Sun 27 October 2024, 16:55
Tottenham HotspurAnge Postecoglou felt we ‘played into their hands a little’ after a 1-0 loss against Crystal Palace in the Premier League at Selhurst Park on Sunday.
Jean-Philippe Mateta struck the only goal in the 31st minute of a game of few clear-cut chances.
Ange handed Mikey Moore, 17, his first start in the Premier League, coming in for skipper Heung-Min Son in the only change to the starting XI from our previous Premier League match, a 4-1 win against West Ham last weekend.
We came close to levelling just after Palace’s goal when Brendan Johnson struck the post and James Maddison forced a fine save from Dean Henderson at the end of the first half. However, Guglielmo Vicario was the busier of the goalkeepers in the second half with three fine saves as we struggled to find our rhythm and create chances against Palace’s back five in what was always a stop-start encounter.
Speaking to us afterwards at Selhurst Park, Ange said: “It wasn’t great. It was the sort of game that turned into a battle, a lot of stoppages and they did it better than us in the end, out fought us and they got the job done. We played into their hands a little by not staying a bit more composed. We could have dealt with it all a bit better - sometimes in these games you have to battle, fight, keep your composure. There wasn’t a lot of fluency in it. Again, we didn’t do that well.”
Asked about our lack of consistency in terms of recent performances at Brighton, then beating West Ham, but then losing at Palace, Ange added: “It's where we’re at, at the moment. I don’t think it’s about our football, but obviously there’s a bit missing that we need to keep working on. You can only do that if you keep persevering in certain areas, pushing the guys along. There were a lot of things today we could have dealt with better and got something out of the game.”
