Crystal Palace (A) - Pre-Match Thread

[kaz7]

Not a great game to come back to,hope the boys have got their heads together

 

[richards30]

Ederson
Walker
Stones
Fernandinho
Zinchenko
Rodri
De Bruyne
Bernardo Silva
Mahrez
Sterling
Aguero

 

[Chi-town blues]

Game after international break is alway iffy .

 

[citymad]

Not a great game to come back to,hope the boys have got their heads together

We'll definitely need to be focused the whole game.

 

[Oystercatcher28]

City will be well up for this one and a good old silencing of the critics. We hope.

 

[mosssideblue]

Ederson
Walker
Stones
Fernandinho
Zinchenko
Rodri
De Bruyne
Bernardo Silva
Mahrez
Sterling
Aguero

As much as I like that line up, Stones has to get up to match fitness and be his former self, so I think Ota will still get the nod. If Kev is avail, we need him playing

 

[BlueMoonz1977]

Potential for this game to be another slip up. Palace are good at home and play on the counter fast - something that seems to be our achilles heal at the moment

As mentioned above, we need to be mentally on it, but even before the game starts, so we start fast and are focused throughout

My only concern is the defence, at the moment we have shown signs of weakness and a lack of authority - whoever plays needs to start leading the line

 

[Brightwell’s left peg]

Nope. None at all. Away friendly around Thornton Heath station only.

Oh right. Thanks. I'll loook at Thornton Heath logistics. Cheers bud.

 

[Semper aggressus]

Drop more than 10 points behind Liverpool even after 9 games and we are competing for second spot this season simple as that.

We would be seven points worse off than this time last year and Liverpool 4 points better off and we know we had win the last 14 to win the title by one point an incredible achievement probably surpassing the 100 points we accrued the season before.

It won't happen this year like that basically in the main because we have lost our captain and spiritual leader and have not replaced him in and out of the dressing room and on the pitch.

The game is as much in the mind if not more as it is in the body , he will be in contact with all his team mates from Belgium regularly but it not the same.

Its like Arsenal without Adams , Manure without Keane . Arsenal without Vieira.

Each match in the premiership is already looking like a game we cannot afford to points in , of course we will we have dropped 8 already.

Ok Wolves and Norwich were our Palace and Newcastle of last year but int only 8 games into the season.

Our squad is not as strong as the past two seasons overall and so losing players that were critical but were spaced with match time like Sane while he has been here for example effects us more.

You go through each player individually and you could mount a case that none of them have the capacity to take their game to the level consistently enough now to cope with the overall improvement of enough sides that for one want a big scalp and two given a range of factors are more likely to take points of us than in previous seasons.

I believe it will as amazing an achievement as the past two seasons if we get to 90 points this season that is dropping 16 points in the last 30 games however that is made up in draws and losses.

If Liverpool drop 25 points or 24 points more to the point in the remaining 30 games we will be champions.

And yet, how many Liverpool players would you swap one of ours for? I can honestly say I'd only have van Dijk and maybe Robertson, but that's only because of Mendy's fitness issues.

Seriously we are better than them in every position for the first XI. The issue this season has been the injuries; both first choice centre backs, then KDB missing, not to mention Leroy.

If the scousers had been missing vD, Gomez, Firmino and Mane they wouldn't be 8 points clear. Once we get our injured players back, and Liverpool start to have players missing later in the season we'll claw back this deficit and overtake them, because we're that good!

 

[Zubrman]

Oh right. Thanks. I'll loook at Thornton Heath logistics. Cheers bud.

There's a Wetherspoons on the other side of the road when you exit the station and another, smaller pub on the left about two minutes walk as you head to the ground.