Guglielmo Vicario has questioned Tottenham’s “desire to fight” after they slumped to a woeful defeat against Crystal Palace.
Spurs on Sunday became the first team to lose to their London rivals in the Premier League so far this season, with Jean-Philippe Mateta’s first-half strike proving enough to settle a notably scrappy affair at Selhurst Park.
It was a hugely frustrating performance from the visitors, who had 66 per cent possession on the day but struggled to create clear-cut chances in the absence of captain Heung-min Son, who was sidelined again having experienced soreness in the aftermath of his comeback from a hamstring injury against West Ham last weekend.
Though Spurs have flashed their quality on several occasions this season both domestically and with three consecutive wins in the Europa League, they remain subject to frustrating inconsistency, with their loss at Palace coming just a few weeks after they led 2-0 at half-time away at Brighton before collapsing to lose 3-2 in what manager Ange Postecoglou labelled as the worst defeat of his tenure so far.
Now goalkeeper Vicario has admitted that Tottenham were simply outfought by an Eagles team desperate to secure a first league win of the season and ease some of the mounting pressure on head coach Oliver Glasner.
"They fight and I think we lacked that today,” the Italian said, per BBC Sport. “We are disappointed because we have to fight. We play good football, but maybe we sometimes lack the desire to fight. They showed a real desire to fight for something.
"I just want to focus on us and what we didn't do as a team. I think we lacked a bit of energy and to be better than them. We have to take this personally and it has to hurt us a lot.
"Football gives us an opportunity again and we have to be ready for the cup [against Manchester City]."
Vicario was not willing to use Son’s absence as an excuse for their performance at Selhurst, insisting that they must find ways to win matches without their influential skipper.
"He is the captain, but we have a big squad and we have to deal with that,” he said. “We have to be able to win games without Son. We lacked something, not in football but in attitude and fight."
