Tottenham Hotspur boss Ange Postecoglou has rued his side’s lack of composure in a 1-0 defeat at Crystal Palace, saying the visitors conceded a poor goal after losing the ball near their own box.
Palace claimed its first win of the season when Spurs defender Micky van de Ven slipped in possession while looking to play the ball out from the back, with the home side capitalising to score through Jean-Philippe Mateta. “We could have dealt with those situations better but it was a poor goal and we should do better at that and not concede like that,” Postecoglou told reporters.
“There were other solutions out there and again even in that moment we didn’t have to lose our composure. It just seems we kind of wanted everything to run smoothly and we know it doesn’t, especially in a game like today.
“There are still ways you can overcome that but it was a poor goal to concede because the game was always an arm-wrestle. It was never going to be one with bags of chances … so to concede like that was disappointing.”
Postecoglou said he did not want Spurs to play Palace at their own game and said the stop-start nature of the match did not allow his players to settle down.
“What I want to try to do is get people to adjust to playing our game. Some of it is out of control because they’re obviously going to be pretty aggressive in their approach,” he added.
“How the referee deals with that, not so much in terms of the challenges but in terms of stoppages and taking their time, all of that is out of our control. But I just felt when we had control of things, we could have dealt with it better.
“We ended up doing silly things, giving away silly fouls and losing our composure, which just adds to that sort of game when you can’t get any traction. “We directed our frustration in the wrong way rather than dealing with it like we should have.”
Spurs goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario kept Palace at bay with some crucial saves and the Italian said the home side showed more fight in the London derby.
“They fight and I think we lacked that today,” Vicario told Sky Sports.
“We are disappointed because we have to fight. We play good football but maybe sometimes we lack the desire to fight. They show a real desire to fight for something.”
“I think we lacked a bit of energy to be better than them.
“We have to take this personally and it has to hurt us a lot.”
Spurs sit in eighth place in the Premier League, with a four wins, four defeats and a draw from their nine matches this season.
