Intruiging line-up ..

Lloris (c), Walker, Dier, Vertonghen, Rose; Wanyama, Dembele, Winks, Eriksen, Kane, Janssen

Suggests a 4-4-2 with Kane and Janssen up front.

N'Koudou not even in the squad ..

Actually, they've just confirmed the formation on facebook, and it's a 4-3-1-2

Lloris

Walker, Dier, Vertonghen, Rose

Dembele, Wanyama, Winks

Eriksen

Kane, Janssen

I was just pondering the shape .. jesus, we need Toby back - this is somewhat excruciating.

Well, at least it should have Bilic scratching his head: he'll have to adjust.

Iirc, Bilic turned us over last season with a cute strategy. Got to be hopeful we'll smash this today - everything crossed

Helpful draws from Liverpool, the goons and Utd.


Big day for Winks.

Dier is doing just fine at the back. No need to rush Toby back ahead of time.

It's not about whether Deir is doing a good job or not. He can't play in two positions which is why we're faffing around with these novel shapes.

Interesting from the BBC site:

He started his career as a CB before being converted to DM so i'd argue he can play two positions because the mentality is largely the same.

That's not my point. We haven't been able to play an effective 4-2-3-1 without Toby. Hence the faffing.

It's important because the whole first two seasons were built on that, and it got us into the CL.

As soon as he is fit, Dier will revert to his usual role and the faffing will end.

So this is officially our longest winless run in over 12 years. Jesus

Poch playing a diamond - who knew! Bilic will have to pick up Eriksen quickly.

Have to say, we've been rubbish so far. Players seem unabke to raise their game and onfe again we are far too static and predictable.

Poch needs to throw a tea cup or two at HT.

Pathetic yet again. Absolutely pathetic. Another half of football and another half with no goals and with us looking dire. This is Poch's team, this is Poch's tactics.

As I said before the game "where do we go from here"?

1-1??

A 3-2 win!

A tad premature there Pete!

Not really. The two Harry's get Poch out of jail in what was, frankly, yet another tactically inept performance from him. They saved his bacon because over the 90 mins we were awful.

We seemed to remember that forward play brings chances at the start of the second half and things actually picked up, but then we forgot again and reverted to sideways and backwards passing again and it was all looking a bit rubbish again.

Lucky, lucky win but i'll take it. Those are the sort of games that do give the players a bit of a boost confidence wise so it'll be interesting to see if they carry that forward to Tuesday.

The Spammers can certainly feel hard done by, especially after the first half.

Thought Harry Winks was terrific. It's just a pity that Eriksen the Undroppable keeps going because I think Winks would do well with a run in the side.

You seem obsessed with me..........but dont worry, it tends to happen a lot round here.

Well, the diamond experiment with a flat 4 lasted 20 minutes before sanity prevailed ..

Scrappy, plus the performance is further evidence of pete's quote of the month: "he's lost the dressing room"

Poch out!

A win is a win.

We just had to get through having Toby and Kane out. Ones back and almost fully fit again and the other is on their way. Good times ahead, especially if Ericson actually gets going.

Delete Button?

Yep, and probably Dembele as well.

We should be firing on all cylinders shortly now.

"Agreed"

Must-win game that we somehow won. everyone's wise after the event now it seems. Nothing wrong with a lucky win of course, but let's not start pretending not to see the glaringly obvious problems with the team at present. We won't be able to nick every game like that, that's for sure.

Let's hope our luck holds out till Tuesday evening at least.

Actually theres plenty of people much more well connected then humble old me who have heard whispers of unrest at the club between Poch and the team, but hey, believe what you like.

Under Poch yet again today we were crap. If you choose to ignore it so be it.