Crystal Palace FC Thread + Premiership Palaver

[pleno1]

palace look awful!!

[pleno1]

wow least deserving half timelead in premiership history.

[Ant040689]

That is one goal conceded in 4 games now. Pretty impressive stuff. I thought the first half was a pretty awful game with them having two good chances to our one, we put ours away. Then in the second half, despite the flow of play being quite balanced, on a lot of occasions when we pushed forward, we had good chances while they had none.

Barry Bannan was the man of the match for me, as his passing/crossing capability is great, he is assured on the ball and he is the man to make things happen for us. Cameron Jerome worked his socks off and generally played well up top, a shame he couldn't convert that one on one. Chamakh took his goal well and played alright all game, it just seems though he is playing at 50% atm.

Jedinak had a very good game I thought and snuffed out a lot of West Ham's attacks. I thought Puncheon was awful, KG played ok, Moxey was caught out a few times defensively and remains our weak link in defence, while I thought the other 3 played well. Delaney in particular with one lunging block for a nailed on chance comes to mind.

Pretty mind boggling how solid we look at the back. We should get absolutely decimated by the better teams in our league, but when Everton played us at Selhurst, we looked comfortable for large spells, different story playing better teams away from home though.

I was pleased with our attacking display in the second half, Jimmy Kebe coming on for Puncheon actually improved things a little, and he was unlucky not to score. Johnny Williams played well for his short spell too, and for the mediocre side we have at the minute we have decent strength in depth for the poor premier league standard we are. Aside from those featuring tonight we can call upon Gayle, Bolasie, Guediora, Mariappa, Phillips, Murray (soon), Parr, Thomas and whoever I may have left out. Obviously not world beaters, but I think with Pulis at the helm and what i envisage to be his knack for getting the best out of players' limited attributes, I can see us remaining a solid team throughout the season.

I am interested to what Pulis might do in the transfer window. I would be disappointed if he is looking to get a CB or a RB in as I think Ward/Delaney/Gabbidon are holding their own, with only Moxey the real liability. A left back would be good, but I don't know what has happened to Parr, who is a good LB and is decent defensively but not as good as Moxey pushing forward, plus, Moxey has a good long throw which helps.

In midfield I think the central roles are up for debate, especially if Pulis persists with the 4-4-2 he played today. Only two spots, and KG and Jedinak really are limited in their attacking capability, both are defensive midfielders, but perhaps in our setup that is a good thing to have, with their emphasis on hitting the wingers when they can and using them to push forward. There is a like for like replacement on the bench in O'Keefe, and the only other man i can think of in central midfield is Guediora who I was really impressed with before he got injured, I think he can do as good a job as KG in the middle but offer a much better attacking prowess.

Thing is Bannan and Williams can play centre mid too but are lightweight, and preferred on the wing, but with the abundance of choice we have on the wing it is going to be interesting to see how Pulis plays it. I would say we would benefit a lot from a prem quality central midfielder that is good defensively but can be a better attacking outlet than Guediora would have to offer.

So a LB a CM and I think a striker too would not go amiss either for the available two spots up front. Jerome and Chamakh are first choice. For the amount of money we spent on Gayle I am surprised he isn't being tried out in one of those spots, but he mustn't be ready. Chamakh, plays well defensively when we need him, is a good headerer and most of the time is good at linking up play and holding onto the ball, tonight not so much, aside from his goal, but it was a bit of an off night for him. With Jerome, atm, he has been playing very well, as good as we can expect and he is quick and strong and is proving a threat in the air too. His finishing obviously isn't the best, same goes for Chamakh but he is trying.

We lack a great goalscorer, or at least a man that will look like he could score everytime he gets the ball, with our two current strikers, you don't really back either. With Murray coming back, perhaps I will back him but the pace of the prem may see him have trouble. Phillips too may not be able to cope. So I would see the logic behind bringing in a striker in January, however, I would like to see Gayle get a thorough testing before that happens. So potentially three new signings.

Also interestingly, Speroni's contract is up in the summer and there has been murmourings that we may look for a replacement keeper in the transfer window, as Speroni has been at fault for some of our goals this season. It is already known he isn't the greatest commander of a box, isn't the greatest at claiming crosses either, and recently his shot stopping has been poor. His strengths come in one on ones, reflexes and handling from shots that just bounce in front of him. I could see how Pulis might want someone else in, but I can't think of anyone who would be better that we could get.

All in all, I think Palace will be staying up as we have been resolute defensively and I think we will continue to hold our own at home to nearly every team, and away to mid table teams and below, and with our increasingly better cohesion up front, we can begin to cause a lot more problems for oppositions, that under Holloway we were not doing. Bannan is the core to our attack, if he gets injured you can kiss our form goodbye, the same goes to Jedinak in midfield really.

A left back (especially if Parr remains mysteriously sidelined) and striker are needed in January to really help us out.

[mondatoo]

I really appreciated Big Sam explaining to us all in his post match interview in great depth what the term "a six pointer" means, clown!

Grats on the win.

[pleno1]

Hmmmm

I think you just can't pass the ball well enough. It doesn't matter how good the two centre midfielders are t retrieving the ball they literally can't keep possession. The defence also give the ball away in areas way too much too.

I was going to post in the thread that Jerome was the worst forward I've seen all season and chamakh seems like he literally doesn't give a fuck.

Moxey as you say very suspect and ward was way too wasteful on the ball.

Not sure i agree about bannans delivery he was lucky 2/3 times that he had second chance of a cross he seems to cross well from open play but didn't beat the first man enough from set pieces and that's absolutely critical for a team like palace who rely n set pieces so much.

Also though kebe and puncheon looked like league 2 players.

Anyone else think mark noble was different class tonight? Easily best player on the pitch.

Pulls is pretty funny too "do him cam, go on cammmm" all night.

Gabbidon and Delaney seem pretty solid at the back I think pulls needs to sign a new striker and central midfield box to box player but I doubt he will sign a striker after dwight gales big money move.

Danny Guthrie would be a really good signing IMO.

[Acidmouse]

Its a funny game this, I watched most of the first half and Barry Bannan was horrid, I think in one two min slot he gave the ball away 4 times, lucky not to have conceded from one of them. You could see the Palace Captains face and what he though of him trying to dribble past someone when the simple overlap pass was on.

He was at loan at ours and was average, saying that he scored the winner last week and setup the goal last night, masks alot of things that.

[The Camel]

When is Lewandoski Murray due back?

[DungBeetle]

Really feel like Palace can do this under Pulis.  They need to beat Cardiff on Saturday though, as the fixture list is nasty after that.

[pleno1]

Its a funny game this, I watched most of the first half and Barry Bannan was horrid, I think in one two min slot he gave the ball away 4 times, lucky not to have conceded from one of them. You could see the Palace Captains face and what he though of him trying to dribble past someone when the simple overlap pass was on.

He was at loan at ours and was average, saying that he scored the winner last week and setup the goal last night, masks alot of things that.

Agreed.

[Ant040689]

Ty Mondatoo, wp on the Newc run, same to Pleno on that front, vive le revolution!

On Bannan, he played well defensively too, cutting out the one on one chance for Cole as well as setting our chance up. Aside from Williams there is no other semi gifted passer in our team. He has the license to only serve up one great ball in 3 and still come out smelling of roses because we are such a limited team on the passing front.

Of his successful passes they are more incisive than we are used to here. His good crosses are excellent, up and down and in the spot, and in play he normally does a lot better than from set pieces.

Camel, I think Murray is going to be available for the new 25 man squad pick in January. But who knows? McCarthy has been two weeks away from full fitness for the last 3 years, Parr has probably been shot dead, no word from Jack Hunt either, Guediora probably only went into the physio room with a cough and now has broken ribs and a punctured lung.

Dungbeetle, Palace optimism? Do you want to still have a rep on this forum for sanity?

Pleno, don't know enough about Guthrie to know if he is what we need but cheers for the shout. You say we would rely heavily on set pieces, but from memory I only remember two of our goals coming from them, most of the time our goals come from some suave interlinking play and deft finishing.

Our two central defensive midfielders and defence may be terrible at passing btw but all are courageous tacklers and will make it very tough for teams to break us down. Not been spanked since the Holloway sacking and in all of those games it wouldn't have been outrageous to see us have won all of them, considering how close each game was.

The point being that their defensive output is so good atm that their current poor attacking output can be overlooked. Also if we do change one of the central midfielders you may see a terrible leakiness, so we might just concentrate on our wingers and forwards for all things attacking with us.

[Amatay]

FUCK OFF Palace

[Ant040689]

FUCK OFF Palace

Well that's a shame.

[Marky147]

FUCK OFF Palace

Well that's a shame.

[Ant040689]

Aside from the first 3 mins when Campbell had a free header from 6 yards out, really looked easier to score, but he picked out Speroni, Palace were dominant.

1 goal conceded in 5 now.

Jerome and Chamakh played excellently, as did all the players. And I am proud to be Palace atm.

[TheDazzler]

Aside from the first 3 mins when Campbell had a free header from 6 yards out, really looked easier to score, but he picked out Speroni, Palace were dominant.

5 clean sheets in a row.

Jerome and Chamakh played excellently, as did all the players. And I am proud to be Palace atm.

Delighted for you Ant. Europe a possibility?