Crystal Palace FC Thread + Championship Chat

[Josedinho]

Yeh was well impressed with us tonight. Made a good team look average.

[WPIL]

Play like that rest of the wade and e should be safe (last goal almost like Torres in ECL semi final)

[Matt.NFFC.]

It really is a funny old league isn't it.  With Forest winning and teams around us not doing much, it was also a good day for us, however, I wouldn't be too concerned about us, we are not good enough to threaten the top 3.

6th at the very best, but unlikely this season.

Sorry Tighty, I'm praying Leicester don't go up for obvious reasons.

[Ant040689]

The wind has been taken out of our sails at the moment and we are not on the blistering form we were on when Zaha was firing on all cylinders. I remember watching him against Peterborough away and thinking he is going to be a superstar. Now he is playing like he is going through the motions and is pretty terrible.

Need him gone for as much money as possible, or we need him to be told he is not leaving until possibly the summer, so he has to get his head back down to assure the move. I think his lackadaisical, performances recently have been because he probably knows more than us about how likely he is to be going to a top team and he has subsequently put his foot off the gas with us to nearly a complete stop. He is distracting the team and taking the focus away from what we should be doing on the pitch. I think too, other players are getting frustrated with Zaha and are as bemused with how he is playing as I am.

Cannot be stressed enough too that our poor recent form could be down to Holloway being a little duped into thinking Ramage is the answer to our centre back problems when we have Darcy Blake and Danny Gabbiddon on the bench, who have both been proven to be better when played.

We have Joel Ward out injured for another 3 weeks and he is our best and only real right back. We have a left back filling in at the moment in Johnny Parr and he is awful on the other side, complete ledge on the left though where he should be starting! Then we have Dean Moxey at left back who is a defensive calamity, pure and simple.

Actually going through our defence is depressing me, plus I think Darcy Blake is injured too. So we have three of the four starting defenders, who I deem to be lower Championship standard, and if we continue to play them we will be no where near the top six. But get Joel Ward back in the team and that puts Parr back out on the left, drop Ramage for Gabiddon/Blake and maintain Delaney and I think we have there are top defence in this league.

Our central midfield trio has been upset because Dikagcoi has left for the ACN and Garvan is out injured, not sure for how long, and tbh, I didn't even know he was injured and didn't play yesterday. FFS we are down to the bare bones here.

We have Jedinek in with Moritz and O' keefe then at the moment. Moritz is a slow mofo who is currently unfit but takes a superb free kick, can delay play, annoyingly, by holding the ball up for too long, while we like to pop the ball around on the floor very quickly nowadays. He however has a fierce shot and a good eye for a through ball, but really isn't as good as Garvan in the same playmaker role. O' Keefe is unproven at this level and has looked a little out of sorts when I have seen him and doesn't look likely to fill Dikagcoi's boots at all.

We have Zaha on the left wing and Bolassie on the right. We need to bench Zaha on current form and bring in Williams who may well be a great player for us if he develops a bit more strength, has a great pass and reminds me a little of the Derby wonderkid with his ability for a piercing through ball and great feet. Bolassie is pretty amazing. Great workrate, skill and cross and has shown what an indispensable player he is to us.

Murray up front cannot normally create anything by himself, directly, it seems. If you plant the ball with him outside the box, he is mostly scared stiff by the thought of shooting, and will always look to play it wide. The best poacher I have ever seen though, and holds the ball up well with great flick ons, so for our system he fits in great.

Right, on assessment we are a little screwed for the rest of this month, unless Dikagcoi comes back unexpectedly from ACN, Garvan and Ward do miraculous recoveries, and Ramage gets dropped for the forseeable future. We do have a completely makeshift team that is in a little bit of disarray with the Zaha situation.

This needs to be sorted ASAP, as a lot of teams around us are starting to look the business, Leicester and Watford in particular, but I think our home form could be what saves us.

Dropping Zaha is a little out there of a thought, but with the intentions he has to leave and with us accommodating offers, we should be planning now for a future without him. And if we do let him go but he is loaned back to us for the rest of the season, I am nigh on certain we get the real Zaha back and we could get promoted. As he would be a happy man, he would be playing football just like he did pre England call up and he would effectively be playing for his place in the starting line up of the Man United team, or whatever club he goes to.

So round up is you won't be seeing me placing recommendations for us to win in any games on the Tips for Tikay thread for a change, unless something drastic happens quickly. For the first time in the season I am worried. I hope that our amazing home form is what keeps our chances of automatic promotion alive. I also do have faith that I could be completely wrong with all the negative assertions of all the players I talked about above and would absolutely love them all to gel and start winning games.

Big match next week against Bolton, with the return of Dougie. Fan opinion of what he should be regarded as now, is split, quite dramatically. I still think he is a Palace hero and an ill judged move to leave for Bolton doesn't change my view of him, but so many fans think he is scum now.

Huge month for Palace, if we get through this with our heads held high, within touching distance of the top two and then you never know. Still got that £200 at 11/1 for us to be promoted to think about too. That coming in would be nice.

[Royal Flush]

You ever considered that he just isn't all that?

[anthonyl]

You ever considered that he just isn't all that?

Told him that earlier on in the thread. Had about three good games and is suddenly worth £20M.

lol.

[Ant040689]

Think Chompy and Tighty on here will probably come to my defense on that one. 20m might have been steep, but he was such a class player, with his biggest fault being on occasion his finishing and final ball,but he wiuld often create something ot of nothing.

I think you guys have to think back to him last season at the Amex, but he had improved much more over the summer, and was bloody scintillating.

[Chompy]

Yuh, definitely a bit special on what he did at London Road.

[Ant040689]

Also he was our most consistently awesome player up until the England call up. If your are extremely bored, look back on most of our games reports this season and what the opposing manager has had to say after, or the match report even! Zaha is praised gushingly, all the time.

In particular if you are looking for a standout game ask a Wolves season ticket holder what they think of Zaha when we went to the Molineux.

[aaron1867]

I don't think I have ever seen a Championship player leave for anyone for anywhere near, so Zaha really did need to be a superstar as you said, but he isn't.

A good weekend for us. But like others have mentioned it is the Wednesday way to play that well away to one of the top teams, then play a very average one and go and lose comfortably. After I saw the line up for the Hull game I thought we was in for a hammering. But we played awesome and very good value for win, but I don't think we made them look 'average', I think they was absolute poor, think it's fair to say we probably caught them on a very off day.

I said Bristol City was doomed weeks and weeks ago, no change there & no manager will fix that without investment this month.

Barnsley & P'boro a very mixed bag, Barnsley can go and play top teams and deserve a result (Millwall & Leeds), then go and get outplayed by very average teams at home. P'boro a lot better team than 5 or 6 weeks ago.

I think we will stay up & I would not be surprised if Birmingham got caught up in this when they have Lee Clark in charge.

Leicester good value for promotion also, best team at Hillsborough this season, imo.

[kpnuts]

Huge day for Leicester

Cardiff drew, Hull, Palace, Middlesboro lose

2 points off 2nd with a much better goal diff and Chris Wood looking a hugely significant signing. We have a lot of flair creative players, now with a second goalscorer up with Nugent we are firing the chances in, which we weren't converting consistently two months ago

Next, Middlesborough at home, a big one


Huge day for Barnsley and Sheff Wed at the other end, too

Wednesday were great value for the win at Hull just now, were robbed of a second goal at 1-0 and a Hull sending off by eccentric refereeing and produced a terrific away performance you wouldn't have thought they had in them

St@nley J@mes going a very generous looking 10/11 about your boys on Friday night. Most firms 8/11, with B0yles as short as 4/6. Betfair 1.79. I've filled my little boots anyway!

[Matt50]

The wind has been taken out of our sails at the moment and we are not on the blistering form we were on when Zaha was firing on all cylinders. I remember watching him against Peterborough away and thinking he is going to be a superstar. Now he is playing like he is going through the motions and is pretty terrible.

Need him gone for as much money as possible, or we need him to be told he is not leaving until possibly the summer, so he has to get his head back down to assure the move. I think his lackadaisical, performances recently have been because he probably knows more than us about how likely he is to be going to a top team and he has subsequently put his foot off the gas with us to nearly a complete stop. He is distracting the team and taking the focus away from what we should be doing on the pitch. I think too, other players are getting frustrated with Zaha and are as bemused with how he is playing as I am.

Cannot be stressed enough too that our poor recent form could be down to Holloway being a little duped into thinking Ramage is the answer to our centre back problems when we have Darcy Blake and Danny Gabbiddon on the bench, who have both been proven to be better when played.

We have Joel Ward out injured for another 3 weeks and he is our best and only real right back. We have a left back filling in at the moment in Johnny Parr and he is awful on the other side, complete ledge on the left though where he should be starting! Then we have Dean Moxey at left back who is a defensive calamity, pure and simple.

Actually going through our defence is depressing me, plus I think Darcy Blake is injured too. So we have three of the four starting defenders, who I deem to be lower Championship standard, and if we continue to play them we will be no where near the top six. But get Joel Ward back in the team and that puts Parr back out on the left, drop Ramage for Gabiddon/Blake and maintain Delaney and I think we have there are top defence in this league.

Our central midfield trio has been upset because Dikagcoi has left for the ACN and Garvan is out injured, not sure for how long, and tbh, I didn't even know he was injured and didn't play yesterday. FFS we are down to the bare bones here.

We have Jedinek in with Moritz and O' keefe then at the moment. Moritz is a slow mofo who is currently unfit but takes a superb free kick, can delay play, annoyingly, by holding the ball up for too long, while we like to pop the ball around on the floor very quickly nowadays. He however has a fierce shot and a good eye for a through ball, but really isn't as good as Garvan in the same playmaker role. O' Keefe is unproven at this level and has looked a little out of sorts when I have seen him and doesn't look likely to fill Dikagcoi's boots at all.

We have Zaha on the left wing and Bolassie on the right. We need to bench Zaha on current form and bring in Williams who may well be a great player for us if he develops a bit more strength, has a great pass and reminds me a little of the Derby wonderkid with his ability for a piercing through ball and great feet. Bolassie is pretty amazing. Great workrate, skill and cross and has shown what an indispensable player he is to us.

Murray up front cannot normally create anything by himself, directly, it seems. If you plant the ball with him outside the box, he is mostly scared stiff by the thought of shooting, and will always look to play it wide. The best poacher I have ever seen though, and holds the ball up well with great flick ons, so for our system he fits in great.

Right, on assessment we are a little screwed for the rest of this month, unless Dikagcoi comes back unexpectedly from ACN, Garvan and Ward do miraculous recoveries, and Ramage gets dropped for the forseeable future. We do have a completely makeshift team that is in a little bit of disarray with the Zaha situation.

This needs to be sorted ASAP, as a lot of teams around us are starting to look the business, Leicester and Watford in particular, but I think our home form could be what saves us.

Dropping Zaha is a little out there of a thought, but with the intentions he has to leave and with us accommodating offers, we should be planning now for a future without him. And if we do let him go but he is loaned back to us for the rest of the season, I am nigh on certain we get the real Zaha back and we could get promoted. As he would be a happy man, he would be playing football just like he did pre England call up and he would effectively be playing for his place in the starting line up of the Man United team, or whatever club he goes to.

So round up is you won't be seeing me placing recommendations for us to win in any games on the Tips for Tikay thread for a change, unless something drastic happens quickly. For the first time in the season I am worried. I hope that our amazing home form is what keeps our chances of automatic promotion alive. I also do have faith that I could be completely wrong with all the negative assertions of all the players I talked about above and would absolutely love them all to gel and start winning games.

Big match next week against Bolton, with the return of Dougie. Fan opinion of what he should be regarded as now, is split, quite dramatically. I still think he is a Palace hero and an ill judged move to leave for Bolton doesn't change my view of him, but so many fans think he is scum now.

Huge month for Palace, if we get through this with our heads held high, within touching distance of the top two and then you never know. Still got that £200 at 11/1 for us to be promoted to think about too. That coming in would be nice.

Just sigh at all of that.  Typical results orientated reply.  We played worse earlier in the season and won games!  So frustrated when reading things like that!

[Ant040689]

The wind has been taken out of our sails at the moment and we are not on the blistering form we were on when Zaha was firing on all cylinders. I remember watching him against Peterborough away and thinking he is going to be a superstar. Now he is playing like he is going through the motions and is pretty terrible.

Need him gone for as much money as possible, or we need him to be told he is not leaving until possibly the summer, so he has to get his head back down to assure the move. I think his lackadaisical, performances recently have been because he probably knows more than us about how likely he is to be going to a top team and he has subsequently put his foot off the gas with us to nearly a complete stop. He is distracting the team and taking the focus away from what we should be doing on the pitch. I think too, other players are getting frustrated with Zaha and are as bemused with how he is playing as I am.

Cannot be stressed enough too that our poor recent form could be down to Holloway being a little duped into thinking Ramage is the answer to our centre back problems when we have Darcy Blake and Danny Gabbiddon on the bench, who have both been proven to be better when played.

We have Joel Ward out injured for another 3 weeks and he is our best and only real right back. We have a left back filling in at the moment in Johnny Parr and he is awful on the other side, complete ledge on the left though where he should be starting! Then we have Dean Moxey at left back who is a defensive calamity, pure and simple.

Actually going through our defence is depressing me, plus I think Darcy Blake is injured too. So we have three of the four starting defenders, who I deem to be lower Championship standard, and if we continue to play them we will be no where near the top six. But get Joel Ward back in the team and that puts Parr back out on the left, drop Ramage for Gabiddon/Blake and maintain Delaney and I think we have there are top defence in this league.

Our central midfield trio has been upset because Dikagcoi has left for the ACN and Garvan is out injured, not sure for how long, and tbh, I didn't even know he was injured and didn't play yesterday. FFS we are down to the bare bones here.

We have Jedinek in with Moritz and O' keefe then at the moment. Moritz is a slow mofo who is currently unfit but takes a superb free kick, can delay play, annoyingly, by holding the ball up for too long, while we like to pop the ball around on the floor very quickly nowadays. He however has a fierce shot and a good eye for a through ball, but really isn't as good as Garvan in the same playmaker role. O' Keefe is unproven at this level and has looked a little out of sorts when I have seen him and doesn't look likely to fill Dikagcoi's boots at all.

We have Zaha on the left wing and Bolassie on the right. We need to bench Zaha on current form and bring in Williams who may well be a great player for us if he develops a bit more strength, has a great pass and reminds me a little of the Derby wonderkid with his ability for a piercing through ball and great feet. Bolassie is pretty amazing. Great workrate, skill and cross and has shown what an indispensable player he is to us.

Murray up front cannot normally create anything by himself, directly, it seems. If you plant the ball with him outside the box, he is mostly scared stiff by the thought of shooting, and will always look to play it wide. The best poacher I have ever seen though, and holds the ball up well with great flick ons, so for our system he fits in great.

Right, on assessment we are a little screwed for the rest of this month, unless Dikagcoi comes back unexpectedly from ACN, Garvan and Ward do miraculous recoveries, and Ramage gets dropped for the forseeable future. We do have a completely makeshift team that is in a little bit of disarray with the Zaha situation.

This needs to be sorted ASAP, as a lot of teams around us are starting to look the business, Leicester and Watford in particular, but I think our home form could be what saves us.

Dropping Zaha is a little out there of a thought, but with the intentions he has to leave and with us accommodating offers, we should be planning now for a future without him. And if we do let him go but he is loaned back to us for the rest of the season, I am nigh on certain we get the real Zaha back and we could get promoted. As he would be a happy man, he would be playing football just like he did pre England call up and he would effectively be playing for his place in the starting line up of the Man United team, or whatever club he goes to.

So round up is you won't be seeing me placing recommendations for us to win in any games on the Tips for Tikay thread for a change, unless something drastic happens quickly. For the first time in the season I am worried. I hope that our amazing home form is what keeps our chances of automatic promotion alive. I also do have faith that I could be completely wrong with all the negative assertions of all the players I talked about above and would absolutely love them all to gel and start winning games.

Big match next week against Bolton, with the return of Dougie. Fan opinion of what he should be regarded as now, is split, quite dramatically. I still think he is a Palace hero and an ill judged move to leave for Bolton doesn't change my view of him, but so many fans think he is scum now.

Huge month for Palace, if we get through this with our heads held high, within touching distance of the top two and then you never know. Still got that £200 at 11/1 for us to be promoted to think about too. That coming in would be nice.

Just sigh at all of that.  Typical results orientated reply.  We played worse earlier in the season and won games!  So frustrated when reading things like that!

Please be more specific with reasons against whatever points.

[DungBeetle]

"I think we will stay up & I would not be surprised if Birmingham got caught up in this when they have Lee Clark in charge."

Absolutely.  I also think Huddersfield may get sucked in - they have been out of form for a couple of months now.

[Ant040689]

OMG this is ridiculous. We have our chairmen (or maybe just one of them) posting under their username CPFC2010, responding to another poster who has really got to them and their responses are a little crude and a bit unprofessional to say the least. The thought of the chairmen on the forums directly is probably a concept that doesn't get used much anywhere?

They have loved it, posting over 5000 times, but perhaps the tone of their last posts aren't the best. I haven't even got through reading it all yet!

http://www.cpfc.org/forums/showthread.php?t=229390&page=261

Post 5219 is the first probably out of line comments from the chairman to a poster on there, and then it just escalates with further posts, I think the next one is two pages on. Read two replies so far, dunno if there are more, but one of the lines by one of our charimen is:

"Really what is your problem? come on lets have it, on here or you can man up and come and see me, you can even bring Mummy if you're worried about coming."

Probs best to link you to the Chairmen's username so you can just scroll through their posts to miss the riff raff, from the third one down---> http://www.cpfc.org/forums/search.php?searchid=851335