It’s no surprise that the build up to Saturday’s mustn’t snooze game against Villa has been dominated thus far by Sherwood’s gob.
One of the many pleasures of Pochettino’s first season in charge has been the lack of media attention and attacks on our manager that were often, in the case of both Sherwood and AVB, brought about by themselves. Tim’s self serving and humble free quotes this week have helped disaffect those people, including me, who had some sympathy for him as he appeared to have a genuine love for Spurs and was doing his best whilst he was here. His rent-a-quote persona though is just a reminder of some of the embarrassing days of a year ago as he put himself forward as a saviour whilst the team visibly gave up in front of him. And us.
Still, he’s a made a difference at Villa, sort of. The Goals For column now has to be ticked over occasionally but it’s the sudden collapse in form of QPR, Hull and Sunderland that means that his side are more likely to escape the drop than not.
Making it through to the Cup semi-final by beating a local rival will have endeared him to the fans of course and the fact that they’ve got a visit to Wembley looming combined with our own mini injury crisis and lack of a season ending carrot mean that tomorrow’s game is in danger of being as event free as last weekend’s visit to Turf Moor.
Lloris, Vertonghen, Fazio and Walker are a few of those who may not play. If Walker doesn’t make it then Chiriches should in theory start instead but then who do you play in the middle without Fazio and Vertonghen? Davies did a sterling job there when he came on after half-time last week but maybe Poch will inject some interest into the game by promoting someone from the under-21 or youth side, or perhaps Yedlin will be brought out blinking into the sunlight. We’ll see.
Motivation is the key as far as we’re concerned I think. Personally I think it’d be worth changing things around with either or both of Lamela and Townsend starting but still keeping someone alongside Bentaleb and Mason. Dembele? Kane will be looking to hit 30 goals for the season (and how incredible is that of course?), some players will be looking to make a mark so that they’re kept on, others will be of the opinion that they’re on their way anyway so why bother.
The weather looks good for a pint in the sunshine before the game, as long as we don’t give Sherwood the last word after it.
Lee Probert is the referee. COYS
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