Cartilage Free Captain

Tottenham Hotspur are a side struggling for form. Liverpool are top of the Premier League.

When it comes to knockout football, though, anything can happen.

Spurs will be hoping for the roll of the dice to go their way this time around; it hasn’t been the case often this season, and the introduction of injuries and sickness has just made things worse. Ange Postecoglou’s side will be bolstered, though, by the signing of new keeper Antonin Kinsky, and the return of a few absentees to training.

It is likely too early to see Richarlison, Mikey Moore, and the other players on the very long injury list, but there were encouraging signs against Newcastle and this side will be motivated to prove the doubters wrong and secure a rare chance at silverware. Can they do it?

COYS!

Lineups

Lineups will be posted closer to kick-off.

Live Blog

How to Watch

Tottenham Hotspur vs. Liverpool

Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, London, UK

Wednesday, January 8, 2025

Time: 3:00 p.m. ET, 8:00 p.m. UK

TV: Not televised in USA; Sky Sports Main Event (UK). Check international listings at livesoccertv.com

Streaming: Paramount+

Match thread rules

The match thread rules are the same as always. To any visitors coming here for the first time, welcome! We’re glad you’re here! Wipe your feet, mind the gap, and be sure to check out the other pages at this outstanding site. While you’re here, though, we have a few rules and regulations:

Absolutely no links to illegal streams. They’re bad and they get us in trouble. Violators will be warned or banned.

We have rules against “relentless negativity.” Nobody likes a Negative Nancy. Don’t knee-jerk and post outlandish or hurtful things just because you’re frustrated.

Along those lines, outright abuse of players or match officials is also not allowed. It’s fine to say “wow, that was a really bad call,” but it’s NOT okay to direct copious amounts of abuse in the direction of said official over a call you did not like.

Treat other people in the match thread the way you would want someone else to treat your grandmother. Be nice. This is a community of fans, not an un-moderated message board.

NO SPIDERS!

Finally, while we don’t have a rule against profanity, please try and keep the naughty words in check. Also, language that is sexist, racist, transphobic, or homophobic in nature will be swiftly deleted and you will be immediately banned. This is an open, supportive community.

Have fun, and COYS!

Yet another disappointing Premier League outing leaves Tottenham Hotspur and Ange Postecoglou with little choice but to focus on alternative competitions to salvage something from this season. While the Europa League still offers promise, the League Cup remains an option as well, though the path ahead is anything but easy: the semifinals against Liverpool kick off this week, and either Arsenal or Newcastle awaits on the other side of the bracket.

The two sides last met just a couple of weeks ago in North London, where Wednesday’s first leg will take place. It was clear which team was superior (on that day and on the season), with the visitors scoring six goals on 5.6 xG in a wild match that felt clearly one-sided. Spurs will need a much stronger performance if they are to stay alive for the second leg at Anfield in February.

Semifinals (1st Leg): Tottenham Hotspur vs. Liverpool

Date: Wednesday, January 8

Time: 3:00 pm ET, 8:00 pm UK

Location: Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, London

TV: Paramount+ (USA), Sky Sports Main Event (UK)

Liverpool’s draw against United over the weekend ended its streak of three-straight victories in the league. Meanwhile, the Reds’ League Cup run has seen them dispatch solely Premier League opposition, with victories over West Ham, Brighton, and Southampton leading into this round. This is a tough situation for Spurs, as Liverpool has dominated recent encounters, winning four of the last five meetings across all competitions (and 11 of the last 14).

At risk of sounding too pessimistic, Tottenham’s best hope on Wednesday may be facing a distracted or overconfident Liverpool. Arne Slot’s squad, which was not expected to perform so strongly this season, now sits atop the Premier League and leads the League Phase of the Champions League; though this is already the semifinals, the League Cup is probably not the highest priority on the club’s list right now.

Whether this leads to significant rotation is something to watch. Regardless, there is no question about which side needs this competition more. Despite their inconsistencies this season, Spurs have delivered their best performances in the bigger moments, and this week’s fixture certainly qualifies as one of those.

Biding time

Despite being at home, Tottenham’s best strategy may simply be to survive on Wednesday. The second leg is not for another month, giving Micky van de Ven, Cristian Romero, Ben Davies, Richarlison, and potentially others time to recover. With both James Maddison and Pape Sarr suspended for this match in addition to all the injuries, swinging for the fences seems unwise.

Given these factors, Postecoglou must adopt a conservative approach, ensuring Liverpool does not run riot again. Tottenham’s makeshift defense has been mostly serviceable, but it was torn apart by the Reds last month. Prioritizing defensive security at the expense of attacking is the right approach. It goes against the ambitious style he typically strives for, but with so many key players unavailable, it feels like the only viable option. Survive the first leg, and live to fight in February.

Sometimes it pays to subscribe to emails.

Tuesday morning I saw an email from a sender I haven’t seen in a while: Japanese Breakfast.

The Michelle Zauner-led outfit sent an email blast to the band’s subscribers about an album coming out in March.

For Melancholy Brunettes (& sad women) will be the band’s first record since Jubilee was released in 2021, and comes a couple of years after Zauner released her hit memoir Crying in H Mart.

To promote the new album, Japanese Breakfast released its first single Orlando In Love, which NME realised is a riff on the Orlando Innamorato. The epic poem, writtten by Matteo Maria Boairdo in the Renaissance period, contains 68.5 cantos (Japanese Breakfast rounded that up to 69). No, I have no clue what Orlando Innamorato was before this and I’m too busy reading up on fernando Pessoa to start now.

Zauner said in a press release that she felt she was “flying too close to the sun” and that she was “going to die” if she kept going.

I’m looking forward to how the rest of the album plays out, and cannot wait for this to make it onto the radio.

Japanese Breakfast will also be launching a brand new tour, beginning with performances at both weekends during the Coahcella Festival in Californai. The group also has dates in the EU and UK, although none in Washington DC (pour one out for your hoddler-in-chief).

Fitzie’s track of the day: Orlando In Love, by Japanese Breakfast

And now for your links:

Dan KP: “Ange Postecoglou reveals why even Mohamed Salah would struggle at Spurs”

Jay Harris: “Tottenham’s Richarlison hoping to return from injury for north London derby at Arsenal”

There’s no rest for the Tottenham Hotspur weary as Spurs are set to take on Liverpool in the first leg of the League Cup semifinal tomorrow afternoon. Ange Postecoglou was back in front of the microphone again for a press conference, his first since his “fair and level playing ground” comments in the wake of the Newcastle loss.

The good news is all the players afflicted by the virus that ploughed through the squad last week have recovered. The bad news is that nobody on the injured list has returned, and Spurs are without Yves Bissouma and James Maddison as they’re both suspended.

“Net wise we are still down. We will get Bentancur back but we lose Maddison and Sarr by suspension. A couple of numbers down there.

“In terms of injuries no-one is back. Mikey (Moore) could potentially be available on the bench. Everyone else from the weekend certainly feel better, Radu (Dragusin) has recovered, Archie (Gray) is better. They were the main ones. Deki (Kulusevski) was under the weather but he is good. Pretty much as it was on the weekend plus Bentancur minus the other two.”

That’s great, but what about Richarlison? There were photos that emerged last week that suggested he’s returned to training. Ange confirmed that he’s back, but after he pulled his hamstring on his first match back from ANOTHER lengthy injury, the club is taking no chances with his recovery and fitness.

“[Richy] is training. The whole plan with him, with what has happened this year, was to give him two full solid weeks of training. His second week will be next week and if he gets through that he will be fine. “

The other big question heading into tomorrow is who will line up between the sticks. Fraser Forster has apparently recovered from his illness, but Spurs just signed genuine first team competition for the injured Guglielmo Vicario in Czech keeper Antonin Kinsky, and third keeper Brandon Austin is coming off of a very competent club debut.

Is there a chance Kinsky could start just days after arriving at the club? Postecoglou didn’t give anything away.

“We will see. He arrived on Sunday I think. He has had a couple of days of training. He is registered and eligible to play. We still have got to do a couple final things with him and then we will see.

“[Kinsky] is one that we had earmarked for the end of the season to bring in during the summer. We’ve tracked him all season and he is definitely someone we are really excited about. Obviously, with our current goalkeeping situation - we explored the possibility of bringing him in this January. It wasn’t easy because he is doing very well for his club, his club is doing well, they are in Europe and top of their league. The club worked really hard to get the deal done in this window and it is a huge benefit to us and adds real quality to our goalkeepers.”

“We’ve to pick players and goalkeepers that fit our system and the way we play and [playing from the back] is certainly something that he does very comfortably, but you know it’s his all-round goalkeeping ability. Johan [Lange] and his scouts have done a lot of background work on him, they’ve been following him all year. The intent was to bring him in in the summer, but obviously that not only changed, we thought why not with the way we are in terms of the goalkeepers to try and bring in him earlier.

“I wasn’t confident that was going to happen, but the club worked really hard to make it happen, and I think it’s great for him, it’s great for us. It gives him an opportunity to come in a bit earlier and get bedded into the way we do things and it also adds real quality to our goalkeeping.”

Finally, the big news of the day was the club’s announcement that they have triggered the one year extension of Son Heung-Min’s contract, keeping him at the club until 2026. That extension does open up a whole new set of questions as to what the club intends to do with Son after next season, but Postecoglou was clear that he wants to make sure Sonny has something to celebrate before he moves on from the club.

“Yeah brilliant. He has already had an outstanding career at this football club. He has played a big role in the last 10 years. Made an impact at the club and in the Premier League. Great to extend his stay and the aim is to make sure he finishes his Tottenham career with silverware.”

Tottenham kick off against Liverpool on Wednesday at 3 pm ET / 8 pm UK at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

Good day, Tottenham Hotspur fans! Spurs lost another match on Saturday, falling to Newcastle 2-1 at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. That said, except for the usual loud idiots on X, the reaction to this loss was much more one of pride and support rather than anger. Spurs played half the match with no recognized central defenders, 11 players out injured or ill with a virus, and they still took the match right at Toon and were unfortunate not to earn a point for their efforts — especially due to some, let’s call them “unfortunate”, decisions from the match official.

Today’s theme is just a silly one: in honor of Spurs’ newest signing, we’re rating players to the “Kinsky Scale,” a totally real and not at all made up scale that’s all about rating goalkeeper playing styles and not related to anything else that you can google that might sound similar and may or may not be safe at to view at work. And before anyone gets upset, this is just for fun, there’s nothing here beyond a silly surface-level joke, we’re not making any connections. Also this article is late so whatever.

Will give you a heart attack when they Cruyff turn an attacker in their box before streaking up the pitch on the dribble. Examples: Antonin Kinsky, Manuel Neuer, Spider-Man

Ange Postecoglou (Community — 3.5): Are you not entertained? Mate?

No hesitation to rush out and collect loose balls in midfield. Examples: peak Hugo Lloris, Rene Higuita

No Tottenham players in this category.

Not crazy attacking, but comfortable with the ball at their feet. Examples: Ederson, Kepa Arrizabalaga, Marc-Andre ter Stegen

Pedro Porro (Community — 4.0): Really solid match, especially his crossing and passes from the flank into the box. Some very dangerous passing. Anthony Gordon tested him a lot defensively, but this was an overall very good performance.

Archie Gray (Community — 3.5): Honestly, I’m not sure Archie could’ve put in a better shift under the circumstances. Playing alongside Djed Spence, he was composed on the ball, defended well. This kid is special.

Lucas Bergvall (Community — 4.0): Perhaps his best match in a Tottenham shirt. At times showed his youth and inexperience in minor ways but was solid with the ball and at the base of the midfield. Involved in the buildup to Solanke’s goal. Notable that Ange got boos when Lucas was subbed off.

Dominic Solanke (Community — 4.0): On another day he has a hat trick. His headed goal was deceptively difficult, and he had a number of decent looks with his head in this match. Pressed like a monster.

Examples: take your pick of most average Premier League caliber keepers who mostly stay in their area and don’t often go a-rangin’ into midfield.

Brandon Austin (Community — 4.0): We’re not doing half stars today for theme reasons so I’m rating him a little further down than I would otherwise, but he was good! Not much he could do for either Toon goal, but made a couple of good saves and looked competent, if a little nervy, playing out of the back. The sample size is wicked small, but he did not look out of place.

Djed Spence (Community — 3.5): A tale of two halves for Djed. Looked a little suspect while playing at fullback, but was weirdly composed and solid against a good Newcastle attack playing out of position beside Gray.

Pape Sarr (Community — 3.0): A little under his more recent performances, but still covered every inch of grass and had a long shot from the top of the box saved by Dubrovsky.

Dejan Kulusevski (Community — 3.5): Lots of industry but less end product than we’ve seen form him lately.

Sergio Reguilon (Community — 3.0): Credit to Sergio — he’ s not long for this team but he put in a competent shift and showed some real emotion and energy when on the pitch in the second half.

James Maddison (Community — 3.0): Had a few bright moments, none better than that curling shot that went inches wide of the post.

Yves Bissouma (Community — 3.0): He was ok.

Rooted to the stripe. Examples: Jan Oblak, Gianluigi Buffon

Radu Dragusin (Community — 2.5): Feel a little bad putting him this low considering he was likely puking into a trash can at halftime, but he understandably didn’t look his best and had the deflection turned in for a goal by Isak (that would’ve been an own goal). No shade on Radu for obvious reasons, but this wasn’t a great half for him.

Brennan Johnson (Community — 2.5): People get tired of me saying this, but when Brennan isn’t providing goals he often is providing anything. I’m struggling to think of what he actually contributed to this match beyond plonking a rebound shot off the post.

Timo Werner (Community — 2.0): Think he needs to go back to Leipzig, it’s just not working here.

Son Heung-Min (Community — 3.0): Another relatively disappointing display. Still seems like he’s not able to get that half step of space in the box to get a shot off like we’re used to seeing, and just isn’t as sharp going forward.

Examples: a marble column, Ent, Stephen Bywater for Derby

No Tottenham Hotspur players were as bad as planting a tree in goal.

Good news, everyone!

It’s been rumored for a while, but it’s finally happened: Tottenham Hotspur have finally exercised the option in captain Son Heung-min’s contract to extend his stay at the club by another year:

As we entered into January, that meant Sonny also entered into free agent status, in that he was able to negotiate pre-contracts with other clubs ahead of the end of the season. Spurs, obviously wanting to keep their talisman at the the club, acted quickly to ensure Sonny didn’t head elsewhere.

Keeping Son around, at least in the short term, is clearly a good thing. Even though we have seen some signs of physical decline, he has adapted his game well, with the second-most big chances created from open play in the Premier League (after Mo Salah). He is (obviously) a leader in the dressing room, his enthusiasm and determination is infectious, and he is one of the best finishers in the game. And that’s with him being absolutely exhausted after being run into the ground by club and country over a number of years!

What is interesting though is there had been rumors floating around over the last 12 months that Spurs were in negotiations with Son around a new contract; rumors that haven’t come to fruition. That could portend that the end of Sonny’s time at Spurs may be closer than we think. It is possible a deal of some sort is still in the pipeline; but it could be equally possible that the Spurs hierarchy feel the writing is on the wall as to Son’s future at the top level and are beginning to plan for a Tottenham Hotspur FC without him.

That’s a sobering thought - but nothing lasts forever. Son’s contract now runs to the summer of 2026, so let’s just enjoy it while it lasts, shall we?

We’re a little halfway through the EFL Championship season, and it appears we’re seeing some legitimate separation towards the top of the table. But before we get there, a couple notable managerial changes:

First - Wayne Rooney has left Plymouth Argyle by mutual consent. It was a long time coming, frankly, and perhaps only Neil Warnock can save the club from relegation. Meanwhile, Carlos Cobreran departed West Brom to manage Valencia in a huge blow to the Baggie’s promotion hopes. They are 1-2-1 since his departure and have fallen out of the race for the automatics.

As you can see from the table below, the race for automatic promotion is down to four clubs: Leeds, Burnley, Sheffield United and Sunderland. The latter two clubs were relegated from the PL last year, while Leeds just missed out on securing promotion.

Only three points separate them all, but Leeds and Burnley have been the two most consistent clubs this seaosn. Leeds are the only squad to have scored more than 40 goals, whilst Burnley have conceded just NINE in 26 games. They’ve kept clean sheets in their last four games.

That leaves United and Sunderland. You hate to be the club chasing the pack, which is the position Sunderland’s in right now. But they’ve got a huge game coming up on 17 January against Burnley.

Meanwhile, a wonderful strike from Andre Brooks over the weekend helped United put some distance between them and other promotion hopefuls.

Is there any hope for the remaining clubs to catch these four? Most likely not. And I honestly don’t see any other major contenders who can push for the playoffs right now, but that’s for a future edition.

EFL Championship top six:

EFL Championship bottom three:

Fitzie’s track of the day: トーキョーレギー, by Masayoshi Takanaka

And now for your links:

The Athletic ($$) does a profile on Antonin Kinsky

And here’s one from the BBC

Dan KP: Ange Postecoglou turns up heat on James Maddison and other senior players

The Ornacle appears to be close to the action when it comes to January Tottenham Hotspur transfer rumors. David Ornstein, writing for the Athletic’s transfer tracker this afternoon, says that Tottenham and Manchester United are the two clubs currently the closest to signing a loan deal for want-away PSG wide forward Randal Kolo Muani.

We’ve written about Kolo Muani before — he’s a talented attacker who can play both flanks as well as centrally, but has seen his playing time dwindle, along with his goal numbers. He had one excellent season at Eintracht Frankfurt a couple of years ago, but has been in something of a finishing slump since making the jump to PSG over the past two years, with 6 goals and 5 assists last season and just 2 goals in 14 appearances (350+ minutes) this season. That said, he’s a dribbly wide guy who likes to take players on and also can excel in creative passing, something Spurs could use right now.

Ornstein says that Juventus are also making contact about Kolo Muani, but United and Spurs are thought to be the leaders as they both can offer something Juventus can’t — the Premier League. A cursory search suggests he is currently on about £145k/wk in wages, well within Tottenham’s budget, though as always take those wage reports with an entire salt mine.

I know “exciting continental attacker underperforming his xG” makes people immediately think of Timo Werner, but Kolo Muani’s game is much closer to Richarlison than Timo, and at any rate he’s the kind of player that could benefit from a change of scenery and tactics. He also doesn’t have much of an injury history, so there’s hope that he might be more reliable than Richy down the stretch.

There are reports suggesting PSG are hoping for a purchase obligation of £50m in addition to a loan fee, but that’s obviously something that can be negotiated, so I wouldn’t put a ton of stock in that particular tidbit at the moment. And I think he’s a talented player who isn’t a good fit at PSG; he could cook under Ange. And he decides to avoid the flaming dumpster fire that is Manchester United and sign with Spurs, there’s every chance he could be a plus add for Ange Postecoglou in a position of need.

There’s a lot of smoke right now that Kolo Muani is at least of the priority target being considered by Johan Lange and Rob Mackenzie. Whether he ends up being the guy, of course, remains to be seen. But I wouldn’t hate this, if Spurs can pick him up as a value signing.

Tottenham Hotspur supporters may not need to wait long to see their newest signing in action. According to Jack Pitt-Brooke in the Athletic, new Czech Republic keeper Antonin Kinsky successfully fast-tracked his permit to work in the UK and is not only available to train, but also potentially to play in this Wednesday’s League Cup seminfinal first leg vs. Liverpool.

Will we actually see a Kinsky debut on Wednesday? It’s unclear. On the one hand it feels weird to just chuck him in with two days training in what will be one of the biggest matches of the season and part of a cup semifinal. On the other hand, Kinsky was signed not as a backup but as actual competition for Guglielmo Vicario, and his skill set is much more attune to the needs of Ange-ball than Fraser Forster. Plus we still don’t know the status of Forster after he missed Saturday’s match with a virus.

Kinsky reportedly was in first team training today along with Richarlison and Mikey Moore. If any of those three are available to play even partial minutes on Wednesday, that should give the entire team a huge boost, and hopefully some first team starters another bit of a rest. We’ll see.

good morning everyone - I hope I get to wake up to a bounty of snow today. Washington DC is currently forecast to receive 6 to 10 inches of snow today.

——

I’m not going to lie to you all, I watched very little [Premier League] football this weekend. That makes it difficult to select which photos are most appropriate for this latest edition of “Best Pics from aroudn the Premier League”. Looking at the results, it seems like it was a bit of a bore anyways:

Bournemouth 1-0 Everton

Villa 2-1 Leicester

Palace 1-1 Chelsea

Soton 0-5 Brentford

City 4-1 West Ham

Brighton 1-1 Arsenal

Fulham 2-2 Ipswich

Liverpool 2-2 United

Wolves ??-?? Forest

Even though this weekend’s slate of matches was a bit of a snoozefest (unlike Watford-Sunderland), there was one thing that stood out to me.

First was this woman who won a Southampton shirt after correctly guessing what the score of the game would be (Soton lost 0-5). To add further insult to injury, Adam Armstrong had to present the shirt to her.

The farce is the latest in a series of horrific weekends suffered by Southampton as the club lurches closer towards one of the worst seasons in the league’s history.

Fitzie’s track of the day: When Autumn Comes, by Bill Evans

And now for your links:

Jack P-B ($$) on the case against sacking Ange Postecoglou

BBC asks if Big Ange can be a success at Spurs