Toumba Stadium, Thessaloniki, Greece. Thursday 15th September 2011. 6pm kick off. ESPN.
Spurs start their Europa League Group A campaign with a tricky visit to Greece where they take on PAOK. While it would be easy to dismiss the opposition as not in Spurs class it would be foolish to underestimate them. The Greek fans are notoriously passionate and PAOK are the fourth most succesful club in Greek Superleague history. After a period in the doldrums and almost going out of business PAOK have experienced a renaissance over the last four years and will be looking to use this competition to prove that they are back as one of Greece’s major players again.
The start of the Greek Superleague has been affected by a corruption scandal, although it must be pointed out that PAOK have not been implicated in this. They finished 4th in last years League and have started this season with a win and a loss, the defeat coming this past weekend. PAOK got to the group stage after two qualifying rounds, dispatching Norwegians Valerenga and Ukrainian side Karpaty with relative comfort. The Greek side don’t boast any major names but a few players may be recognisable to some and provide experience and a potential threat to Spurs. Their captain and defensive rock is Chilean international veteran Pablo Contreras. He is vastly experienced winning a French title while at Monaco and has played for a number of clubs in Spain’s La Liga. A former Real Madrid man may well be patrolling the midfield; Uruguayan Pablo Garcia is a fierce tempered, tough tackling old school hard man. His first six games for PAOK saw him sent off an incredible THREE times! Out wide ex Porto man Vierinha could provide a threat, he’s able to score as well as create and Spurs will have to keep a close eye on him. Up front the biggest threat is likely to come from one of PAOK’s hometown heroes, Greek international, Dimitris Salpingidis. Whilst never prolific internationally (is any Greek striker?) he has a good scoring record domestically and is PAOK’s joint top scorer in European competitions.
Spurs meanwhile come into this game on the back of their first win of the Premier League campaign, Saturday’s impressive 2-0 victory at Wolves. This should mean raised spirits in the camp and a team confident of being able to navigate this potential banana skin tie. However there are still rumblings of discontent surrounding Spurs, whether it’s Harry Redknapp admitting he knew that Spurs were going to start the season badly due to wantaway players – don’t get me started on this subject – or his recent admission that he would be willing to sell Gomes (someone tell him the transfer window is closed!) and now Rafa Van der Vaart announcing his unhappiness at being left out of the Europa League squad. As ever Spurs demonstrate an inability to do things the easy or quiet way.
What team will Harry Redknapp pick? It’s almost impossible to guess. Redknapp has admitted more than once that the Premier League is his priority and this competition is an unwelcome distraction. With a massive home game against Liverpool on Sunday he may well rest as many players as he can. That said injuries may force his hand in some areas, Michael Dawson being the latest player to join the crocked list. One change at least is certain, Brad Friedel has not been named in the Europa League squad so either Gomes or Cudicini will get the nod. With Dawson’s injury in mind it seems certain that one player who will continue to feature is Younes Kaboul. He will have to take much of the responsibility at the back as his partner is likely to be either the low on confidence Seb Bassong or right back out of position, Vedran Corluka. Croatia boss Slaven Bilic, in his day an excellent centre back, has said that he sees Corluka’s future at centre back and he clearly has all the necessary qualities. What he lacks is time in the role. It will be interesting to see which option Redknapp goes for. Benoit Assou-Ekotto could get a well earned rest at left back, although as one of Spurs most consistent and in form players Redknapp may see it as too much of a risk to rest him.
Elsewhere in the team, some of the youth players may get their chance. After impressing against Hearts and Manchester United, Jake Livermore must be in with a shout. Loan signing Iago Falque made the bench on Saturday and might get an opportunity to shine. Eternally young Giovanni Dos Santos has also come back into the frame, with many Spurs fans clamouring for him to be given a chance while Lennon and Van der Vaart are sidelined. Up front if Redknapp opts to switch things about then Harry Kane could be given another chance, despite his penalty miss on his debut against Hearts he showed some impressive skills and good work rate.
Prediction
Whichever team Spurs put out, there are no easy games in Greece and a win would be a fantastic start for the clubs hopes (if the management have any) of reaching the knock out stages. PAOK will make it hard for Spurs, manager Laszlo Boloni is an experienced head and he will look to restrict Spurs attacking threat whilst being conscious of giving the home fans the positive play they will demand. Greek fans are extremely passionate and could play a massive part in the proceedings, particularly if Spurs do play several youngsters. If Spurs can control the ball early on they could frustrate PAOK and their fans to good effect. With little idea what team is going to be picked it’s hard to make a solid prediction so I’m going to hedge my bets and go for a 1-1 draw, whilst being hopeful the boys can turn it on, prove me wrong and bring home all three points.
COYS
Stuart Watts ( @Studub on Twitter )
The Odds (all odds from Oddschecker.com and correct at 2100 13/9/11)
Spurs win: 13-10
PAOK win: 9-4
Draw: 23-10
My prediction (1-1): 5-1
First Spurs scorers
Defoe/Adebayor: 11-2
Kane/Pavluchenko : 7-1
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You can suffer from ill health but to say someone is suffering from a renaissance is oxymoronic at best!
What chanel is it on ?
spurstough – thanks for pointing that out, fixed. Don’t know what I was thinking. Hope you enjoyed the rest of it.
danny – as it says at the top of the page, ESPN
Oh yeah me being blind again !
ESPN ! oh well off to the pub it is then !
As for Corluka, the word on the street is that he is not fond of the constant heading and aerial threats in the Premiership. That is why he is better as RB for Spurs, despite being Croatia’s CB.
Tony – where’d you hear that? Interesting if true. Being a CB, heading and aerial work are kind of implied work though…Maybe he doesn’t want to dislodge his pretty hairband.
Corluka at CB would scare the pants outta me,Bassong all day long the boy needs some confidence and a run for his sake and ours especially with Dawson on the treatment table.Would like to see Falque and Dos Santos given a go,i think this is a competition we can genuinley win and it’s a damn shame that Redknapp sees this as a distraction imagine the glory come May.
With what’s available I think we should start with 3cb of corluka kaboul bassong with a sweeper behind them huddlestone in midfield Livermore sitting then a 4 with walker on right Falque & Carroll ctr townsend left with gio upfront
————————–gomes———————
————————–huddz———————————corluka—-kaboul—-bassong—————————–Livermore——————walker———————–Carroll—andros.t
———————-Falque——————————————————gio———————–
Bring back d doc that’s probably the worst team I’ve ever seen
———————————–Cuddicini——————————
Corluka————–Kaboul———–Bassong——Townsend
————————-Livermore——Huddlestone—————-
Falque———————————————————-Krankjar
————————-Dos Santos—-Pavlachenko—————-
My predicted team for Thursday