Ange Postecoglou explains what he wants teams to do against Tottenham

Tottenham Hotspur found themselves completely overwhelmed by Crystal Palace this afternoon, falling to another defeat away from home, and after the game, Ange Postecoglou revealed how he wants his teams to set up to get the better of their opponents.

A poor showing from Spurs

Spurs went into the game on the back of a comprehensive win over West Ham last weekend and a solid victory over AZ Alkmaar in the Europa League in midweek.

They came up against a Palace side who had failed to win in their opening eight games of the Premier League season, and expectations were high that Spurs could keep up their winning ways.

It wasn’t to be, though, with Palace taking the game to Ange Postecoglou‘s men from the very first minute, creating a number of chances while restricting Tottenham’s attacking play.

That’s not quite how Postecoglou wanted the game to go, naturally. In his post-match press conference (via Football.London), the Spurs boss described it as a game where his players seemed to “fall into the trap of trying to play the game ultimately Palace wanted to play.”

Spurs need to control games

Discussing what he would want to see from his players in these scenarios, it is clear that Postecoglou demands his team should dictate the game and play their own way at all times.

He said: “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.

“We ended up doing silly things, giving away silly fouls and losing our composure, which just adds to that sort of game when you can’t get any traction. So I think we directed our frustration in the wrong way rather than dealing with like we should have.”

A bump in the road

Hopefully, this performance and this result is merely an anomaly, but it is concerning that now twice this season Spurs have appeared to just be completely overawed by their opponents. The players have got to be stronger and figure out how to create chances regardless of the circumstances and the way teams are setting up against them.

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