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

[metalgear]

just as well seeing that Emirates Marketing Project is out of the fa cup too... means its a race for the EPL title.

 

[We are Tottenham]

Yes me too. If we believe we are getting CL through league qualification then the EL isn't half as attractive.
Two games to get to the FA cup final and still on for the league and cup double or seven games to get to the EL final and I feel we will need to beat teams of a better calibrate and it will include long arduous trips all over Europe and Thurs/Sun scheduling playing catch up with the other title contenders.
Can't understand why people aren't bothered. Much rather it be the other way around and get out of the EL.
It's a no brainer.

What was it...three games from a final at Wembley....and we lost at home..what a fudge up..
Same old Spurs"....."..........

 

[We are Tottenham]

We could well be on the end of a wrong result on Thursday, That would mean we would be out of two cups in a week, then that would leave us with the league, which will be extremely difficult to pull off top spot.

I get your point but I think as fans we should alter our mentality, we should be wanting to win all competitions, I dont like the 'oh it ok attitude that we lose in the fa cup. The way I see it if you get past the third round you need to give it your all.

I am gutted to lose, the more games we play the more chances we get to use our squad and develop all of our players.

Not having a moan we did not play brilliant or s**t, I am just gutted we lost and a decent trophy winning opportunity has gone begging, but yes in the grand scheme of things I would prefer to win the league or Europa more than this competition.

I just dont necessarily see todays result as having a silver lining, we have lost our momentum, and I would prefer our mentality for this club where losing is not something which is acceptable, losing should hurt us all, thats how I feel, Extra days off for the players means little to me, what matters is seeing our lads win something, even if it is from a competition which is devalued and has lost its sparkle.

THIS
I think losing this game will completely undermine our confidence in the League.
I can,t understand the coments saying it doesn't matter losing this game..it's only the F A cup.
What the fudge are we going to win for Christ sake?

 

[spasm]

BITTERLY disappointed that we are out of The Cup...but, if you'd told me at the start of the season that with this young squad we'd be second in the League, with so many of our own coming through the ranks, with our tight arse defense & THAT goal difference, playing the way we are playing and most importantly the change in mentality & philosophy that Pochettino is instilling, I would not only have bitten your hand off but your dingdong and gonads as well...
that feeling still stands...COYS!!

 

[diego_maradona]

I think the reason we're all frustrated is because we know we genuinely could have been the best team in the competition.

We're still learning. We were much better than them again but didn't take many guilt edged chances.

Hope to see Lamela back soon

 

[Roy1983]

I for one am extremely disappointed going out home to an inferior team. Extremely. At home to Reading too with what would've been an all but certain trip to Wembley. Gutted.

 

[Hemant]

And what if less games increased our chance of silverware?

I would be very surprised if there was a correlation between trophies won and lower number of games played.

I would guess the successful trophy winning teams end up playing more games per season than most. I personally would not have it any other way.

I will be wishing Spurs were involved on Cup Final day when watching whoever is there.

Our squad is nearly there but our mentality needs to still change. Both team and fans, when the going gets tough we become shrinking violets developing new coping methods for failure.

No post-hoc rationalisation if we lose against Fiorentina such as "we can focus on the Prem now"!

Losing can become a habit too.

 

[Spur of the moment]

We were some way below our best which I'll be indulgent and put down to too many changes from Thursday. When you change a team around that often as well as leaving out a few important players, something we've had to do of course, mistakes and misunderstandings are inevitable. The ideas were often good, the telepathy too often lacking.

Having said that we were also clean out of luck, the way Alli's shot hit one post, ran across the line, hit the other then ran across the line again before being booted clear. Harry could have been luckier too, three excellent shots on target, all bringing top saves out of the keeper.

 

[Modric THFC]

We were some way below our best which I'll be indulgent and put down to too many changes from Thursday. When you change a team around that often as well as leaving out a few important players, something we've had to do of course, mistakes and misunderstandings are inevitable. The ideas were often good, the telepathy too often lacking.

Having said that we were also clean out of luck, the way Alli's shot hit one post, ran across the line, hit the other then ran across the line again before being booted clear. Harry could have been luckier too, three excellent shots on target, all bringing top saves out of the keeper.

Its very easy to blame the players that came in. But look at Kane. He was barely in the game. Way less touches of the ball than he usually gets home or away. He completed something like 12 or 13 passes too. Wimmer had his poorest game so far. I dont think the likes of Bentaleb or Onomah did too much wrong. They werent the players expected to win the game for us.

 

[braineclipse]

I thought after 75 mins we ran flat, before that I thought an equalizer was inevitable. I wonder if once the game wore on, the knowledge of extra games crept in? This is what happens with young squads, and I think Poch will want to make sure we develop a squad which can compete on multiple fronts into the spring for years to come. Down to two trophies and that is fine by me...

Thought we lacked that quiet confidence and composed belief that we would score as the second half wore on.

Without Alderweireld and Vertonghen, Bentaleb having his first game back and our two less composed full backs having a rather head down day it's not a big surprise.

I think the reason we're all frustrated is because we know we genuinely could have been the best team in the competition.

We're still learning. We were much better than them again but didn't take many guilt edged chances.

Hope to see Lamela back soon

We were clearly the best team in the game. Classic "one of those days" that we haven't had many of recently luckily. If we were due one of those I would rather it was in a cup game than in a league game.

Frustrating, but still a lot of positives to take from a fairly good performance.

Agreed on Lamela.

 

[braineclipse]

I would be very surprised if there was a correlation between trophies won and lower number of games played.

I would guess the successful trophy winning teams end up playing more games per season than most. I personally would not have it any other way.

I will be wishing Spurs were involved on Cup Final day when watching whoever is there.

Our squad is nearly there but our mentality needs to still change. Both team and fans, when the going gets tough we become shrinking violets developing new coping methods for failure.

No post-hoc rationalisation if we lose against Fiorentina such as "we can focus on the Prem now"!

Losing can become a habit too.

Or we were unlucky.

After winning 6 in a row losing can become a habit because of one single loss in a game where we were clearly the best team on the pitch? To the extent that our attitude as a team needs to change I hope the attitude of our team is nothing like this.

Shrinking violets? Yeah... That's how we came away with the win against City? That's why we're second in the league? Because "when the going gets tough we become shrinking violets developing new coping methods for failure"?

Talk about overreaction...

 

[AVB]

It was a clear penalty.

Haha

 

[milo]

I would be very surprised if there was a correlation between trophies won and lower number of games played.

I would guess the successful trophy winning teams end up playing more games per season than most. I personally would not have it any other way.

I think that you have misunderstood the point I was making. The question I was asking was whether this team is ready to fight on three fronts now or whether that increases the risk of us spreading ourselves too thinly and ending up with nothing.

 

[braineclipse]

I think that you have misunderstood the point I was making. The question I was asking was whether this team is ready to fight on three fronts now or whether that increases the risk of us spreading ourselves too thinly and ending up with nothing.

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.

 

[Huddy]

Arrived back in the UK to find we lost this one. I find this very disappointing, winning this was a possibility and that can only be a good thing for our young squad.

Can someone at least tell me we were just unlucky with the result?

 

[diego_maradona]

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.

Agree. The team was fine. It was more than capable and the chances we missed and the pattern of the game prove that we should have really won. But credit to Palace, this was a game for them that was ultimately more important, so they raised their game but also were extremely fortunate that we didn't punish them when really we should have.

I do think had we played our best XI and really went for the game, we'd have won, but this is purely hypothetical and it doesn't mean it was the right thing to do. If we had nothing else to play for and we prioritised the FA cup I think we'd have stood a very good chance of winning it. But the cup is the cup and with one off games, it only takes one of these types of games for us to be out.

Big game v Fiorentina now. I think we'll overhype the importance to a degree but it wouldn't be great to crash out of two competitions so quickly. But things always have a way of working themselves out, always think back to losing to Pompey in the semi final and then beating Arsenal and Chelsea back to back. The fact that we usually bounce back so well after a defeat stands us in good stead.

 

[StephenH]

Arrived back in the UK to find we lost this one. I find this very disappointing, winning this was a possibility and that can only be a good thing for our young squad.

Can someone at least tell me we were just unlucky with the result?

Could have won, should have won. Thier player Kelly scored a pile driver and beat Vorm at 'near post'! His first goal in 4.5 years! We had numerous chances to score should have had a couple. Palace where as their manager said "resolute", which I think says it all. We tired a little as the game went on. I personally did not have any problems with way we played and on another day we would/could have won. I has bought those who relish/get off on, us losing on here.

You must decide where the luck lies.

 

[braineclipse]

Arrived back in the UK to find we lost this one. I find this very disappointing, winning this was a possibility and that can only be a good thing for our young squad.

Can someone at least tell me we were just unlucky with the result?

http://www.bbc.com/sport/football/35572137

Tottenham manager Mauricio Pochettino: "It was tough. It's like a Premier League game but you need to be clinical in front of goal. We managed the game, created chances but it was difficult to win.

"There was no tiredness. If we analysed the game we played better but you need to score. It's hard to explain.

"It's a tough period for us. We have a crazy schedule but now we need to look forward to be ready for next Thursday [v Fiorentina].

"It's impossible to know if losing here will help us in the long ruin. Now we feel disappointed because we're out."

19 shots to their 9. 4 shots on target to their 3. 65% possession.

We were the better team, by some distance. Just couldn't get the ball in the net. On another day Kane scores a brace and we walk the game. Though we were a bit less assured at the back and not as good in the final 15-20 minutes as we've been recently. Not all that surprising with the changes we (imo correctly) made.

 

[Huddy]

Thanks Guys. It seems like a repeat of some of our early season home games, dominating but unable to turn it into goals. I'd love us to be more clinical at times in front of goal, still we're heading in the right direction the odd blip is to be expected.

 

[StephenH]

Thanks Guys. It seems like a repeat of some of our early season home games, dominating but unable to turn it into goals. I'd love us to be more clinical at times in front of goal, still we're heading in the right direction the odd blip is to be expected.

I think that will be addressed this summer. Poch is very particular who he brings into the squad.

We are still at the START of the Pochettino Tottenham journey. Have had a very good season but if the stadium move does not derail us (the pitch at Wembley is crap) it will get better and better