Ange Postecoglou and Tottenham Hotspur got their game plan all wrong against Crystal Palace and the club’s supporters believe one player in particular was missing from the team.
Spurs suffered yet another defeat away from home as they handed Palace their first win of the season in a shocking display across the capital. The North London club have now lost nine of their 24 away matches under Postecoglou and their form away from the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium is becoming a major issue.
It’s hard to explain why Tottenham were quite so poor at Selhurst Park although Guglielmo Vicario summarised it by claiming Spurs lacked fight against the Eagles. Meanwhile, Spurs fans believe that Postecoglou made a mistake not including one player in particular in the line up.
Rodrigo Bentancur missing vs Crystal Palace
Having seen the midfield outfought against West Ham, Postecoglou made the right call to change it at half-time taking off James Maddison for Pape Matar Sarr.
So it’s hard to understand why the Spurs boss opted to stick with the same midfield that started against the Hammers and not to bring in one of Sarr or Rodrigo Bentancur.
Tottenham supporters have taken to social media to share their frustration at the manager’s call to leave Bentancur out of the team.
One supporter said: “How on earth is Bentancur on the bench, it’s beyond me. Should be starting every single week.”
Another fan claimed that Postecoglou should have started Bentancur or Sarr alongside Yves Bissouma in midfield: “If Ange expected a stop/start game, that would be a battle, he certainly didn’t set us up to match that. At home, you can get away with being so open in midfield. Away, you need work and win that battle. Sarr or Bentancur were needed with Bissouma today.”
“It’s on the manager. Poor team selection. Starting Maddison over Sarr and Bentancur is just ridiculous leaving our midfield so open. Ange has lost it. Time ticking,” added another.
Going forward Postecoglou needs to rethink his midfield set-up as clearly the partnership of Maddison and Kulusevski will not offer much fight in tough away games.
What changes will Ange Postecoglou make vs Man City?
Tottenham took the risk of resting Heung-min Son for the trip to Palace as a precaution although he is set to return to the team for the Carabao Cup clash with Manchester City.
The Lilywhites captain has a great record against City having won nine of his 19 meetings against them and scoring on nine occasions.
Postecoglou is expected to name a strong team for the cup game with Vicario, Micky van de Ven, Pedro Porro, Dejan Kulusevski, Brennan Johnson and Dominic Solanke all likely to start.
Tottenham’s predicted line up vs Manchester City: Vicario; Spence, Van de Ven, Dragusin, Porro; Bentancur, Sarr, Kulusevski; Son, Johnson, Solanke.
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