Jamie O’Hara claims Spurs players didn’t want to beat Crystal Palace
Jamie O’Hara is not holding back in his criticism of Ange Postecoglou and the Tottenham players following their 1-0 defeat at Crystal Palace last weekend.
Tottenham’s poorest performance of the season
Even in the games that Tottenham have lost this season, they have had large spells of complete dominance, but that was not the case at Selhurst Park.
The away side never really managed to play with any sort of rhythm and failed to build any momentum, with the Palace players hustling and hurrying them throughout the pitch.
The defeat leaves the Lilywhites with an extremely concerning away record and casts serious doubts on their top-four credentials.
Jamie O’Hara blasts players and questions Ange Postecoglou
O’Hara suggested that the Tottenham players simply did not show the required fight, and pointed out that they were second to every loose ball.
He opined that Postecoglou also got it wrong tactically and questioned his decision to start 17-year-old Mikey Moore in such a tough away game.
O’Hara told Grosvenor Sport: “Everyone let the team down. The manager, the players, the subs. Everything about the team was miles off it. Didn’t fight, didn’t want to win. Didn’t have any grit about them.
“We were laboured in our passing, lacklustre. Playing out from the back, there’s just no idea to it. Playing for the sake of playing. Everyone needs to be better. Solanke wasn’t good, Maddison needs to be better, you could go through the whole team. Romero again was poor, Van de Ven didn’t have a great game. Udogie was good, probably the only one who I thought could come out of that game and say he played well.
“The rest of them got it wrong and the manager got it wrong. I think tactically he got it wrong. Played Mikey Moore on the left – he’s a good player but the lad is 17-years-old and you’re starting him in a Premier League game when Crystal Palace are fighting for their lives? I don’t know if that was the right call.”
Palace nullified Tottenham’s threat
While criticism of the players’ effort and work rate is valid, one also has to say that Oliver Glasner won the tactical battle against Postecoglou. The Eagles denied James Maddison and Dejan Kulusevski any time or space on the ball and set perfect pressing traps to prevent Tottenham from being able to play from the back. Spurs could have adapted by going a little more direct to Dominic Solanke on occasions, but we did not really see much of that.
At least a number of the Tottenham players responded to O’Hara’s comments about a lack of grit and effort by showing bucket loads in the hard-fought win over Man City in the Carabao Cup.
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