61]

I think Tottenham should put out a strong side this Thursday, even though I don't think we can overturn a 3-0 defeat. A pity really as I fancied out chances in this competition. 

The truth is Ruth I think, that we never had a strong enough squad to cope with all the matches we have played, and still keep our focus on the prem. Also, none of us knew we would be in such a strong league position with 8 games to go. We absolutely had to shift our focus from the Europa to the league as the best chance for CL qualification.

[spursjoolz]

I think Tottenham should put out a strong side this Thursday, even though I don't think we can overturn a 3-0 defeat. A pity really as I fancied out chances in this competition. 

The truth is Ruth I think, that we never had a strong enough squad to cope with all the matches we have played, and still keep our focus on the prem. Also, none of us knew we would be in such a strong league position with 8 games to go. We absolutely had to shift our focus from the Europa to the league as the best chance for CL qualification.

Spot on RSS61

 

[Glenn R]

Our league position took us by surprise. At the same time Chelsea, City, United and Ars*nal started having problems. If all things were even then Spurs - providing they could keep their squad and build upon it - are probably a few years away from challenging for the title or even a top four position.

If Pochettino wins the league he would have done better than Bill Nicholson (who took three seasons to build his league champions) and equaled Arthur Rowe's achievements. Also - whether we win the title or not - Spurs will have to contend with a more powerful City, United, Ars*nal and Chelsea (who all will/ or could have new managers) next season. Leicester City will not be in the top 4 next season.

[yidmafioso]

Personally I would have fielded a strong team against a very good Dortmund side in the first leg then fielded a slightly weaker team against the bottom side in the premiership (villa) on sunday.The team that lost to Dortmund would still have been too strong for villa. I believe that you should always try to win every competition you enter.Yes there are times when you need to change the side to accommodate different games but this is the one time this season that I think poch got it wrong . I would go for it tonight

[spursjoolz]

I will jump the gun and say that at 0-1 down and 30mn  or so to go, we will be very lucky or extremely brilliant if we manage a draw on the night. In fact this could end 5 or 6 - 0 on agg.

As a good exercise for our upcomimg  appearance in next season's Champion's League, this has been a Back To Earth lesson and shows just how far we still have to go before we can take on the Big Boys.

Winning the Premier League would be absolutely fantastic, but it will not give more status to go into Europe.  We are and will be the rookies and we will have to do better.