Crystal Palace FC Thread + Premiership Palaver

[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.

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?

Cheers

Pulis has done it before with Stoke, all we need is that Fa Cup Final

[horseplayer]

massively concerned about the to finish bottom bet now

Very good today cardiff were not much cop but you look a different side now already

[tikay]

FUCK OFF Palace

Well that's a shame.

Ha!

Every dog & all that.

Pleased for you Mr Ant, really.

[Ant040689]

massively concerned about the to finish bottom bet now

Very good today cardiff were not much cop but you look a different side now already

I think you couldn't rule Palace out for bottom, mainly because of the start we had curtailing us and keeping us currently in the mire, and you have a lot of teams down here with good quality. Fulham and Sunderland, for example, are both teams capable of staying up and showed good quality in their games on Wednesday night. What I think will be the case, by the end of the season, is a very shallow bottom half of the table with up to 8 teams all in the ruck, perhaps one team will wave the white flag to cement one relegation spot, but I think the other two will be a bit of a lottery, if not all three!.

Palace were great today. Defensively sound again, dealing with crosses, aside from the first one, with relative aplomb, dealt with their surges well with both our wing backs and Jedinak starring there, and up front we had two men on fire. Chamakh is a man revitalised and i would be surprised if that doesn't get mentioned tonight on MOTD. He is playing off of the front man, he is dropping into midfield linking play and being very strong on the ball and in the air, and he was aiding a Jerome who is very quick, is also very strong, and he too was passing well to link up play.

They strike you as two attackers that are both of the feeder role, they would benefit from playing alongside a greedy striker with an eye for goal, but instead they have each other for an odd couple romance that is blossoming.

Saying that, Jerome is getting a delightful habit of taking on his man, beating him and flying a shot off, being the direct striker that we need, and it will be only a matter of time before he scores a goal of this nature for us.

Chamakh, could learn a thing or two on that front. He has only let off 5 shots all season, but has scored 3 of them, incredible stat! I am not sure whether or not i appreciate his lack of wastefulness or want him to take on more shots with that ratio! Definitely would rather him shoot more, he has a great finish, but is a man coming out of his shell, if he gets out he could make double digits, but i have an inkling he is going to take on the provider role and shy away from shooting opportunities. I have not quite seen a striker like it but when he does line up for a shot there is a weird expectancy!

I am concerned Pulis is going to bring in too many changes in January and destabilise the team if anything. On current form it would be a bit of a disgrace to look to oust anyone from the side, aside from Moxey with a new LB, which I would understand. Also if we could get Zaha back that would be welcomed too obv.

With Zaha, he had been given a free role with Palace to express himself, sometimes losing the ball cheaply on the wing, but with the ease of license he had, he would often create magic and opportunity after opportunity. At Man Utd, he would not be allowed to play as selfishly and with that you take away the reason he is any good in the first place.

I worry if he goes to any other team aside from Palace in January, he may be used as a part of a strict system that won't let his creative juices to flow. The best thing for his career, I think, would be to come back on loan with Palace.

Ultimately I trust in what Pulis is doing here, and I hope he doesn't mess with the core of what we have got and only adds to it. It really does make you wonder if Holloway had any sense at all, he would have allowed us to play more direct football, away from the short passing possession game and he too could have been seeing the same results Pulis is. With no disrespect to Millen, he had little managerial experience, only managed us four times, but in all of those games we were so much improved, then Pulis comes in to reinforce that.

It angers me that Holloway isn't the one reaping the spoils of the record we currently have and perhaps a successful season here, because of how he got us up in the playoffs it was the least he would have deserved.

[Ant040689]

FUCK OFF Palace

Well that's a shame.

Ha!

Every dog & all that.

Pleased for you Mr Ant, really.

Good stuff

[Ant040689]

Osvaldo's goal was so so naughty.

[Ant040689]

.

[Marky147]

Bet you have got that Mourinho interview on Sky+, Ant

[Ant040689]

Bet you have got that Mourinho interview on Sky+, Ant

Haven't seen it, but I am looking forward to it! Joel Ward kept Hazard very quiet today and he isn't even a left back. Really was an excellent Palace performance. The result perhaps a little unfair considering how we did shut them out, aside from a couple of chances for them very late on, but we were pushing for the game a little.

O'Keefe, extremely unlucky not to score, Bolasie could have done better with a chance too, and Jerome from range should have done better.

Chamakh and Ward were contenders for man of the match from Palace's end.

[Marky147]

Mourinho was very complimentary about the Palace performance, and of them generally as a team.

To be fair, he is hardly going to look up and say that they're awful, but you'll like the interview

[Ant040689]

.

[pleno1]

What do you think about tomorrow ant?

[Ant040689]

What do you think about tomorrow ant?

I think you should look out for whether or not O'Keefe or Dikagcoi can make the starting line up, if they cannot (both are taking late fitness tests), then we need to set up in a way we haven't done all season. We would have to forfeit using two holding central midfielders, and just resort to one, and having 3 creatives in midfield of the 4, rather than 2 enforcers and 2 creatives.

Essentially this means that we probably won't be looking as solid if either of those two names do not partner Jedinak in the midfield tomorrow, we could find that our defence is laid more bare, and chaos may ensue, like it did for a lot of the Holloway campaign.

Perhaps a little bit ott from me, but having two holding midfielders probably is one of the key reasons we have conceded so few recently and I have no idea how we are going to fare without it. Could be that having Bannan playing down the middle, with Bolasie and Puncheon out wide, is enough of an attacking threat to push Newcastle back towards their goal and alleviate the pressure on our own defence. But what worries me is, since, Holloway has gone, we have invited pressure, parked the bus, and then hit Chamakh as soon as we could to move up the pitch and sort of counter from there, tomorrow we would be forced to set up in a different way if O'Keefe or Dikagcoi do not start.

Of the Newcastle threat, your record recently has been superb and fair play to you. I have looked at the highlights of the Southampton game though and thought that you didn't really look too menacing. Your chances coming from profound defensive errors from them. You did have Cabaye missing though, and I wouldn't mind a lowdown from you about the intricacies of your team if you can, please?

If Palace do have two sitting midfielders, we may sit quite deep and let you have a few shots from range which you may consider to be a good thing considering your threat from these.

Bannan is a threat with crosses and his passing ability, and Chamakh is great in the air and with his general link up play. Jerome will look to hassle and chase down the ball and if he gets it to hold it up. Bolasie can be great if he gets going, in terms of his flair, but often he can get greedy and miss the better option, his crossing is good though. Puncheon is often very direct, with a good cross too.

Of our back four, I would imagine Nexcastle will be looking to expose our left back in Dean Moxey, I would consider playing Ben Arfa left wing to run riot there, but Gouffran probably has enough! Ward has been our stand out player at right back this season and ultimately our two centre backs have been solid. Jedinak too has been great and benefited a lot from not having to play Holloway's way with short passes out of the back. Our more direct style now suits us so much more.

I think it will be a low scoring contest, and you will do well to score at Selhurst considering our recent record, but yours of scoring in mostly every game this season is very impressive, and wouldn't be shocked at all if you opened us up. If you did sucker punch us at home, with expectancy on us to get back in the game, we may crumble as we haven't really fought back all season in terms of replying with goals once we have gone behind aside from last week away to Chelsea. But that may be a one off considering there was no pressure on us there to get anything from the game. Despite Newcastle being favourites, Palace definitely have more pressure on them to get something here, and reacting to that pressure is going to be key to how we fare for the rest of the season.

Very important game, and I think there will be a lot learnt from it whatever the result.

I am going to the game tomorrow and will have one of the best seats in the house, if you want me to have a closer look at one or two Newcastle players you are not too sure about I could let you know what I think. Free of charge.

[pleno1]

we will probably set up 4-5-1 like we did in our last away match with Man United, so sacrificing Shola for cabaye

      Krul

Debuchy Williamson Collocini Santon

         Tiote Anita
             Cabaye

Sissoko             Gouffran
              Remy


Id like you to watch Remy, I dont rate him at all, in fact I think hes very poor, your opinion will be interesting. I guess Cabaye too who can flatter to deceive at times, lastly Santon who people have very mixed opinions about.

I think Tiote will have Bannan for breakfast so I wouldnt suggest playing him there. If you have an athletic attacking right winger they could exploit Santon perhaps who leaves himself vunerable at times and is a little naive.

Will be a cloe one im sure.

[Ant040689]

Will look out for them, cheers for the lowdown.

Neither O'Keefe or DiMaggio are fit to play. We have moved our RB Ward into central defensive midfielder and brought in Mariappa to RB, even though against Chelsea he was probably our poorest player.

Moxey has had a week out with injury and back for today, to add to the instability. Good news, probably fir Newcastle, but it definitely could work for us.

Makes things interesting from the get go anyway!