*** Tottenham vs Palace FA Cup OMT ***

[SpurMeUp]

Son was very positive first half. We'll need him firing in the run in and EL, it would take pressure off Kane. Son looks strong and quicker now. He's up to speed and I'm excited.

Alli and Onomah - the future! You could see these two in 3 years time at the heart of Spurs. Both should have scored however!

Would have liked to have seen CCV and had Dier in the middle. But another day.

Small margins the loss, but maybe it will help us focus now. Each loss has given us a lift. We seem to re-appraise, re-group and come back stronger.

 

[90291Spur]

Small margins the loss, but maybe it will help us focus now. Each loss has given us a lift. We seem to re-appraise, re-group and come back stronger.

Agreed. Apart from the opening day of the season every loss has seen us go on a solid run of games. And as of now there are no injuries, which is great.

 

[braineclipse]

So many people saying we were unlucky, we had one of those days and its nothing to worry about.

But this season in the League we've been unlucky during games and where previously a Tottenham team would have let the game go thinking "well it's not our day", Poch's team refused to accept bad luck. All season we have been forcing game to our will, coming back from losing position and pushing until the end.

On Sunday there was none of that. It was the same type of well fudge it type of attitude we have in the Europa.

That is the difference here.

Poch has done an amazing job motivating modern footballers. But is it possibly to motivate them in what they see as minor competitions while at the same time competing for the League.

Do players 25 and under care about the FA Cup? Its never been a big deal in their football watching lifetimes. Some of the grew up with Millennium Stadium finals not Wembley. They only recently put a stop to the FA final being on the same day as Premier League TV games. Remember in 2011 United won the League the same day City won the Cup.

Where it does have a value to players is when rivals come up against each. Its a huge advantage in the league to put one of on your rivals in the cup. Arsenal's 2007/08 league title challenge fell apart after they lost 4-0 to United. They went from 5 points clear at the top to losing the league by 5 points. I'm sure our win over Leicester in the Cup helped us in the League.

Bit of a rewrite of history to say that we've always managed to refuse bad luck and gotten the result we deserved. Several league games this season we've gotten significantly less than we deserved. This is football and no team is able to just force their way past bad luck in every game.

I really didn't think there was a lack of trying towards the end. There was a lack of the quiet composed confidence that we would score. There were players "trying too hard", looking to do it all themselves, instead of trusting the system to do the job. Again I think this can be explained perfectly fine by the changes to our line-up that Pochettino rightly made for this game.

Just one of those days. And if you imagine that at any point in time we'll stop having those days you're deluded.

 

[Jurgen the German]

Can anyone on here that went tell me what kind of reaction Adebayor got?

I can't say I'm surprised about the booing, but I didn't feel anything other than indifference towards him on Sunday. He's move to Palace FFS! The best reaction would have been no reaction.

 

[Modric THFC]

Bit of a rewrite of history to say that we've always managed to refuse bad luck and gotten the result we deserved. Several league games this season we've gotten significantly less than we deserved. This is football and no team is able to just force their way past bad luck in every game.

I really didn't think there was a lack of trying towards the end. There was a lack of the quiet composed confidence that we would score. There were players "trying too hard", looking to do it all themselves, instead of trusting the system to do the job. Again I think this can be explained perfectly fine by the changes to our line-up that Pochettino rightly made for this game.

Just one of those days. And if you imagine that at any point in time we'll stop having those days you're deluded.

If we were properly trying at the end we wouldn't have had only 6 players in the box at a 91st minute corner 1-0 down and going out.
This would not have happened if we needed a goal to win the league would it?

 

[Gazzasrightboot]

I think you're spot on milo.

What I will say is that to some extent we are ready to fight on three fronts now. We showed that yesterday by being quite a lot better than Palace.

Palace were off form, but as is often the case form can to some extent go out the window for an individual cup game. We had a game on Thursday, another game next Thursday whereas for Palace this was probably the perfect step away from their poor league form to a different competition with different expectations. A full week to prepare and a full week off after. We made a lot of changes. Bentaleb back from injury, Onomah, a very young CB partnership in Dier and Wimmer, backup goalie, no Eriksen from the start, Lamela out etc etc...

But despite all these changes, changes I think Pochettino was absolutely 100% correct to make, we were the better team. On a different day in front of goal we would have crushed them. Our performance showed that we are ready to fight on three fronts. But fighting on three fronts is not the same as succeeding on three fronts. There's too much luck and variance in football to do that consistently.

I think we should be able to be disappointed to lose, whilst being happy about our performance. Because our performance, all things considered, was good.

I'm gutted to lose, but have to say @braineclipse that I think your post is absolutely spot on and completely rationalised the loss and disappointment for me. The FA cup is a special cup for me and I always start the season with expectations of us winning it again. I hate how kids nowadays see that lot down the road as the most successful cup team.

But, you are absolutely right. Our performance did show that we are ready to fight on three fronts and on another day we would have won. The players and club will be hurting from this, but the reality is that this is just one of a number of competitions that we are in play for. We lost. It's disappointing. But it is not going to make or break our season like it has done for me on so many occasions before. We've got more to play for, and, crucially, are still in it to win some silverware.

 

[Spurs7891]

Still very annoyed with this defeat ! It was the return of the same old Spurs who always lets you down when you put too much hope on them ! This is what over confidence will do to you. Pochettino has to take the full blame for the defeat, for resting too many players. He simply got over confident and complacent by resting too many key players, especially Alderweireld in defence. Palace being a PL team were always going to trouble us and Pochettino made it easy for them by resting our key defender Alderweireld.

As soon as I saw our team lineup, knew we would be in trouble, especially with Alderweireld missing and Dier back in defence. And so it was proved ! Wimmer still lacks the experience while Dier has not been as convincing in defence as he is in midfield. Dier should not play in defence atleast until he cuts down his mistakes ! I think Alderweireld would have stopped the shot from which they scored. Vorm too should take some blame as he should not have been beaten at his near post. But credit to Vorm for saving the stupid back header from Walker.

I think Pochettino's failure to buy another striker made the difference in this match. We dominated the match but didn't look like scoring from our chances. Kane has been poor in recent matches and he was poor again. He didn't look like scoring all match. We needed someone to inspire us but we failed to find anyone. Alli should have done better with his close header early in the first half but he was also unlucky as his shot hit the post twice later on. Simliarly, Onomah should have done better with 2 chances. Son should have shot first time before it was hit by Alli onto the post. Apart from that, we didn't create any clear cut chances especially in the 2nd half.

Just like the Fiorentina game, we badly missed the creativity of Lamela. I think he is our only player who can crack open our opponents with his deadly and inch-perfect passes. Eriksen and Dembele just don't have the the creativity and focus of Lamela. Too bad Lamela was ill at the wrong time for us. Hope he will come back soon.

Can't believe I was secretly dreaming of a league and Cup double ! Should have known better ! Never thought we would lose to Palace at home ! With this defeat, you have to question Pochettino's ability to win us a Cup. He may have improved our league results but we have been unconvincing in the Cups under him. The FA Cup draws had been very kind to us since last season with us avoiding any big teams. But in both the seasons, we have made the exit at home to shyte teams ! It seems like we are fully jinxed in the FA Cup now. Maybe the FA Cup gods are still angry at Levy for sacking GG before the FA Cup semi final in 2001 ! Find it hard to accept we have not won the FA Cup for 26 years now !