Crystal Palace (H) - Post Match

[tolmie's hairdoo]

If Arsenal want Stones and are willing to pay, we should cut our losses.

He was truly appalling today. His positional sense was nowhere.

He's actually responsible twice for the first goal, needlessly heading out for the corner and then caught napping for the actual goal.

As for the second, he was again responsible twice. He loses a header in midfield and then morphs into Otamendi by backing off into his own box.

Pep was doing his nut all game and trying to communicate with him.

And then injured again.

Cancelo wasn't far behind him in his general sloppiness.

Felt sorry for Mendy. That is as good a full-back performance as I have seen in many a long year. Truly outstanding delivery and purpose in his game.

Hopefully a big step forward for him now.

 

[Brendan110_0]

I couldn’t celebrate Sergio’s second because I had no confidence that we’d be able to withstand the pressure that Palace would put on us even for just a few minutes. At no point in the game did I believe that we’d win.

Scouting and player acquisition is to blame. It has become abundantly clear that we lack the ability to identify good defenders. Laporte aside, we need to rip out that entire back line and start again. Stones, Otamendi, Zinchenko, Mendy and Walker all need to go. All of these players have serious deficiencies. We shouldn’t be handing over the task of rebuilding the defence to the same people that have repeatedly failed in this area for much of the past decade.
.

To be fair, Zinchenko is a midfielder - is that why didn't you include Fernandinho? (he's not good enough there either IMO). I disagree with you regarding Walker - he's been pretty good since winning us the Community shield vs Liverpool.

 

[Marvin]

Pep decided to change a team that scored 6, blame is at his door.

You can tell at the end there's fractures in the dressing room, the likes of De Bruyne straight down the tunnel. The gradual weakening of this squad over the past 2 years has taken its toll.

You're imagining stuff.

We lost to Palace last season. And the weakness this season is obvious. We have a midfielder playing in defence. That's down to injury and retirement of one player. It will be solved by Laporte's return, and a fit Stones. At the moment he is constantly injured. If he doesn't recover then City will either have to go to Garcia/Harwood Bellis or replace him.

 

[lefty goldblatt]

Crystal palace
Shots 5
On target 3
Goals 2 (one of them, an OG)

What worries me, is we've got Real Madrid in 6 weeks time. Not the Real Madrid of a few years ago, I grant you, but still, Real Madrid.

Our defensive coaching sessions need to be intense, to say the least

 

[ChicagoBlue]

I'll have to watch the game again on MOTD if I can be bothered but I saw the Zaha goal as very unlucky. The player who can't defend is Fernandinho.

Clarkie?

The media and rival players have had a go at Stones,and it's sad that City fans seem to join in with this. Stones problem is not weak defending but a frail body that keeps letting him down. He was limping again at the end.

Are you his Dad? No?

Then you must be his Mum!

 

[Marvin]

If Arsenal want Stones and are willing to pay, we should cut our losses.

He was truly appalling today. His positional sense was nowhere.

He's actually responsible twice for the first goal, needlessly heading out for the corner and then caught napping for the actual goal.

As for the second, he was again responsible twice. He loses a header in midfield and then morphs into Otamendi by backing off into his own box.

Pep was doing his nut all game and trying to communicate with him.

And then injured again.

Cancelo wasn't far behind him in his general sloppiness.

Felt sorry for Mendy. That is as good a full-back performance as I have seen in many a long year. Truly outstanding delivery and purpose in his game.

Hopefully a big step forward for him now.

We continually gave the ball to Mendy. It was a bit predictable. Cancelo was lazy. rarely got forward. I'd get rid of Cancelo. Attitude is not right. He should be seizing his chance instead he's coasting. I'll have to watch the goals again. I'm in hhe front row and don't get a good view of the corners. I thought our problem was what we have seen all season...a lack of height at the back as I saw Palace win two headers in their opener.

 

[meltonblue]

Think we’re really missing Sane. It wasn’t an issue earlier in the season when Sterling was in form, but he’s been off since the Gomez incident.

There’s quite a few other issues too though.

 

[balotellishaircut]

These two legs could be any score really, But with the way we defend its unlikely we will come out on top.
Real Madrid have the nasty side to them as well that we dont have, Play acting, Getting the opposition bookings, Running down the clock...We don't do these things in the Champions League either, If we were winning 4-3 with two minutes to go we would still go all out trying to get a 5th instead of time wasting.

yeah I agree mate, we've already thrown away 7 points against Wolves, Newcastle and Palace, these are the games tests we needed before RM and I'm afraid we failed miserably with a poor defensive showing.

 

[razinho]

Profligacy and inconsistency has been the tune to our season - looking forward to getting Laporte and Sane back and seeing how we get on in the cups. What a task Pep and the management team have recruiting this summer, too many bystanders this year and they should be shipped as soon as possible.

 

[Marvin]

Clarkie?


Are you his Dad? No?

Then you must be his Mum!

I've said all along that Fernandinho can't defend. he covers and sweeps up well but he doesn't defend one on one well. he doesn't have that skill. And he's not gotthe height for a centra defender. It's easy to slag Stones off, and loads of fans do it but I don't agree all the time. he's not on form, but that's mostly down to injury. He is injured literally every 2-3 games and it's been that way all season.