Spurs look to have only two first team members unavailable as they make the short trip to Loftus Road. Younes Kaboul remains on the long term injury list, with a possible return pencilled in for next month while William Gallas continues to miss out with the calf strain he picked up at Villa Park.
“William will be out of the game, unfortunately,” said Andre Villas-Boas. “The rest of the team is fine.”
Of the players that returned to the side in last weekend’s FA Cup win, Benoit Assou-Ekotto seems the one most likely to keep his place at left back while Scott Parker and Clint Dempsey may have to return to the bench.
The main question mark may be over Dempsey after three goals in his last two matches – albeit two against a weak Coventry side. Will AVB stick with 4-4-2 or will Emmanuel Adebayor pay an early price for his trip to AFCON by losing out to Clint in a 4-5-1?
Here’s what we think but what’s your view?
Parker instead of Sandro – and that would be my 11
Alvaro Negredo on the Bench 🙂
Parker ahead of Sandro? – Are u redknapp in disgquise?!
Negredo on bench would be handy tho 😉
Because Sandro STARTED 46 games (plus 7 sub apps) across the whole of 2012 – including 12 starts for Brazil (6 of those during the Summer Olympics). He had terrible injuries in 2011, and hasn’t stopped playing since he came back. Continuing to persistently play him when we have Parker back would be unadvisable, and an unnecessary risk to Mr Sandro. Having said that, he sat out the Coventry game, so he has had a bit of a rest lately.
He has just had 2 weeks off, we cant affoird not to play Sandro in away games,….if we rest him then its for the home games when we have more ball
what a scary line up now benny is back..switch daws for kaboul (when fit) and get damiao in we are title contenders. that is no joke
I 100% agree.
I dont know….I still think we need 2 strikers better than Defoe and Ade…..
If we got Llorente and Willian AM in then we would win the league……people forget Defoe goes missing for 2 matches in between his braces.
I could not agree more.
Wow, what a starting 11 and still with a very good bench.
We are one top striker away from being one of the best teams in the league and therefore Europe………
COYS
Lloris; Walker, Caulker, Vertonghen, BAE; Sandro, Dembele; Lennon, Sigurdsson, Bale; Defoe.
Drop Adebayor, he’s been awful as of late. In the few glimpses that we’ve seen of him, I feel that Sigrurdsson deserves a start. If not him, then Dempsey.
I agree dropping Adebayor but bring Parker in a 4-5-1 and we will be unstoppable
Keiran – Exactly what I think!
If Naughton Gets a start I wont feel bad for Walker either, don’t see it happening tho.
Start Ade, JD on bench no other reason than if Ade goes and stays at Afcon [who knows anymore], JD will be playing a lot of games. Rest him now.
lloris
naughton daws vert a-e
lennon siggi dembele sandro bale
defoe
bench adebayor, dempsey, carroll, walker, caulker, livermoe and of course brad
WOW Bale and Ekotto against Onohua and the lazy Granero they are going to have a field day.
Although Traore and SWP against Lennon and Walker will be fun.
I remember Lennon destroying Traore everytime they have played
The first 11 makes sense but how can you leave out Scott Parker from the bench??
Lloris
Walker Vertongen Dawson BAE
Sandro Dembele
Lennon Dempsey Bale
Defoe
Dempsey and Defoe were playing much better together than with Ade/Defoe. Sit Ade on the bench and let Defoe/Dempsey work on finding that combination again. Makes no sense to include Ade when he’s going to miss 6 games or so, and then probably not come back. I honestly think we are better without him. COYS!
Lloris
Walker Vertongen Dawson BAE
Lennon Sandro Dembele Bale
Dempsey
Ade
Wrap Defoe in cotton wool if Ade is gonna be away for next few weeks
Totally agree. Ade’s been coming on well. He scored with a great header last time out. We need JD when Ade’s away.
Sounds good to me blogger. It comes down to how AVB sends them out, because we know we’ve got the class over QPR no matter who starts for us.
[…] Our Team to Face QPR – what’s yours? jQuery(document).ready(function($) { postID = 1024402; if (jQuery("#jockspin_carousel_"+postID).length > 0){ jQuery("#jockspin_carousel_"+postID).hide(); } }); Spurs look to have only two first team members unavailable as they make the short trip to Loftus Road. Younes … […]
Lloris
Walker vertonghen Dawson BAE
Parker Sandro
Lennon dembele bale
Defoe
Dembele up field would be scary to any defence
Rather see dempsey behind defoe, purely because he’s been more of a goal threat than ade, I like ade but he’s been average at best so far this season
Why is almost no one talking about dropping walker? Naughton is a better footballer, a better defender and has played better than him all season.
Good point! Walker needs to learn how to run with the ball. All the space in the world to run with it yet he stays still and dillydallys.
I don’t think it’s Walker that has the issue, remember how good he was at running into space last year?
The issue there is AVB, he doesn’t like the full backs overlapping.
Thats not a dig at AVB neither, I like him, I like him alot, just stating a fact.
Naughton was better at Walker all through the ranks at Sheffield United and to be fair imagine Walker playing left back, he would be a disaster, naturally nowhere near as technically good as Naughton….
I think Walker at home and Naughton away
AVB rotates his center backs and keepers loads I think he needs to do the same with the attackers and full backs
Lloris
Walker, Dawson, Vertonghen, Ekotto
Lennon, Sandro, Dembele, Bale
Sigurdsson
Adebayor
subs: Defoe, Townsend, Parker, Caulker, Naughton
Dempsey, Livermore
Ade to give his all before he leaves! Sigurdsson to finaly get
a chance….he does deserve that.
Oops: Friedel *** instead of Jake
Lloris
Walker caulker vert bea
Parker. Dembele
Lennon Bale
Dempsey
Defoe
Think like Tonyrich said sandro has been playin alot. And dempsey is a goal threat and I’ve seen more glimps of that creavtive side of his game comin into fruition lately.
Why does BAE suddenly deserve to start?? Parker has had to bide his time, and so should Disco Benny IMO.
Hugo Boss
Walker Caulker THE TONGAN Naughton
JOHN Sandra Dembele Bale
Deuce
Defoe
Subs: Freidel, Dawson, BAE, Parker, Siggy, Ade, Townsend
Play 4-3-2-1
Lloris
Walker Dawson Vertonghen BAE
Parker Dembele
Lennon Dempsey Bale
Adebayor
If we aren’t going to sign a new striker, then Defoe should be given a rest, seeing as he hasn’t got any backup for the next few weeks. Sandro should be saved for the Man U game where him and Dembele’s partnership won us the match at Old Trafford! COYS!!!
I would rest Dembele instead of Sandro for the ManU match. First thing is thou to get the three against QPR
I would say we definitely should play Ade and Dempsey up front. With him possibly/probably/maybe/who knows going to the ANC, we should get at least one more game out of him, and give Defoe as much rest as we can since we’ll rely on him heavily after Ade leaves.
Oh, and, can we sign another friggin’ striker!?!?!?!
Great discussion here, and what strikes me as a really refreshing tone compared with the last couple of years is that most of us seem quite happy and confident rotating a whole crapload of players, rather than going with the same so-called starting eleven week in, week out, which in my view exhausted them last year and helped precipitate our collapse.
Go to see the happy mood and confidence on this thread. But is it over confidence? Is the teams form really as great as we like to think? Wins against some average teams are good, and as Chelsea showed against QPR, consistency is hard to maintain. However, Im not getting too carried away. Of the top teams we played in the first half of season, we beat United but lost to City, Arsenal, Chelsea and Everton. If we are to qualify for the CL, this form must be reversed in second round,which will be alot harder than beating the likes of Villa, Reading,Sunderland etc… Still think we are going great, not trying to be negative, just a realist…COYS!
We play pretty consistent against the smaller clubs, but can’t punch up ever. That is why I am not trusting this squad just yet. Play this way, and you have no chance in Champions League anyway. We keep saying we’re better than Arsenal, but they are through to knock out rounds in CL because of consistency. We need to learn that as well, because I think we have a comparable squad.
@Jim – Ade coming on well? We bought him as an experienced PL striker to lead the line and score goals. He’s not some 20 year old coming through who needs time to adapt. Have you watched many games that he’s played? He’s been nothing short of woeful, and has missed 30 chances for the 2 he has scored. Everyone entitled to their view,but can’t agree that Ade is “coming on well” after scoring one decent header.
Here we are, opening the door again with this tie. Should have won.