Crystal Palace (H) - Post Match

[Marvin]

Not billions obviously - just whatever the cost, wages and agent's fees we need to pay to buy a truly world class central defender to partner Laporte.

I don't know why the club seems to have this stigma about paying a record transfer fee or even breaking the £80m, £90m, £100m plus barriers. The very best players cost those fees these days, so if we really want to improve we have to buy better players than we already have in some positions. If we don't, rivals will and we'll struggle in some games.

I want more seasons like the last two, not more like this one.

This could yet be one of our best seasons although I know what you are saying.

We had a great squad last season. This season the central defence is wrecked but lets see it at the end of the season.

 

[Fordyboy46]

Even when Laporte is fit, what is our best CB pair? We thought it would be him & Stones but without a dramatic turnaround, Stones won't be with us much longer.

I have no idea mate, it's a very poor situation all round.

 

[Phil1]

F.F.S,

It’s true, he isn’t.

 

[john blue]

The way he’s playing at the moment I can’t see him playing in the Euros never mind the World Cup

if he goes to the euros, it will be with national bleeding holidays. !

 

[Coljj]

The way he’s playing at the moment I can’t see him playing in the Euros never mind the World Cup

It's the Euro's this year? Oh yeah. He might look good against sub-par opposition for the first 3 or 4 games then.

 

[mancity2012_eamo]

I have no idea mate, it's a very poor situation all round.

Garcia?

 

[levets]

its not a coincidence our flattest performance come when Gundogan starts in midfield. He passes sideways so much, delays on the ball and backs out of challenges (twice today) - our defence is left wide open with him in front of them -he wasnt the only problem but its a persistent problem against teams who battle (and we all know Palace are good at that) - it also has a knock on affect on KDB who is forced to come much deeper and almost sit alongside Gundogan at times picking up square passes from him - this makes him less effective as well.

Sterling is looking off the pace as well at present - seems to have lost a bit of drive/confidence or something.

Stones - does a lot right but just doesnt seem up for the battle at times...the second goal - well Zaha can do that to anyone to be fair and I think Ferna needs to sort his feet out better as well. The penalty/non penalty by stones could have gone either way and I can see both sides of the argument for and against as both players seem to step across each other at the same time so in balance its probably not a penalty but the other argument is that stones doesnt get the ball at all so could well easily go the other way.

Id like to see the rules again regarding our disallowed penalty -my memory could be wrong but i think the rules say that its not a penalty if the ball comes off another part of the body and then hits the defenders hand (which it does in this case) - i cant remember though

at least we didnt lose!

His arm was outstretched though! If it hit his foot and rebounded onto his hand, whilst on the goaline, preventing a goal... it’s not a penalty? Of course it is... All of a sudden, we have VAR overruling the referee. The ref gave the pen, so he should have reviewed it himself, at the touch line.

 

[HarrytheBlue]

The rule is thus.....if it hits your hand its a handball except for when it hits your hand and then its not a handball.

Colour of shit, ref, VAR seat warmers also has a huge say in which way it goes.

Nice for Uncle Roy to get another VAR decision today like he did the other week when it sent off an Arsenal player for him as well.

I don't know the handball rule any more. If you accidentally handball the ball anywhere on the pitch and your team scores it's ruled out - i.e. Declan Rice ? If you handball the ball outside the box accidentally - regardless of natural/unnatural position of the arm, it's handball ? If the ball deflects off your (the defender's) leg to your arm in the box - which I think happened today, it's no handball ? With all the tweaks to the interpretation of the rules, I'm totally confused.

 

[bennyboy]

It's the Euro's this year? Oh yeah. He might look good against sub-par opposition for the first 3 or 4 games then.

He will be nowhere near the squad.

 

[HarrytheBlue]

His arm was outstretched though! If it hit his foot and rebounded onto his hand, whilst on the goaline, preventing a goal... it’s not a penalty? Of course it is... All of a sudden, we have VAR overruling the referee. The ref gave the pen, so he should have reviewed it himself, at the touch line.

I'm open to your suggestion, but see my comment, below. In truth, I'm totally confused.

 

[Semper aggressus]

Bad day (again) at the office. We did well to be winning . Something is wrong though, it's not drive or hard work, seems to be belief.

Belief in Stones, belief in ourselves, belief that we are THE best. Which we are. We just don't have that confidence at the moment.

I hope pep is using this time to prepare for next season.

We could do with one or two loud, confident types in the side, like Vinny was. Leaders in the mould of a Tony Adams, Vieira, Terry, Wise, type character who won't let heads drop or shit decisions against us affect belief. We're too weak mentally and a bit complacent it seems. I'd like to see more passion and drive and refusal to accept things going against us. Someone to intimidate players like Zaha and send them into their shells a bit.

There don't seem to be many players like that anywhere these days though, unless there's some abroad?

 

[The Stockport Iniesta]

Even when Laporte is fit, what is our best CB pair? We thought it would be him & Stones but without a dramatic turnaround, Stones won't be with us much longer.

Fern and Eric for me.

Just hope they don't become eric and fernie.

 

[balotellishaircut]

But don't you think that against Madrid we won't be doing the 'don't waste any energy thing' like we do against some lesser teams ? Playing within our capability isn't one of our strengths. We'll be looking to take our game to its limit - busting a gut defending - busting a gut attacking - busting a gut in between. And if that's not good enough, so be it, but in my opinion we'll be formidable against Madrid.

Yeah ok, I didn't think you could switch it on whether you want to be better defensively or not, it should just come naturally imo.
Fern is not working as a CB, he needs to go back into DM with Rodri for RM, I think we all want to see a pragmatic Pep for RM, it's not all about everyone bombing forward and leaving the team 2 on 2 with minutes to go, it's suicidal.

 

[ancoats]

i don't see or get all this bad day again and moaning about dropping more points to liverpool ??? liverpool won the league after 10 games and city wen't into cup mode and rotation because of injury to key players and the premier league took a back burner and just getting a top 4 place our main aim in the league, look it hurts after what we have been fed over the last 2 seasons and watching d.silva in his last days in a city shirt is painful at times, the truth is he does not make this team when everybody is fit and ready to play, and the likes of real madrid in the champions league will be to much for him to be given a start shirt

today we watched the bad and the ugly and the truth is nobody got hold of the game, even pep was not himself on the touchline normally you have to drag him off the line, but today was sat on the bench more than i have ever seen him, i even said to my son going into the ground and in the stand it felt flat ?? everything was missing the pre-match build up, the music before kick off was not working the fans was like what going on here ??

the game was a hard watch and miles away from the last couple of weeks and was this the same city that battered united and villa, eveything was out and the press from the whole team was not happening today ? it was to slow or just could not be arsed even from throw-inns the lack of movement and wanting the ball was a puzzle, and then it sunk in ? this is the premier league why the fuck do i have to bust a gut we are not winning the league and the top 4 is ours all ready, the hunger in the players from the last couple of weeks was just a show

its a risky game pep and city are playing for me. pep he knows this squad is done and everything is going to change in the summer, so pep built a cup team with what left in this squad and patched up a back 4 rotated in the league to save the legs of his best players, its a gamble hoping to win a cup and do well in the champions league, but i stand by pep and city in this and if we have to face more of what was on offer today but win a cup and do well in the champions league knockouts then nobody will care

i'm city til i die
i'm city til i die
i know i am
i'm sure i am
i'm city til i die

 

[Bluemanc100]

Fair enough. I thought he played pretty well today and has done for a few games now.

All about opinions... I may be in a small minority but I don’t think he’ll ever be good enough post injury... sadly

 

[fathellensbellend]

No he didn’t. He compared two situations when our defensive frailties over a sustained period merit(ed) serious doubts.

Do you think this season’s defending is anything like acceptable given the investment (and even allowing for injuries)? Do you think our defensive coaching befits a club with our aspirations?

That doesn’t mean Pep out, FFS. He’s patently 100 times better than Hughes. But it does mean holding him accountable by asking serious questions.

7 domestic trophies out of 8, including the community shields and denied by a shocking var decision in the champions League denying us the chance to win the lot suggests to me we are blessed..

 

[Toney’s bookie]

I don't quite agree with a lot of the critcism toward Pep for rotating. Look, we aren't winning the league this season. It's gone and has been gone a while. The team is goosed after the huge effort of the last two years. You need to be consistent and relentless to win the league and so it's the inconsistency and key injuries this season that have absolutely done us over (along with a liberal use of VAR for certain clubs but we can't control that).

However, we CAN still have a fantastic season and we have shown glimpses recently that the real City mojo is still in there somewhere. You don't need to be consistent in cups, you just need to be good in the games that matter. It's not going to be very often that we're not involved in a title race and so we can take this opportunity, despite how disappointing it is, to go all out for the Champs League. If we can win that, finish second and maybe even win another domestic cup that will be a magnificent and historic season and one the team could be proud of. The scousers were always going to win it at some point - even peak United, Arsenal and Chelsea in their heydays didn't win it every year. The drive and focus needed for two consecutive titles when the runners up are getting 97 points has clearly taken its toll and this season is one too far. The main thing is we keep find a way to refocus for what we can get out of this season and then next year we come back for our title.

So in summary, I don't mind Pep rotating in league games because we aint winning it. We obviously could have won today if not for the sloppiness that's plagued our season. Let's hope that Laporte and Sane coming back gives us that something extra that we've been missing and that they're back in time to help us push on between now and May.

 

[half & half derby scarf]

His arm was outstretched though! If it hit his foot and rebounded onto his hand, whilst on the goaline, preventing a goal... it’s not a penalty? Of course it is... All of a sudden, we have VAR overruling the referee. The ref gave the pen, so he should have reviewed it himself, at the touch line.

You'll have to ask the guy in full dipper's kit sitting in the room at Stockley Park.
Nobody knows what is going on with VAR mate. Least of all the Ref's.

 

[Prestwich_Blue]

Great, you know the answer, so there was clearly no need to call for Pep's head, unless for some bizarre reason you genuinely wanted to compare Pep and the Catalan boys to Brian Marwood and Mark fucking Hughes.

But the personnel is only, maybe, part of the answer. I've probably not expressed this very well but the major part of the question is why were we in a position in the last minute of normal time, having fought to get 3 points, to let Palace's most dangerous player get one on one with a defender. Particularly one just back from injury and who we know is suffering the yips. So the question might better be framed as "what is the plan that you drill into the players for these situations? Is it really wise to have 7 outfield players over the halfway line? Even if you don't like it, should we not be sitting in a 4-5-1 to protect that lead, bearing in mind what happened at Newcastle?"

I don't think that's an unfair question for the DoF to ask his coach in that circumstance. It's part of his job to challenge him and it's part of Pep's job to come up with the answer.

 

[Cotswold Knight]

Can’t keep blaming VAR their not the ones that can’t defend