Guglielmo Vicario’s reaction at the full-time whistle summarized the disappointment felt by Tottenham after a 1-0 defeat against Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park. As the final whistle blew, Vicario, along with his teammates, approached the away supporters to apologize for their performance. Tottenham’s display left much to be desired, offering little for the travelling fans to cheer about. Crystal Palace, conversely, earned their first win of the 2024/25 Premier League campaign, presenting significant challenges for their opponents.
**Tottenham’s Struggles**
Currently, Tottenham is facing inconsistency in their league performance, dropping them five points behind Aston Villa in fourth place and ten points behind leaders Manchester City. Tottenham had close moments when Brennan Johnson hit the post and James Maddison forced a save from Dean Henderson near halftime, but they never exerted serious pressure or secured clear opportunities to regain control of the game. Crystal Palace capitalized on their chance in the 31st minute when Jean-Phillipe Mateta scored, further highlighting Tottenham’s lack of effectiveness.
**Guglielmo Vicario’s Response**
Guglielmo Vicario said, “It’s disappointing, we have to take it very personally and it has to hurt a lot. Fortunately in football, we have another occasion in two days in a big game. In terms of attitude, in terms of power, in terms of taking care of things. Today they showed and we showed less than them. For us as a team we have to improve this aspect because to win games of football it’s not about playing good football, it’s also about this kind of stuff. We have to put in there as soon as we can because we need to change this mountain of results with ups and downs, ups and downs. We have to be more stable in our results because we have the quality but the quality sometimes is not enough.”
**Match Decisions and Their Impact**
Ange Postecoglou’s midfield choices seemingly affected the team’s performance against Crystal Palace. Previous matches showed the importance of strategic substitutions, like Pape Matar Sarr’s pivotal role in the win over West Ham. Despite James Maddison’s recent strong performance against AZ Alkmaar, his inclusion over Sarr against Palace did not replicate his success. Mikey Moore received his first Premier League start due to Son Heung-min’s injury but couldn’t significantly influence the game.
**Post-Match Assessment**
Ange Postecoglou said, “I think even before then 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. It just seems we kind of wanted everything to run smoothly and we know it doesn’t, especially in a game like today. It was never going to be one with bags of chances or really open so to concede like that was disappointing. We didn’t get to grips with just the nature of what was transpiring out there. It was a game which turned into, and it didn’t surprise me, a bit of a battle. Lots of stop, starting and standing around. We didn’t deal with that really well at all. No, I don’t want to play them at their own game. 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, which is not a surprise. And 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. So I think we directed our frustration in the wrong way rather than dealing with like we should have.”
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