OMT ** Tottenham Hotspur v Palace **. 28.12.25 4.30pm

[lurker of old]

My question is how the PL define being offside "in the build up", as Lucas Bergvall was adjudged to be? It wasn't as if his offside lead directly to a goal, there were a number of passes.....just seemed a bit random to me..............

 

[SissokoWasGood (BoL)]

Good post.

Unlike the Forest game, this was closer to what a blueprint may look like to win an away game in this league. Still a work in progress obv, but from the start we made less errors, got more details right, and gave ourselves a chance with a more mature, professional performance.
For me, 1-0 wins, esp away, are not something to have some kind of an aversion to. Its how the top teams have won titles, going back to Leeds in the late 60's. More recently, even Emirates Marketing Project in their prime had a smattering of 1-0's. Despite all their wealth of talent, Pep knew it wouldn't always be easy and they needed to find other ways to win when they weren't at their best and still get over the line.
Porro looked more solid (even though he had his hands full with their sub). Our subs made a difference. Johnson got involved and looked threatening. Palhinha came on and did what he does well...strong challenges, took a knock and stayed down, experience when needed. Odobert has been discussed, showed well and looked more confident.

Agreed. The Forest game was terrible because we conceded from a bad individual mistake in a phase where we were defending. And then got unlucky with them scoring from a cross. So the game state just completely blew up our plan. And we were unlucky to have that happen to us.

Palace is absolutely a good blueprint. We defended well. We didn’t allow them anything uncontested. And we created two tap ins, hit the post, and looked far more likely to get the second. I think we need to do more of this, while executing well in a similar vein against top teams especially at home, while repeating the Brentford performance against teams we should swat aside. If we can do this consistently, we’ll be where we should be.

 

[SissokoWasGood (BoL)]

I thought it was reasonably comfortable
We had the better opportunities at 0-0 and 0-1 and the spells in which we were clicking/showing intent we were much more threatening than anything Palace offered.

Agree with this.

Having a lot of debates with people which essentially boils down to whether defending in a low block is actually viable for a top team. I think that it is, because plenty of teams have won big titles with this approach.

The argument that Palace won the XG because they had more highly contested efforts than we had doesn’t wash with me. Our chances were clear, tap ins. We ceded territory deliberately, so that we could contest their attempts and circumvent their press baiting.

Forest shows what happens when a team scores from a cross. Of course it can happen. But Frank’s bet is over the course of a season, playing the %’s is going to pay off. Let’s see if it does, yesterday though was a good effort and a plan well executed.

 

[harr1984]

Agree with this.

Having a lot of debates with people which essentially boils down to whether defending in a low block is actually viable for a top team. I think that it is, because plenty of teams have won big titles with this approach.

The argument that Palace won the XG because they had more highly contested efforts than we had doesn’t wash with me. Our chances were clear, tap ins. We ceded territory deliberately, so that we could contest their attempts and circumvent their press baiting.

Forest shows what happens when a team scores from a cross. Of course it can happen. But Frank’s bet is over the course of a season, playing the %’s is going to pay off. Let’s see if it does, yesterday though was a good effort and a plan well executed.

It has paid off this season away from home, we are top of the league away from home. Sure the football hasn't been great, but can't say it hasn't been effective.

The obvious question marks are at home - we need a more varied approach to our football to both appease the fans and get better results. Solve that conundrum and the outlook will be a lot better. Players returning from injury and a couple of January acquisitions hopefully will make the difference....

 

[ricky2tricky4city]

I would agree Palace had more final third opportunities than us, but we have seen that show before (from us), huff and puff but not really decisive.

Our two offside goals and the shot where Wilson hit the post were much more decisive/created plays than anything Palace managed all game. And yes on another day one could have gone in off someone's ass because we let them have too much of the ball, but you really can't watch a game where Vic didn't have a single save that wasn't down his throat, and our defenders (Danso particularly) were just mopping up the hopeful balls punted in and claim they were good.

The real issue with that game was us not pushing on them earlier and killing it off (result worked out but they were there for the taking)

They had three, better than just half chance headers, I clearly remember.

 

[Finney Is Back]

That's not right. They're unbeaten at home, so that's where they have taken the vast majority of their points.

I think they’ve also got 5 or 6 players away at AFCON.

 

[K.D.D.D.D.Soc]

They had three, better than just half chance headers, I clearly remember.

I believe apart from being completely unmarked and less than 6 yards out any header is a half chance as hardly any PL footballer can head the ball accurately, the header from Mateta should have been called as a foul as he used both hands on our defenders shoulders to lever himself up to reach the ball.

 

[ricky2tricky4city]

Minor plusses. Radu back, Big Kev easily worthy of starting if needed, Wilson still showing confidence (in himself). The team is still onboard. Away support great.

Not much to be learned from another even/tight game overall.

Still not controlling (are we even looking to?) periods of the game.
Passing is generally pedestrian (although a couple of moves noteworthy, so green shoots?)
I honestly think the players put in a ton of effort (a good job they do)....but any chemistry is severely lacking. Maybe that relentless effort gets in the way of chemistry developing???

It's such slim margins, as I stood there thru that first 25 mins of the second half, with us all camped behind the ball, thinking if this goes wrong, TF will be crucified.
It didn't, and we walk away with 3pts and another little foundation to build on.

Of course, with a lead TF could be right. Palace are a dangerous team on the counter, so you take that away from them by sitting in.

We must not forget the massive advantage we had over Palace schedule wise. They definitely looked leggy in the last 20 and we so nearly took advantage.
Good subs from Frank.

Overall though I don't think we shifted the needle in any direction, you just hope (blind hope) that it's the start of something.

Hope Lucas is ok

 

[ricky2tricky4city]

Mateta should have been called as a foul as he used both hands on our defenders shoulders to lever himself up to reach the ball.

I thought that was allowed against us?

 

[Muttley]

Minor plusses. Radu back, Big Kev easily worthy of starting if needed, Wilson still showing confidence (in himself). The team is still onboard. Away support great.

Not much to be learned from another even/tight game overall.

Still not controlling (are we even looking to?) periods of the game.
Passing is generally pedestrian (although a couple of moves noteworthy, so green shoots?)
I honestly think the players put in a ton of effort (a good job they do)....but any chemistry is severely lacking. Maybe that relentless effort gets in the way of chemistry developing???

It's such slim margins, as I stood there thru that first 25 mins of the second half, with us all camped behind the ball, thinking if this goes wrong, TF will be crucified.
It didn't, and we walk away with 3pts and another little foundation to build on.

Of course, with a lead TF could be right. Palace are a dangerous team on the counter, so you take that away from them by sitting in.

We must not forget the massive advantage we had over Palace schedule wise. They definitely looked leggy in the last 20 and we so nearly took advantage.
Good subs from Frank.

Overall though I don't think we shifted the needle in any direction, you just hope (blind hope) that it's the start of something.

Hope Lucas is ok

Reading your post got me thinking that one of the biggest changes the players have gone through is prepping differently for games this season. It was strongly implied that for 2 years Ange was getting his players to follow his game plan and didn't seem to focused on the opposition as other managers. His philosophy seemed to be more about letting the opposition worry about us rather than the other way round. Then we bring in Frank and he seems laser focused on the opposition and is teaching his players how to adapt tactics game to game. It feels a way more pragmatic approach. What may happen is that as we play the same opposition second time around we start to do it with more success.