Joao Palhinha has revealed what the feeling is in the Tottenham dressing room following the draw against Brighton, and has mentioned one aspect of their performance that the Lilywhites can be proud of.
Tottenham Hotspur’s game at the Amex Stadium was very unlike what we have come to expect under Thomas Frank so far.
Frank has emphasised defensive control and keeping clean sheets, and the Tottenham boss would thus not have been happy with the goals that his side conceded in the first half.
However, the Spurs head coach has praised the resilience his side showed against Brighton to come back from 2-0 down to salvage a draw, and Palhinha has now made a bullish claim about Tottenham’s performance.
Joao Palhinha admits Tottenham players are disappointed with a draw
The Portugal international, who came back into the starting eleven against Brighton after being used as a substitute against Villarreal, admits that he and his teammates are disappointed not to walk away with all three points from the Amex Stadium.
The 31-year-old hailed the spirit that his side showed to fight back, but insisted that they did enough to win the game.
Palhinha told Sky Sports: “We leave this stadium feeling really, really sad because in my opinion we completely deserved to win the game.
MORE SPURS STORIES
“What we showed from the first minute, we dominated the game, created a lot of chances and arrived to the last third in a good shape. We suffered two goals against the run of play, but that’s football.
“At least what we can take is the mentality that we had fighting for the result. It’s not easy, losing 2-0 away and after you get a draw in a tough stadium like this, against a tough team like Brighton.
“Again we leave with the feeling that we could have taken the victory. But now let’s move on and focus on the cup.”
Palhinha lauds one aspect of Tottenham’s play against Brighton
Even though the Lilywhites conceded twice, Palhinha pointed out that Tottenham did not allow Brighton to counter-attack them on many occasions.
The experienced midfielder was pleased with how Spurs controlled the transitions and the chances they fashioned.
The on-loan Bayern Munich man added: “What I felt on the pitch is that we controlled the most part of the game. We did not suffer too many counterattacks, which is good against a team like this because they like to have the ball and create really good chances. We controlled the transitions, not the first one, which resulted in a goal, but in the end, we did a good game and we showed what we can do.
“This mentality needs to be there always, regardless of the result. There are a lot of things for this team to keep improving, but these improvements have come week by week.”