Alasdair Gold has revealed that Cristian Romero and Guglielmo Vicario left the crowd at Selhurst Park really frustrated by choosing to keep passing the ball to each other as Crystal Palace stood off them.
Even though Spurs dominated the possession in the first half, they found it difficult to create chances as the home side defended with ten men behind the ball and did not give any space for the Tottenham players in the final third.
However, the game opened up as soon as the Lilywhites took the lead on 53 minutes, with James Maddison’s fierce cross/shot being turned into his own net by Joel Ward.
That meant that Spurs were happy to keep the ball and tempt Palace to press them, with the away side playing through the Eagles press quite easily on a couple of occasions.
That is exactly how Tottenham’s second goal came about as a sweeping move from back to front was finished off by Son Heung-min after substitute Brennan Johnson set him up with an easy chance just a few yards out from goal.
(Photo by Ryan Pierse/Getty Images)
Vicario and Romero were toying with Crystal Palace
Gold pointed out that it was a game of cat and mouse between Tottenham and Palace, with Vicario and Romero happy to keep the ball and frustrate the home crowd.
The journalist said on his YouTube Channel: “There was a lovely moment where Vicario and Romero were just passing the ball back and forward to each other.
“It was late on in the game and Palace had decided that they were going to press but only in certain areas and not go all the way up to Vicario.
“It was really fascinating because there was a point where Romero and Vicario just realised, ‘We’re 2-0 up at this point and they’re not going to come and challenge us, let’s just pass the ball back and forward’.
“That’s the point of playing the way Postecoglou wants them to play, and this is Hodgson obviously telling his players not to go all the way up.
“Because the moment you bring one or two players out to do the pressing that high up, Spurs get around you and you’re suddenly outnumbered and that’s the beauty of it.
“But then the crowd were getting really annoyed with their players because they’re thinking, ‘Why are you not going up there, why are you not getting the ball?’ and they were getting more and more frustrated.”
Spurs Web Opinion
While the game became easier once we took the lead as we could tempt Palace forward and open up spaces, the fact that we struggled to break them down at 0-0 was a matter of concern.
Teams will have certainly watched how Roy Hodgson’s men frustrated us in the first half and will adopt a similar game plan against us over the coming months.
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