Uefa Europa League round of 32 second leg
Venue: Stadio Artemio Franchi
Date: Thursday, 26 February
Kick-off: 18:00
Match Preview
Tottenham face two cup finals in a week according to boss Mauricio Pochettino ahead of a Europa League tie with Fiorentina and the League Cup final.
Spurs meet Chelsea at Wembley less than 72 hours after playing the round of 32 second leg in Italy.
"I think this is our first final before Sunday," said Pochettino, whose side drew 1-1 in the first leg.
"It's important now but we are ready and confident to take the game to try to get the victory."
Brad Friedel, Younes Kaboul, Etienne Capoue, Cristian Ceballos, DeAndre Yedlin and Emmanuel Adebayor have not travelled with Spurs.
Spurs have reached at least the last-16 in the Europa League in each of the last two seasons but have not gone past the quarter-finals in any European competition since 1984.
But with a domestic cup final and the chance for a first piece of silverware in seven years on the horizon, Pochettino could perhaps be forgiven for giving in to the temptation of resting key players in Florence.
Top scorer Harry Kane and playmaker Erik Lamela were only used off the bench in the first leg, three days before Tottenham's 2-2 Premier League draw with West Ham.
"We need to decide on who plays because we have played two very tough games against Fiorentina and West Ham," added Pochettino.
"So we need to analyse and decide the strongest team to play."
Fiorentina - fifth in Serie A - are unbeaten in 10 games but will be without goalkeeper Ciprian Tatarusanu, so Norberto Neto will deputise.
Spanish midfielder Borja Valero is also unavailable but Mohamed Salah, on loan from Chelsea, is included in their squad, as is English defender Micah Richards.
Line ups: TBC
Fiorentina: Murara Neto, Richards, Basanta, Savic, Alonso, Fernández, Pizarro, Badelj, Joaquín, Gomez, Salah
Subs: Rodríguez, Aquilani, Pasqual, Lezzerini, Babacar, Tomovic, Ilicic
Tottenham: Lloris (c), Chiriches, Fazio, Vertonghen, Davies; Bentaleb, Stambouli; Chadli, Eriksen, Lamela; Soldado
Subs: Vorm, Rose, Walker, Mason, Paulinho, Townsend, Kane
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COYS!!!
FT Fiorentina 2 Tottenham 0 (3-1)
posted on 26/2/15
Atm the only players I want to stay ( in current squad ) are
Lloris
Walker
Eriksen
Bentaleb
Kane
Rose
Chadli
Mason
Dier
The rest I don't think I'd be to bothered about going
posted on 26/2/15
comment by We All Dream of a Team of Harry Kanes (U4251)
posted 3 minutes ago
comment by look like modric (U7431)
posted 2 minutes ago
Poch will not get "his own players" he is a head coach he trains and improves the players that is what a head coach is.
Our transfer system changes in the summer but then and for the past several years our system is dealt with by several people. The head coach MIGHT get asked but there are no guarentees they are even informed before the signing.
That is football. That is the way it is. hence whats happened at Brentford they have now decided to operate in this way and warburton decided to leave because of it.
I am fuming, sorry boys.
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If Levy hasn't seen from the shambles of the last couple of years that the Head Coach/Director of Football combo doesn't bloody work then he needs examining by a shrink.
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I think it is great mate. You buy players for the club not for a "system". Poch is very niche as is someone like Tony Pulis. We need to buy high energy high effort players for Pochs system to work so if we went out and got 22 players for that system what if he then left? We would have 22 players that fit into one system but might struggle to fit into another.
We can build a squad for the future. Not just one season.
Financially it makes sense to me. I really like the European model.
posted on 26/2/15
High energy players could make any system work, surely?
It's not like he disregards those with technique..
posted on 26/2/15
Obviously you're not a fan LLM but you must agree this is the fittest Spurs team we've had in a very long time, got to credit the coach for that at least..
posted on 26/2/15
comment by Bãlès (U3582)
posted 32 seconds ago
High energy players could make any system work, surely?
It's not like he disregards those with technique..
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Good point mate haha. I just meant if they were bought in for there high energy style that might of been there main recruitment point and they might not excel at other things. For example Crouch's main recruitment point would be his heading he does not bring much else into the game.
posted on 26/2/15
comment by look like modric (U7431)
posted less than a minute ago
comment by Bãlès (U3582)
posted 32 seconds ago
High energy players could make any system work, surely?
It's not like he disregards those with technique..
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Good point mate haha. I just meant if they were bought in for there high energy style that might of been there main recruitment point and they might not excel at other things. For example Crouch's main recruitment point would be his heading he does not bring much else into the game.
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Yeah true, Pulis' approach is very niche, but having fit, hard working players should be a starting point for any team.
I've faith in Poch - the fact we've barely had an injury is a facking miracle to be honest, imagine if he had a few more genuine top class players at his disposal
posted on 26/2/15
LLM
You point about the 6th biggest wage bill doesn't really translate to the where the team should be as Adebayor on 100k and Soldado on what £80k are absolute trash and that's before we've added in kaboul Capoue etc
We have a high wage bill on below average players in my view
posted on 26/2/15
LLM, the players we've bought for the club over the last couple of seasons haven't fit into either the ethos of the club or into the systems of 3 successive managers (AVB, Sherwood and now Poch).
I appreciate the point you make that we could end up with a number of players who are immediately discarded when/if we change managers but we do also need to address the issues that are so readily apparent in the squad at present.
posted on 26/2/15
LLM I remember you saying Costa would not make it in the Prem and he has not done too badly. You have been wrong before and surely the time to judge Poch is at the end of the season? Surely he deserves credit for playing Mason when he was at last chance saloon as a 24 year old? and Bentlab as well as Kane. After Sunday we have no excuse in League as it's the only competition we are left in. No excuses for Poch but I would reserve judgement at the end of the season.
posted on 26/2/15
LLM..
Further to my point, if all Poch cared about was running he'd have kept Holtby, surely, and wouldn't be playing Lamela at all.
For sure the PL requires a team of athletes, Fergie loved his workhorses as do Mourinho and Pellegrini.. it's the special players that win you games but then they're so hard to find these days..