Tottenham Vs Crystal Palace: Match Thread

[cliff jones]

It's inevitable given that we run a squad wage bill over £100M per season less than our main competitors that we will suffer when we rotate. Impossible to have the requisite squad depth for all competitions on the money we spend.

Entirely valid point which i agree with. Just felt the urge to correct the last word.

In the summer window remember it wasn't just Bera throwing a hissy fit as the window closed.. It was Wanyama too. Poch thought we were light but Levys timing etc was simply laughed at by the Chairmen involved.

Still, we spend less and...

 

[thebenjamin]

7 players, regardless if we had 7 players out we are still stronger.

Pellegrini said before the game they had 13 fit players. And a flight to Kiev the following day.

 

[Sweech]

why are we always so shit after an Europa League game ?

Palace ?

seriously ?

I fail to see what the Europa league did to make the ball hit a post roll along the line hit the other post and bounce out.

Nor do I see what the Europa League do to make Ononah miss a header and a volley. Or miss the other chances or have Hennessey make good saves.

It's not like we played like shit.

Think Poch messed up with his substitutions today. Taking off Alli and Son - 2 good attacking threats that are likely to nick a goal, yet leaving on Bentelab and Onomah who, lets be hones, wont score in a month of Sundays.

I think this is one of football's more common fallacies. That having more goal scorers in the pitch means we're more likely to score goals while totally ignoring their energy levels.

Case in point: Our 1-1 draw at Arsenal.

We were in full control of that match leading 1-0 while Arsenal desperately need a goal to save face.

What's Arsene do?

Takes off one of their most creative midfielders in Cazorla for Flamini, takes off a goal scoring pacey winger/striker in Campbell for left back Gibbs and takes off attacking right back Debuchy for midfielder Arteta. That's basically three attackers for three non ones.

The result? Arsenal take the game back over and score a goal through subbed on left back Gibbs.

So the notion of bringing on "goal scorers" when you need a goal and defenders for when you're trying to hold a lead isn't exactly true. Football has many more dimensions than that.

 

[Cinemattis]

He's no fucking better than Ruel Fox, and deep down that smug fucker knows it.

Ruel Fox? Absolute legend. The best player to ever wear the lillywhite shirt. He dared where others did - a true cock. erel.

Or...wait...heh...?

 

[waresy]

Ruel Fox? Absolute legend. The best player to ever wear the lillywhite shirt. He dared where others did - a true cock. erel.

Or...wait...heh...?

With bullet headers like this from the big man:

 

[Mullers]

Messed up on a golden chance to reach the semis

 

[Shea]

Messed up on a golden chance to reach the semis

Yea but it was a tough game against a team who defended well and played rough

We were a little unlucky on the day, you can't win them all and unfortunately we were just edged out

 

[Bus-Conductor]

I fail to see what the Europa league did to make the ball hit a post roll along the line hit the other post and bounce out.

Nor do I see what the Europa League do to make Ononah miss a header and a volley. Or miss the other chances or have Hennessey make good saves.

It's not like we played like shit.

I think this is one of football's more common fallacies. That having more goal scorers in the pitch means we're more likely to score goals while totally ignoring their energy levels.

Case in point: Our 1-1 draw at Arsenal.

We were in full control of that match leading 1-0 while Arsenal desperately need a goal to save face.

What's Arsene do?

Takes off one of their most creative midfielders in Cazorla for Flamini, takes off a goal scoring pacey winger/striker in Campbell for left back Gibbs and takes off attacking right back Debuchy for midfielder Arteta. That's basically three attackers for three non ones.

The result? Arsenal take the game back over and score a goal through subbed on left back Gibbs.

So the notion of bringing on "goal scorers" when you need a goal and defenders for when you're trying to hold a lead isn't exactly true. Football has many more dimensions than that.

Spot on.

 

[Shea]

I fail to see what the Europa league did to make the ball hit a post roll along the line hit the other post and bounce out.

Nor do I see what the Europa League do to make Ononah miss a header and a volley. Or miss the other chances or have Hennessey make good saves.

It's not like we played like shit.

I think this is one of football's more common fallacies. That having more goal scorers in the pitch means we're more likely to score goals while totally ignoring their energy levels.

Case in point: Our 1-1 draw at Arsenal.

We were in full control of that match leading 1-0 while Arsenal desperately need a goal to save face.

What's Arsene do?

Takes off one of their most creative midfielders in Cazorla for Flamini, takes off a goal scoring pacey winger/striker in Campbell for left back Gibbs and takes off attacking right back Debuchy for midfielder Arteta. That's basically three attackers for three non ones.

The result? Arsenal take the game back over and score a goal through subbed on left back Gibbs.

So the notion of bringing on "goal scorers" when you need a goal and defenders for when you're trying to hold a lead isn't exactly true. Football has many more dimensions than that.

Excellent post

It's also worth everyone who are saying we lost to Palace suggesting they're some shit box club who have no right beating us purely because of the Europa or because of our rotation remembering that we've already played them twice this season in the league, fully strengthed and struggled to a 1 goal victory each time (which had the ball not some how hit both posts in the first half we may well have done again,)

If anything we were more in control against them first half in the FA cup than we have been in either of the league games and could well have been 2-3 goals up on the balance of play. It's fine margins and there is no evidence to suggest Europa made us lose or that we'd have won had we not travelled midweek with the luck against us that day

 

[Phil-spur99]

Disappointing result given the QF draw.

 

[Mullers]

Yea but it was a tough game against a team who defended well and played rough

We were a little unlucky on the day, you can't win them all and unfortunately we were just edged out

But we put out a weaken side and for the second year in a row we got dumped out. If we put out a weakenedd side and it works great then Poch gets the praise, if he doesnt then its all on him

 

[Shea]

But we put out a weaken side and for the second year in a row we got dumped out. If we put out a weakenedd side and it works great then Poch gets the praise, if he doesnt then its all on him

Well weakened to an extent, rotated is probably the more accurate term seeing as the people we put it were all of high enough quality to play at that level due to the strength in depth in our squad

As I said even with a full strength teams against them in the two league matches we only one by a single goal and there's no guarantee that playing a stronger team would have changed the result in the cup

We played more than well enough to win the cup game, personally I think we played better and were more in control than in the league matches

The only difference was alli's wonder strike going in instead of hitting both posts like his effort in the cup and them scoring instead of hitting wood work

We could have played a stronger team and still lost in the same unlucky fashion. We have a squad capable of such rotation and I don't personally have a problem with the manager utilising the squad in this way

 

[Shell]

Must have been a decent game. even the Paxton were singing

 

[Mullers]

Well weakened to an extent, rotated is probably the more accurate term seeing as the people we put it were all of high enough quality to play at that level due to the strength in depth in our squad

As I said even with a full strength teams against them in the two league matches we only one by a single goal and there's no guarantee that playing a stronger team would have changed the result in the cup

We played more than well enough to win the cup game, personally I think we played better and were more in control than in the league matches

The only difference was alli's wonder strike going in instead of hitting both posts like his effort in the cup and them scoring instead of hitting wood work

We could have played a stronger team and still lost in the same unlucky fashion. We have a squad capable of such rotation and I don't personally have a problem with the manager utilising the squad in this way

If that happened with a full strength side then I cant really say much but we left our best defender and played Dier back there. I adovcated playing wimmer against Bournemouth and people went ballistic. This was not a game to be resting TA there were plenty other games he could have been rested.

 

[Shea]

If that happened with a full strength side then I cant really say much but we left our best defender and played Dier back there. I adovcated playing wimmer against Bournemouth and people went ballistic. This was not a game to be resting TA there were plenty other games he could have been rested.

If the reason for rotation was purely due to priority then it is clear that to the people running the club and the manager views the FA cup as a lower priority than all league games and indeed the Europa League

That's going to be subjective between fans, some will be in agreement with that decision and in turn support the rotation while others like yourself will object to it and feel that the FA cup should be given more respect and such rotation instead be made against lower level EPL teams

I'm not going to argue either way, it's really a matter of personal preference and opinion from the fans point of view. All we can say is that the manager and people in charge see the FA cup as the place to make those rotations and as a result that means the decision to do so is correct with those goals in mind (we can all agree that some level of rotation needs to be made through out the course of the season to preserve all squad and that we have the strength in depth to make such changes without drastically debilitating the teams ability to be successful)

I wouldn't argue either way, if we made those changes against mid to lower EPL teams from time to time because we wanted to be able to play stronger teams in the cups I'd be all for it. I appreciate the sports science side of football and I understand there is a need to utilise the strength of our squad and I'm very happy we have such a strong squad to be able to do so while still fielding line ups as strong as we saw against Palace, as I said I personally thought we played very well and deserved to win.

One aside I would add regarding TA - I'm a physiotherapist by trade, last year I visited our training centre and was kindly shown around all our facilities thanks to a friend of a friend who works as part of our physio staff. The amount of data that gets input after every match, every training session, even weight or fitness session is quite substantial...this is all designed to continuously monitor player fitness and performance, not least as a form of prehab to avoid potential injuries. So with that in mind I would suggest that we do not know for sure that Toby was rested simply because it was an FA cup game and deemed not important, the staff at the club MAY simply have decided it was the best time to rest him based on observations in training and analysis of this data (I mean the fact it was a cup game rather than a game against someone like Norwich or Bournemouth could have been a coincidence rather than a clear indication that the powers that be do not value the FA cup)