Tottenham vs Crystal Palace: Post Match

The aftermath of an assured win against Everton and a humbling defeat to Chelsea meant that Spurs had the opportunity to grab the bull by the horns. Hosting Crystal Palace at White Hart Lane presented an opportunity for Mauricio Pochettino’s squad to kick-start a strong run of form and secure vital points, against teams we should be taking three points against. With respect, Swansea, Burnley, and Leicester are all teams that a club at Tottenham’s level should be beating. After today’s performance, I’m now extremely sceptical that we’ll take all nine points.

The concept of this game was originally a pleasing one; continue to win the home fans back, continue to churn out good performances. However, the actuality of today’s game was a worrying setback, at best, for Mauricio Pochettino. At worst, it was an abysmal performance that proved a painfully inconsistent Tottenham need to take a serious look at every aspect of the staff and make some serious decisions. Palace dominated us out wide via Bolasie and Zaha, and we were lucky that the Spurs back-four was resilient for most of the game. The Fazio-Vertonghen combination is looking stronger and stronger, and Ben Davies is starting to show signs that he is developing into a bright young left-back. Eric Dier, to be fair to him, has been thrown into the thick of it as an inexperienced twenty-year-old centre-back having to play as a right-back. He isn’t playing exceptionally and consistently, but honestly I don’t think anyone is expecting him to. Game time is always useful for a young player, but the return of Kyle Walker will be a blessing for Tottenham.

Source: tottenhamhotspur.com

The young, inexperienced, midfield was sussed out by Palace today, as Mason and Bentaleb didn’t play to their usual standard. However, similarly to Dier, they’re doing a better job than all of our senior midfielders and are gaining valuable experience in doing so. For a twenty-year-old and a lad in his breakthrough season, Mason and Bentaleb are holding their own in the premier league and are both showing the potential to become big names in Tottenham’s squad. Whereas the centre of the park shared similarities, the stories of the two wings completely juxtaposed each other. Eriksen is arguably playing out of position and had an amazing game, and Lamela is where he should be and is still playing poorly. The Eriksen debate continues, some think he should stay in the position he excelled in last season. Others argue he would surpass even that season if he were to play through the middle, similarly to his days at Ajax. As long as he continues to impress, his position shouldn’t matter. As his ability develops, like all of the best players, he should be extremely effective no matter where he is deployed. Lamela, on the other hand, seems to need to work on a number of aspects of his game before he can progress like his team mate Eriksen. His lack of speed and strength was unearthed today, as he was caught up to and bullied off of the ball numerous times by Palace players, and in order to iron these problems out he needs to improve himself physically for the Premier League. In time, his natural talent and flare will come good. But for now, he needs to knuckle down and improve his game.

The strike force disappointed today, and the string that Roberto Soldado is clinging to is getting increasingly thinner as he continues his abysmal form. He misses chance after chance, and now that twenty-one-year-old Harry Kane is showing him up, Pochettino may be thinking about shipping him out in order to fund a move for someone else. Young Harry Kane wasn’t as impressive as usual, but fatigue may be the reason for the England U-21’s poor performances. The idea that he can run for ninety minutes game in, game out, is ludicrous, so resting the talented Englishman may not be the worst idea if we want to keep our prospect running for the rest of the season.

Source: tottenhamhotspur.com

Hugo Loris returned to form after the Chelsea game, and kept us in this one on multiple occasions, only he and Eriksen were anywhere near worthy of a shout for Tottenham’s man of the match, but the poor overall performance dragged the whole team into the shadow of Palace today. The final ten minutes of normal were nail-biting, a complete capitulation gave Palace a number of chances to score the winner and they dominated the end of the game.

Tottenham need to turn things around. Maybe they need more time, maybe Pochettino needs the funding and trust to overhaul his squad. One thing is for certain, the fans are right. The money spent and the people expended to produce so many lacklustre performances for more than one season now means that continuity is a must for all Spurs staff; funding, performances, results. Faith is needed in order to turn Tottenham’s season around. So, all we can say for now is come on you Spurs, and bring on Swansea.