Tottenham Hotspur fell to defeat against Crystal Palace this afternoon, and speaking after the game, Ange Postecoglou discussed where his side went wrong at Selhurst Park.
A toothless display from Tottenham
Going into the game off the back of a big win against West Ham last weekend and another victory in the Europa League in midweek, Spurs fans were full of confidence ahead of the clash with a Palace side who had failed to win in their eight league games this term,
However, Ange Postecoglou‘s men failed to take control of the game, and were second-best from the first minute to the last.
A Jean-Philippe Mateta goal in the first half was enough to secure the home team all three points, and in truth, Tottenham never looked like getting anything from the trip to South London.
Despite having more possession and registering more passes throughout the game, Tottenham only managed three shots on target all game compared to Palace’s six.
Postecoglou comments on performance
Speaking to the BBC after the game, Postecoglou was asked about the manner of the defeat and how he felt about what he saw from his team on the day.
He said: “It was one of those games with a lot of stoppages and battles and they ended up winning a lot of them and coming out on top. There was a lot of disruption and it was hard to get any fluency. They did better than us.
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“It turned into a game they were thriving on and we should have dealt with it better. It was a poor goal to concede, it had nothing to do with playing out from the back. That can happen.
“I’d be very surprised if they were happy right now. Why would I be happy? If I’m unhappy then they’ll be unhappy. If you’re suggesting that our fans weren’t happy with today then that’s a fair assessment.”
He added (via Football London): “It was a game which turned into, and it didn’t surprise me, a bit of a battle. Lots of stop, starting and standing around. We didn’t deal with that really well at all. We didn’t get to grips with just the nature of what was transpiring out there. It turned into a bit of a battle. They dealt with it better than we did.”
A frustrating display
That wasn’t just a bad performance from Spurs, it was absolutely dull, too. We never showed any signs of creating anything. I don’t even remember seeing one single good pass or cross, and especially in the second half, we made things really easy for Palace by lacking any incisiveness in the final third.