Crystal Palace FC Thread + Premiership Palaver

[DungBeetle]

To be fair - he smashed into them in a private club meeting and they couldn't take it. 

I agree the O'Shea thing was poor though.

[DungBeetle]

"You cannot do old school on Prem players these days, they have to be treated a certain way"

You can treat them as you want if you don't mind losing millions.

Man City could have put Tevez in the reserves till the end of his contract and fined him 2 weeks wages every time he went off to Argentina.  But they didn't want to miss out on selling him to Juventus for £10 million or whatever it was.

I think the big problem is one of respect because the players (generally) earn far more than the boss.

[DungBeetle]

Unconfirmed rumour that Hughton has been sacked on twitter/Norwich forum and will be announced tomorrow.  But can't see it myself.  But then I couldn't see Di Canio getting canned either.

[Ant040689]

I just don't think Di Canio appears to be a complete manager more maybe of a motivator that would be great as a first team coach as he would cause one two many fractions in the team if he was manager. The way he rose to become a premierleague manager is a little laughable too.

One decent spell at Swindon shouldn't warrant you premierleague management!

[Ant040689]

Finally have the jitters about Palace now. That performance against Swansea was woeful. I hope it is a one off and I hope we get much more better luck with suspensions and injuries as we had 4 or 5 out of the first team+ subs likely to get a game, out.

Need to gel. Need Bolasie back. Need to play one up front, not two. Probably need to start Chamakh over Gayle up top and alternate. We started Jermome on the wing on Sunday and that isn't the answer either. Would be very happy with Bolasie and Puncheon on either wing, think that would be a potent threat, oddly probably less of one we had last year in the championship but it will do!

Bannan apparently did well despite the team failing around him which is a good sign. Probably means he gets to start the next game ahead of Campana.

My ideal starting line up, with all fit, would be:

                      Speroni
Ward Delaney Gabiddon Parr
                 KG Jedinak
Puncheon    Bannan    Bolasie
                 Chamakh/Gayle

Aside from a great first half spell against Stoke away where we were potent and a decent attacking unit we have not clicked going forward and this is worrying especially after 5 games. Going to be interesting as to what unfolds for us in the next five games.

[DungBeetle]

Meh - quite often I'd rather a fresh face who has done his coaching qualifications than an old long in the tooth manager who has been on the roundabout for donkeys years like Bruce, Hughes, Holloway or Allardyce.  They are just the latest incarnations of Peter Reid, Graeme Souness, Ian Dowie and Bryan Robson.  Thankfully chairmen have finally learned that the latter 4 are dreadful and they don't get work any more.

[DungBeetle]

On reflection - probably a bit unfair to lump Holloway and Allardyce in with that motley crew.

I'm pretty sure Hughes and Bruce will end up on the scrapheap in a couple of years though.  Hughes in last chance saloon, and Bruce can probably mess one more up royally since he has done well with Hull.

[Ant040689]

I just think there were more managers that are successful in the leagues below the premiership and have been for longer than di canio that haven't been given a chance at the big time but di canio got in because of his outrageous personality which actually proved to be his downfall.

[pokerfan]

Optimistic about Saturday Ant ?

[Ant040689]

Not with their defensive record and our attacking problems, no, lol.

Would say though that Southampton would not want to see Bolasie starting, nor Ward or KG.

[Ant040689]

We've looked okay. It's 0-0 atm.

They had a lobbed header cleared off the line by Ward with Speroni not doing very well, they also had a decent lay up to Lambert that fired over.

Then the talking point and Palace's best chance, Chamakh is clean through, gets to the ball in line with his run perfectly to strike the ball past the keeper as he approaches, no real awkwardness here, but inexplicably decides to try and round the keeper, does so but leaves his trailing leg in for a dive over the palms of the keeper, expertly spotted by the ref. He gets yellow carded for simulation. Really annoying not to see the shot in from him there as it was a golden opportunity.

We also had another decent chance but by the time Bannan got to strike it he was closed down, Kebe who teed it up should have took the shot himself. Kebe should have laid off Gayle with a ball in front of him to set him through but annoyingly puts it just behind him/at him.

We have looked decent on the break, Kebe looks terrible with his final ball but very lively with his pace which is causing problems. Bannan has generally been wasteful and wouldn't be surprised to see Campana coming on to replace him and Jerome in to replace Chamkh as his head may be gone a bit. The other possible sub I see is Thomas on for Gayle.

[Ant040689]

remind me never to post on blonde again

[Ant040689]

Jedinak a complete joke for their first, tried to run it out and got dispossessed, and then a melee and Osvaldo dealt with it. Then a silly free kick and a Lambert worldie. Two sucker punches, feels a lot like what happened against Stoke away! They scored two at the start of the second half very quickly.

I think bar these really silly mistakes we are an okay unit. But I am not sure we are going to be doing a lot of barring of those, which is upsetting.

All of this puts the onus on Chamakh's dive in the first half.

[Ant040689]

Of our first 6 games i can look at a lot of excuses that make me think we haven't had the opportunity to fully show what we are capable of.

Against Tottenham, a dodgy handball concedes a penno and they win 0-1
Against Stoke, we go 0-1 up and looking great, get blitzed by two goals from two lapses, and heads are then down and we can't seem to get back into it
Sunderland we actually play quite well throughout and get lucky with a sending off and penalty, and we go on to win.
Man Utd away we looked resolute up until two terrible mistakes to the lead up to Dikagcoi's sending off, him slide tackling when he could have stayed up and Jedinak giving the ball away.
Swansea, we hadn't Dikagcoi, nor Ward and they are crucial, got hit with a sucker punch very early where we couldn't recover.
Today, we weathered an early storm well, but by the end of the first half to say that it ended evenly would be fair, and then we get done by a double blitz again.

I don't think it is through a complete gulf in class with us not being able to get a run of results going, I think it is more to do with nerves and decision making, not our ability. As when we have been on the up we have looked good. Even under it we have looked assured and then boom out of nowhere a mistake cripples us and we are fighting on the back foot.

One thing that does worry me is our ability to come back from losing positions, or a the very least show some great fight and character. What has happened instead is we look dead and every bit the relegated side that we are tipped to be, which is worrying. When we are drawing or winning, we look good, and back against the walls we look shocking.

I have to hope things click.

Bolasie is coming back next week I have heard and wouldn't be surprised to see him thrust into action immediately, especially in a no pressure game away to Liverpool we are expected to lose, he can look to really express himself with his great flair.

I thought Kebe was utter crap today btw, wasn't too impressed with Bannan either but I can see he has quality and will come good, the same with Gayle who I like more and more and Chamakh looks lively enough too. Gut wrenching to see that dive today but o well.

On the whole, I think the nay sayers are going to be thinking we are every bit of the no hopers when they see the highlights tonight, but I still think there is a decent possibility that we are a team that just needs a little bit more time to settle, before maybe launching a bid for 15th+, being the mad dreamers we are.

[Royal Flush]

Tbh Palace have surprised me, never thought you would have 3pts this early in the season.