Crystal Palace FC Thread + Premiership Palaver

[Ant040689]

Nearly got out of tonight without thanking Holloway for his monumental effort during his time with us.

There is a split in thought amongst Palace fans about Freedman and what he had going with us and if he had stayed would we have romped home to the title, or would he have did similar to Holloway, or would he have shown his inexperience and had us settle in mid table. No-one will ever know obviously. Under Freedman, I saw some of the most exciting stuff I had seen in my years of watching Palace from 2003 and I had seen Scott Sinclair and Victor Moses in the same team tearing it up in 2008.

Freedman would probably had crumbled when the bad form had hit and not been able to galvanise the team properly and give them the same belief as Holloway did. Holloway dealt with two pretty terrible dips in form around January and then again near the end of the season and still found a way to remain in the play offs and give the team a belief that they could go up. His tactics at home and away to an exceptionally in form and dangerous Brighton side, were excellent and then again in the final against Watford. Both of their squads were better bar some of our players, but Holloway used all of his experience to guide us expertly to the prem and with all of these obstacles if most other managers were at the helm I very much doubt they would have got the same result of Palace in the Prem.

In the Championship, Holloway demands a respect and I think the players love playing for him, generally, and he has an aura about him that in recent years just gets success. It was an incredible bit of business getting him in and I hope for him another promotion with the most probably next Championship club he takes over.

What he has done in one year at Palace may prove to be one of the most important years in our new history. I think he did well to keep the core of what was going well under Freedman's regime and added his own nous for when things were going wrong, to maintain our charge and ultimately show mastery to get us up. Despite some dodgy summer dealings and the start this year, what he has achieved here, and having the grace to leave when he knows the shit has hit the fan, rather than take us down, is commendable.

Both him and Zaha will have a special place in my heart. Both are complete legends to me.

Again, not a shot at you Ant, isn't there an argument for saying that the two dips in form were down to Holloway and had Freedman stayed it would not have been an issue? That was why I earlier asked what Holloway's overall record was for his time at Selhurst Park. I remember watched the Birmingham game on the TV and it was one of the most abject home performances I have ever seen from a promotion chasing team.

I personally feel that Holloway got very lucky in the playoffs and caught Brighton on a day when they were completely flat and Zaha on fire. Seemed to me like he was more of a hindrance than a help throughout his time in charge and in the end got bailed out by the best player in the league taking matters into his own hands.

I just checked his record and in the championship (excluding playoffs) it was: P32, W11, D12, L9 = 45. Prior to this Palace's record was P14, W8, L3 =27. So overall Palace gained 62.5% over their points under him at a ratio of 1.4 ppg.  Extrapolated over a full season this would have seen them end up 10th. Prior to him taking charge, they gained 37.5% at a ratio of 1.92ppg. Pretty significant difference with the same squad imo. Small sample size I know but all seasons are a small sample size.

It's a solid point. I think he only won 3 league games in his last 18.

That is why there is a vicious debate with Palace fans. Would Dougie have had us romping home automatically or would he have fell short. If it was to be via playoffs for Dougie, I doubt he would fare better than Holloway, as he was tactically great for those three games. A lot of fans think Holloway was only good during the playoffs and that he was very lucky to even be in them, as other teams around us continued to falter as badly as we were.

You could also say that we were always doing enough to stay in the playoffs though, but I doubt this, I think if real pressure came to us for the playoff positions, such was how bad we were playing we may have wilted out of the top 6.

One thing that annoyed me with Holloway and something that he really should look into, is the fact you have to play his way or the highway and that is really inflexible. The main reason for our dips in the league were because he was trying to introduce a new style of attacking football when really we were doing just fine under the system of old.

Same again at the start of this season, we were used to the Freedman tactics but he tried to implement a passing game from the back that we were not good enough for which has resulted in some terrible mistakes. Under Freedman, we played real counter attacking stuff, with as resolute a defense as we could muster and when we built we would hit the wingers immediately or if they were covered, loop a long ball to Murray.

Holloway doesn't play like that. So when he is faced with defenders/midfielders that can't hack a high tempo, on the floor passing game he is rendered useless as he can only play his attacking way. He even admitted this in the press conference yesterday. This angers me, just have another gear and build on your style of play very slowly instead of bringing in wholesale changes and expecting us to adapt immediately in the toughest league in the world.

I want Pulis. His record is incredible and even if it will grate me to watch Palace play a style I don't like at least we may be able to stay in the league a couple of seasons. With that base who then knows what could be achieved.

Perhaps I am over hyping Pulis' chances with Palace, a team full of guys that are not a force to be reckoned with just yet. Perhaps he would need too long to get the team going and his tenure at Palace will become a failure, but in terms of being able to keep a team in the prem he could be the ticket.

I think he would be a better choice than Di Matteo. But I would ultimately welcome him too if that was a choice.

[Chompy]

If Pulis has priced himself out of the job, which he has according to the Sun at £2m a year, that leaves Chris Coleman as clear favourite for the job. Happy with that Ant?

[Ant040689]

Would dislike that Chompy. But again anyone that does come in is gonna be supported by me, if he got something good going here then fair play to him.

I wouldn't mind Curbishley myself.

[Ant040689]

I am very tired click so nothing long.

Very promising performance against Arsenal. Reduced them to 2 chances aside from their pen all game basically with the rest of the game us effectively breaking down their play. We had a few good chances ourselves and aside from the penno calamity Guediora was my mom and now I have done a u turn on him as now I do rate him.A draw would have been a fair result and moat Arsenal fans, I feel, if they watched the full 90, would prob feel the same.

Jimmy Kebe, I just don't see at all as a good player for the prem and most notably of all Gayle is pretty anonymous for us generally. He's young and he could come good soon but currently he looks like he is out of his depth. Again I would love it if he makes me eat my words in the next game.

On the replacement manager I think seeing how we played without Holloway, a change was necessary and now perhaps an inadvertant burden has been lifted on the players, because we are not the same team as the one that played Fulham.

[Ant040689]

Chris Coleman has come in to 13/8 joint favourite with Pulis for the job, if Coleman gets it I would be very unhappy. Pulis though I think is the man.

[Ant040689]

If not Pulis, why not Curbishley? He has been out of a job for years, but when he was in his results were superb.

[Marky147]

If not Pulis, why not Curbishley? He has been out of a job for years, but when he was in his results were superb.

Curbishley normally goes favourite for every job out there, but has yet to even look like taking one.

I thought he had managed to pull a lump in from payoffs, and was just happy getting a few quid commentating.

[Ant040689]

Yeh I think it was £2m+ he won in compensation. He has stated his interest in the job. But as you said nothing at all on any movement towards it happening, which is a shame.

Coleman's record really doesn't hold up very well to scrutiny and just don't think he is the man for the job.

[Ant040689]

Had been away all weekend, so didn't actually watch the full 90 and only saw the short highlights on MOTD tonight.

We have a striker afraid to shoot, but awesome in the air, but also wasteful with the ball at feet. Gabiddon and Moxey were terrible for their first goal, and no-one picked up McCauley for their second. We had two good chances all match, the Jedinak header at 1-0 down, if it was to go in, might just have spurred us.

We need the new manager in urgently. I am not very happy it is most probably going to be Coleman, but hopefully he gets something going.

I think we only have two players in our team of Premiership quality in Ward and Puncheon, not counting injured players and we really have no potent attacking players with an eye for goal. Puncheon does have that cutting inside and shooting from range, but his longshots are pretty tame. Aside from that we are struggling.

I know Guediora didn't have much of the game as he went off injured, but very impressed with what i have seen of him in the last two games aside from the Arsenal penalty. He really appears to be a livewire for us and adds something we are severely lacking, going against my initial view on him.

I think we need to coax confidence out of Chamakh, as that will be the key to us having any chance. I think it is in him, but he has to get over the mental block I think he has. His goal against Stoke is somewhat of a testament to his potential, but he really needs to believe in himself and give us that needed outlet up front. Gayle is not up to standard currently. Perhaps we should start with Jerome up front by himself as he may offer more.

And whenever you are in a situation where the previous sentence has just been mentioned you know you are in trouble.

Will only offer the prognosis of relegation after a few games with the new manager. I hope it won't be an impossible job for him, nearly a third of the way in.

[pleno1]

Hmmmmm puncheon looks the definition of,championship player to me. What are you basing this on?

[Ant040689]

I just thought it was widely recognised after his efforts with Blackpool and Southampton in the Prem. It's a loose call from me as I haven't followed him closely. For us this season he hasn't been of prem quality but has showed sparks so of all the team I am allowing him more time.

Putting my tail between my legs too on the hype over Bolasie. The injury to him in pre season really has knocked him back. I think he returned not fully fit and a little lazy and much more showboaty and think he has a huge case of Billybigbollocksitis.

If he starts working as hard as he was last season we really have a player on our hands, but if he remains like he is now we do not.

Dean Moxey is also not good enough defensively as a championship left back and has been the cause of a lot of goals conceded this year. While the rest of the defence, generally, have been playing out of their skins and despite Gabiddon and Delaney not being the best they are not embarrassing themselves.

On top of that Joel Ward is really excelling, which is a shock, and fair play to the lad.

We need to get confidence up front. We need Gayle or Chamakh, or both to step up to the plate, maybe even Jerome. If any of them do and we actually have an outlet up front, the amount of hard work our defence does wouldn't be entirely in vain. It really is calamitous how toothless we are in finishing. I have never seen a prem team like it before.

Or at least remember one from the top of my head. I seem to remember every team had a decent enough top goalscorer if they were relegated or really struggling, but I might be showing my lack of knowledge here.

[DungBeetle]

To be fair I think Watford once attempted a Premier League season with Michel Ngonge as their main striker before buying Heidar Helguson.

[Royal Flush]

I'll keep saying it but this team would be in the relegation fight in the league below, i'm still amazed you have amassed 3pts so early.

[Ant040689]

I'll keep saying it but this team would be in the relegation fight in the league below, i'm still amazed you have amassed 3pts so early.

I think we 'should' have 2 more points after just reviewing our matches, so we 'should' be on 5. I did this by assigning how many points i felt we deserved from the game going up in 0.5's. I had our win against Sunderland down as a 1.5 btw, just to show I am being fair. I thought that game really was petering out into a draw before we got fortunate with the penalty and sending off.

Despite not playing well all season we have been in every game aside from Swansea at home and Liverpool away. This is down to our hearty defense and decent hassling from our midfield, while the game is still level or we are winning. Of course though they are liable to huge mistakes, but they are doing o so much better than our attacking midfielders and forwards.

[Ant040689]

Limited Everton to half chances all game. The defence were superb. Palace had three clear cut chances to score but we didn't take them. Gutting we didn't take the three points but valiant effort from everyone, if only we could finish, we may have seen this one out comfortably.

May prove to be a crucial two points dropped come the end of the season.