Crystal Palace (Away) - Pre Match Thread

[waspish]

I agree with your assessment of Sane Neville Kneville. Whether he goes onto the level that Ronaldo has I'm not sure but at his age he's certainly showing the signs that he could get close. He'll at the very least be as good as Gareth Bale in his prime. I fancy him to exceed what Gareth Bale has achieved though.

Ronaldo score 40+ goals at 22 at the scum but played more like a striker.

 

[mosssideblue]

As is Kompany

Sadly, I would agree

 

[jimmygrimblesboots]

If Merlin returns for this game and his head is in the right place , we will win, but if the onus is on KDB to supply the creativity then we could be looking at our first league draw of the season , because the Ginger Prince is looking a little jaded , a draw at Palace would not be the end of the world and i like the 7/1 odds and the 23/1 for a 0-0.

 

[sir baconface]

Expecting a tricky game but one we'll win by the odd goal.

We can't rest KDB unless Merlin is back. So far, Gundogan and Bernardo combined have been a country mile behind either of those two. They don't run games. I'm hoping they will step up later in the season when key players are getting a little fatigued.

Need a shift from everyone else too.

 

[Neville Kneville]

The thing is - it's not that hard to be at the level Ronaldo was for the rags at Sané's age.

A lot of world class prospects are at a sinilar level to 21 year old ronaldo at thar age. Sané is already ahead of where Ronaldo was IMO, but Ronaldo made a massive leap at 23 years old that almost no other players have done, bigger even than the leap Sterling has taken this season which has been transformative.

He went from very promising, skilful but little end product to scoring a goal a game and completely running marches.

Sané has time to make that jump but it's going to be incredibly hard and he's got a lot of things to improve before it even seems really plausible he could do it.

Ronaldo always did his own thing & if it coincided with what the team required then fine.

But aside from the goalscoring, Sané is already a better player for the team, than Ronaldo has ever been.

So he doesn't actually need to score 40 goals per season, to be the same calibre of player if he can play on the left & score 15-20, assist goals play tactically better.

 

[Blue Llama]

Sane imo has the ability to do similar, including the free kicks & even headers if he works on them,

You have absolutely no evidence to support that opinion. It follows on from many of your posts about young players. Players like children will lose their way if over indulged. I will be very surprised if Pep is prepared to indulge a Sane who currently appears to have regressed to the one we first saw when he joined the club.

 

[ninjamonkey]

Pointless trying to pick a team for this given we don't have information on so many players. If Silva is back i'd give KDB a rest, despite still coming up with magic he's looking more and more jaded every game.

Palace play tonight against Arsenal and have Southampton away on the 2nd. They'll surely have to rotate too and if you look at the fixtures, Southampton is a key game for them. Wouldn't at all be surprised to see them prioritise and field a slightly weakened side from them against us. Last thing they can do with is having 20% possession being absolutely knackered and then having to play again 2 days later in a very winnable game.

 

[Neville Kneville]

You have absolutely no evidence to support that opinion. It follows on from many of your posts about young players. Players like children will lose their way if over indulged. I will be very surprised if Pep is prepared to indulge a Sane who currently appears to have regressed to the one we first saw when he joined the club.

The evidence is in his pace physique touch & ability he has already showed to strike a ball.

Whether he can raise that to the level of Ronaldo is another thing, but the raw ability is so obvious even Gary Neville has noticed it.

But as I just posted, he works twice as hard for the team as Ronaldo ever did, so if he reaches anything like the same level in other areas, he will automatically become a similar calibre of player.

He has most definitely not had it easy at City & works much harder without the ball over 90 mins as Dennis Tueart for example, who was never considered a 'lazy' player.

And if he is expected to work even harder, it is unlikely he will ever be quite as good as Roaldo in the other aspects. It's close to impossible to do both without one area suffering.

And yes btw, we have had a load of players at City in recent years with more talent than most I've seen at City & elsewhere, in the previous 50 & none have yet made it at any level, which I'm not pleased about.

 

[richards30]

Any news about wether stones or Silva are back?

 

[sir baconface]

Ronaldo always did his own thing & if it coincided with what the team required then fine.

But aside from the goalscoring, Sané is already a better player for the team, than Ronaldo has ever been.

So he doesn't actually need to score 40 goals per season, to be the same calibre of player if he can play on the left & score 15-20, assist goals play tactically better.

The evidence is in his pace physique touch & ability he has already showed to strike a ball.

Whether he can raise that to the level of Ronaldo is another thing, but the raw ability is so obvious even Gary Neville has noticed it.

But as I just posted, he works twice as hard for the team as Ronaldo ever did, so if he reaches anything like the same level in other areas, he will automatically become a similar calibre of player.

He has most definitely not had it easy at City & works much harder without the ball over 90 mins as Dennis Tueart for example, who was never considered a 'lazy' player.

And if he is expected to work even harder, it is unlikely he will ever be quite as good as Roaldo in the other aspects. It's close to impossible to do both without one area suffering.

And yes btw, we have had a load of players at City in recent years with more talent than most I've seen at City & elsewhere, in the previous 50 & none have yet made it at any level, which I'm not pleased about.

Raw ability, yes, but I feel he has some way to go to match your optimism. I'm sure we'll all be thrilled if he ends up with 15 - 20 goals plus a number of assists this year.

When people see him as less of a team player than others, part of the picture is petulance and body language. He's more willing to pick up a card for a pointless strop, or throw his hands in the air rather than chase a 20% ball. Maybe the first is partly down to youth and perhaps you'll say the latter is a waste of energy. But it's an observation nonetheless.