Spurs vs Seattle Sounders - What do you expect from Poch's debut?

We’ve had to wait a while, but it’s finally time to see Pochettino’s Spurs in action.

The tour of the USA begins this Saturday as the Spurs squad, under the watchful eye of their new boss, take on Seattle Sounders in the first of three friendlies across the pond.

Pochettino has had since his appointment in late May to get to know the majority of his squad, although the side we are likely to see at 9PM GMT will resemble nothing of the starting XI we should see in just under a month’s time against West Ham.

That is down largely to the small matter of the World Cup, and could see Poch throw some youth at our American opponents…

TEAM NEWS
The boss will be without first teamers Hugo Lloris, who reached the quarter-finals with France and Paulinho who made the semi-finals with Brazil. Other absent stars include Mousa Dembele, Nacer Chadli and Jan Vertonghen of Belgium, along with Algeria’s Nabil Bentaleb and Cameroon’s Benoit Assou-Ekotto.

There are a few injury worries for the Argentine too, with players missing in all areas of the field.

Emmanuel Adebayor is continuing his recovery after his shocking revelation that he had contracted Malaria. The Togo striker was released from hospital on Monday however will undergo a 7 day rest period before being assessed again.

Brazilian rock Sandro is suffering from a virus, meaning he will also sit out of the Seattle game, amid rumours of an apparent move away from White Hart Lane with Napoli supposedly still interested. Meanwhile centre-half Vlad Chiriches will also watch this one from the bench with a back injury.

OPPONENTS
Our American counterparts have a number of links with the club, and have helped massively with the amazing growth in the Tottenham brand over in the States; recent studies showed that Spurs are now the most popular Premier League team in the USA.

The biggest link between the two is a certain Clint Dempsey. Dempsey is heralded as a God in America, due to his role in the national team and scoring record for the USAMNT. Although he was not as highly favoured in his time at Spurs, he was a popular player thanks to his talent for popping up in the right place at the right time.

He hit 12 goals in 43 appearances including his memorable strikes against Manchester United.

He has so far managed a ridiculous 8 goals in just 6 games for Seattle since his return from his loan at Fulham, helping them to top the Western Conference of the MLS 10 points clear of Real Salt Lake.

They also boast former Premier League striker Obafemi Martins, who once nearly took the net off at White Hart Lane while playing for Newcastle, and Marcus Hahnemann formerly of Wolverhampton.

WHAT TO EXPECT
Pochettino fielded a mixture of youth and in his first pre-season game at Southampton last season, when they Saints beat Spanish third tier side UE Llagostera with a line-up that included the likes of Steven Davis and Kelvin Davis, alongside youngsters Calum Chambers and Jack Cork.

We should see the same tonight, with Milos Veljkovic and Tom Carroll travelling with the side amongst others.

Injury and rest will force Pochettino into chopping and changing, and he is likely to swap the entire eleven at half time, however a starting eleven is impossible to predict.

Brad Friedel and Jordan Archer are likely to get a half each in goal, while the defence is largely unchangeable with Younes Kaboul and Michael Dawson our only senior centre-halves. Veljkovic or Fryers could fill in, while Rose and Naughton make up the full-backs.

We are equally as short in centre-midfield, where Veljkovic could also play, along with Tom Carroll, Ettiene Capoue, Lewis Holtbly and Christian Eriksen. Sigurdsson, Falque, Townsend, Lennon, Lamela and Mason make up the wingers.

Roberto Soldado and Harry Kane will fight for the spot up front, with versatility in behind.

The side we will see tonight will look nothing like the one to come in the Premier League next season, however it will be an interesting insight into the workings of Pochettino’s Spurs.

 

I think he'll find out where the deadwood is and who's worth keeping and developing !!
Kaboul , Dawson, Naughton, (deadwood) Sigurdsson (going anyway). We need a First Eleven whatever including Ben Davies, the rest will make up the numbers !!

 

It will be a simple run out excercise I would think. We aint going to sign many so they all need to step up to the plate

 

So far it's the same bonehead defense as last year. Dawson can't be winning any points with the boss. Looking forward to seeing them in person next Saturday in Chicago.

 

Soladado has scored..... from a penalty again!!!!!! WHOOOOOPPPPP!!! LOL
Come on you spurs!!!

 

Poch is learning tonight that our defence is awful!!! Well, it is when Dawson and Rose are anywhere near it!

 

What did we learn then tonight? Well, as I said, the defence is weak with the likes of Dawson in it and Rose looked dreadful to be honest. Holtby for me is a great player who gives his all and when given extra freedom can cause teams a lot of problems. I really hope he stays. Soldado looked fit and his penalty was good although movement wasnt always great although it is pre season so I wouldn't read a great deal into that for now. Lamela ran around a lot and looked almost desperate to show what he can do. Poch needs to handle him carefully. He looks weak to me and could do with a bit of bulking up.
Kane was okay in parts and Carroll is simply not good enough.
Best player was Holtby while he was on the pitch and overall it was a good run out but we cannot afford to let Verts go. The transfer of Davies would be very welcome.
Certainly Poch will have seen what he has got to work with and he will be happy with some and also see who Tim was talking about when he referred to players not up to the job.

 

We need a massive overhaul of the defence donkey daws giving the ball away cheaply again and fouling his way out of trouble, numpty naughton got caught ball watching 3 times from crosses into the box he looks like hes scared to head it - not good enough and danny the dunce rose will never be a full back he has absolutely no idea what the role entails his positional sense is worse than a bird reverse parking.
The tempo was better and the team werent all plodding about holding hands on the half way line which is good to see but we lack solid defenders and class going forward. We need signings to kick on coz this current crop arent good enough.

 

Poor old Daws had a mare, we were shocking in defence in the first, very easy to open up and find space, something for MP to think about. good to see the lads have a run and a decent game. I thought Holtby and Capoue both had good games, a lot of people have these two on thier deadwood list but I expect both to be part of MPs plan this year. Nice ball from young Harry for the first. Lennon did nothing to get involved or impress the manager. Interestingly, Siggy pulled from the team 15 minutes before kick off not due to injury.

 

We are in for some more hidings this season if we dont get rid of our shocking 'defenders', mark my words they are an embarrassment!

 

Tried to have an open mind about Capoue but his first touch looked poor.

Felon - can't you say something positive? It'd be nice to look forward to the season.

Oh by the way, they're called 'women' not birds. Or are you still watching those On the buses repeats on Gold?

 

As i said the tempo was better, but lets not kid ourselves- this isn't a squad bursting with talent and our defence is shocking. Im just putting forward my concerns we need much better players to be serious about anything

 

Pochettino says he intends to win the league......eventually. Cracking.
I think this will be either a great season or awful. Last night was a first friendly so I think reading too much into is not needed as friendlies mean very little.

 

Looking forward to Toronto next and wouldn't mind seeing more from Ceballos and Falque, maybe from the start with Eriksen in the hole, although im not yet convinced that, that's where Poch wants to play him. He may well try to use him in a similar way in which he used Lallana in a wider position as we know he has a good cross on him and maybe Lamella behind the striker, Who knows? but we do know there is a lot of attacking potential within the squad who can fit into Poch's quick style of play. There were positive signs against the Sounders with movement and quick passing. Capoue needs a few runs as much a anyone but he put the ball through with sublime passes on a couple of occasions, one to Townsend early in the game that Andros didn't take advantage of and another to Soldado that resulted in a penalty. Don't judge Capoue just as a HM he's got a pass on him too that has been missing from the CMs, this ones a real box2box player. Now, if we can get in a LB ( Davies imminent ) and a couple of decent CBs Poch will have something to work with.

 

We aren't the match to those sides? They didn't play their best XI either. Come on you spurs!!!