Tottenham Hotspur do not have much time to dwell on that disappointing defeat to Crystal Palace at the weekend, with Carabao Cup action just around the corner. In his latest press conference, Ange Postecoglou discussed this quick turnaround.
Spurs were poor against Palace
After demolishing London rivals West Ham in the league last weekend, and then completing a professional win over AZ Alkmaar in the Europa League in midweek, expectations were high for Spurs to continue their winning ways against a Crystal Palace side yet to win this season.
However, Ange Postecoglou‘s men never looked like getting anything from the game at Selhurst Park and found themselves under the cosh from the very first minute.
Palace took the lead midway through the first half thanks to a Jean-Philippe Mateta goal, and Tottenham simply could not carve out a meaningful opportunity to level the scores.
The Lilywhites now have the ideal opportunity to remedy that, with a home tie against Manchester City in the Carabao Cup coming up tomorrow.
A big reaction needed
Of course, Postecoglou will be eager to put things right and will want to see that same energy from his players as they look to put together a cup run. However, he would rather concentrate on getting their game plan right in the first place than reacting to defeats.
Speaking to the press (via Football.London) about what he expects in terms of a reaction, Postecoglou said: “I don’t think it is about a reaction. It’s fairly understandable that the players and everyone was disappointed with the way things went for us at Palace, both performance and outcome, but we’ve got to get away from this reactions and trying to atone for something.
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“Part of the process for us is making sure every game we stick to our principles irrespective of what has happened in the past. If you wait for reactions for good performances you’re actually anticipating another challenge when you should just be trying to focus on consistency in performance and consistency in mentality of how we approach every game.”
Crashing out of the cup is not an option
There can be no excuse if Spurs do not get past City in this tie. We know Pep Guardiola is not taking the Carabao Cup seriously, we are at home, and the players are surely hungry to make amends for the weekend. Once again, this will be a real test of the attitudes of the players in this squad as we see how they react to the disappointment of the Palace game.