Crystal Palace (N) | FA Cup Final | Post Match Thread

A transition to Football Video Support (FVS) where managers have two appeals per match (retained if used successfully) would get public support in my view, and have the potential to check a whole range of decisions without being overly time consuming.

Arsene Wenger suggested similar over a decade ago, thought it was a good idea then, think its a good idea now.

However it makes no difference the system used if the people operating it are incompetent/corrupt (delete depending on the amount of tinfoil you prefer to wear) so, in this instance, Henderson would still not be sent off.

VAR as a process worked on Saturday, the problem was the officials making the decision still got it wrong. I don't think you can legislate for that
 
I mainly agree. It’s strange, because it seems like the drop must be due to the obvious drop in quality, but we won the league with Fabian Delph and Zinchenko, and Gabriel Jesus, whose quality isn’t the greatest either.
I wonder if it’s just having more of a solid spine of real world class players.

It’s a shame that Dias hasn’t really grown into being a top-class, elite defender. He clearly works hard, and has some leadership qualities, but he isn’t the rock and organiser we’d have liked him to become.

Missing Rodri has been massive.

Bernardo and Gundo are so slow now that they could hardly manage to drag us through anything. Same for Kev apart from the odd game or moment here and there.
Delph an Zinchenko were limited in quality and time played - but they were like Ringo - they complimented the whole and you can't fault their work rates for the team - so it was less noticeable than the underperforming, limited one dimensional additions. Gaby just wasn't good enough - but thanks for the 100! OK Lewis works hard - but couldn't open a milk carton and he gets the ball in dangerous areas.
To be honest the issues are manifest - including age, confidence, Rodri, poor selections, unwillingness to shoot cross, pass when it's appropriate, recruitment (as alluded) etc etc.
Pep and one or two others in the hierarchy have really had a poor couple of yrs on the whole. (The 4 in a row, despite, rather than because) Complacency, arrogance, the charges, personal issues....etc? Who really knows? Perhaps it's even been planned/allowed? (To cut them some slack).
But whatever it is - it's all come home to roost.
Perhaps it is time for a cathartic airing of views (Bernie getting the ball rolling) throughout the club, before we can
build and move on.
 
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I think he got the team selection massively wrong on Saturday. Nunes has done a decent job at full back then as soon as Akanji is fit he's straight back in. Clearly would have suited Nunes more as the whole game was virtually played in the Palace half. No idea where Kovacic was, he was superb in the semi final. And don't get me started on Haaland. On £500k a week and was too scared to take a penalty in an FA cup final, absolute fucking disgrace. Pep and the senior players on the pitch have got to be telling Haaland to take it, he is our penalty taker and top scorer. Would you ever see Kane, Rooney, Drogba, Ronaldo, Messi, Mbappe bottling a penalty in a cup final? Also about the Henderson handball, I don't understand how as a decision, it's been so universally accepted by everyone. Can you imagine it was the other way around, the football world would be calling for a replay and the usual "City paying refs corrupt" etc bollocks. It's an absolute joke of a decision and the referee has bottled it big time.
Anyway fair play to Palace and their fans.
Tuesday huge now.
 
I've just watched this from big Steve and he's summed it up perfectly. Something isn't right behind the scenes this season. We all know about the injuries but the last six weeks we've had enough talent fit and available to get back on track, which until Southampton and yesterday we did. Dropping points there which has now put our champions league qualification on a knife edge and losing our only chance of a trophy on Saturday was down to Pep, nobody else, Pep. He's said countless times when the players stop listening and believing in him he'll know it's time to go, has that now happened? The question has to be asked because it's totally baffling what's happened this season and in particular the last two games.

We all know Nunes isn't the long term answer at right back but he's done a decent job of it and has improved massively. How do you think he feels getting dropped for Akanji, who offered nothing on Saturday save to pass the ball sideways and backwards. Why couldn't Grealish get onto the field to offer something different when it was obvious Savhino wasn't working? Why didn't he throw the wildcard of the young Argentinian kid on earlier? How does Lewis feel after having a great game against Forest and scoring to not get a kick in the final? Lastly why, why did Pep change and disrupt the whole team, the team that at long last, after a shit season, had finally found some rhythm and form and was winning games, to shoehorn Akanji and Haaland back in? Why, fucking why?? His brainfart against Southampton cost us two invaluable points. We couldn't score against a team that had conceded eighty four goals. Eighty four fucking goals yet we made them look like prime AC Milan in defence, so inept were we. If he was resting players for the final well we all saw how well that worked didn't we?
We spunked two hundred million on players in January and only one is getting a game. Why? After wailing all season about the massive hole the Rodri injury left in the team, why did we look at and identify a player to fix that problem, spend sixty million pounds on him, then don't play him? Why, fucking why??

All these questions need to be asked. Has Pep got enough credit in the bank to rebuild this squad and team? Absolutely, but that comes with a big but. That but is every Empire and Emperor has it's day and gets deposed in time. Look at Mourhino. He was once the special one, a serial trophy winner and now he's just a sad caricature of what he once was. Has Peps style, which was once all conquering, been found out and is about to be consigned to the history books?

We will soon find out once this annus horribilis season, sadly extended by this bloody world cup fiasco finally ends. I'm ruling nothing out, big shocks could be coming.

 
I've just watched this from big Steve and he's summed it up perfectly. Something isn't right behind the scenes this season. We all know about the injuries but the last six weeks we've had enough talent fit and available to get back on track, which until Southampton and yesterday we did. Dropping points there which has now put our champions league qualification on a knife edge and losing our only chance of a trophy on Saturday was down to Pep, nobody else, Pep. He's said countless times when the players stop listening and believing in him he'll know it's time to go, has that now happened? The question has to be asked because it's totally baffling what's happened this season and in particular the last two games.

We all know Nunes isn't the long term answer at right back but he's done a decent job of it and has improved massively. How do you think he feels getting dropped for Akanji, who offered nothing on Saturday save to pass the ball sideways and backwards. Why couldn't Grealish get onto the field to offer something different when it was obvious Savhino wasn't working? Why didn't he throw the wildcard of the young Argentinian kid on earlier? How does Lewis feel after having a great game against Forest and scoring to not get a kick in the final? Lastly why, why did Pep change and disrupt the whole team, the team that at long last, after a shit season, had finally found some rhythm and form and was winning games, to shoehorn Akanji and Haaland back in? Why, fucking why?? His brainfart against Southampton cost us two invaluable points. We couldn't score against a team that had conceded eighty four goals. Eighty four fucking goals yet we made them look like prime AC Milan in defence, so inept were we. If he was resting players for the final well we all saw how well that worked didn't we?
We spunked two hundred million on players in January and only one is getting a game. Why? After wailing all season about the massive hole the Rodri injury left in the team, why did we look at and identify a player to fix that problem, spend sixty million pounds on him, then don't play him? Why, fucking why??

All these questions need to be asked. Has Pep got enough credit in the bank to rebuild this squad and team? Absolutely, but that comes with a big but. That but is every Empire and Emperor has it's day and gets deposed in time. Look at Mourhino. He was once the special one, a serial trophy winner and now he's just a sad caricature of what he once was. Has Peps style, which was once all conquering, been found out and is about to be consigned to the history books?

We will soon find out once this annus horribilis season, sadly extended by this bloody world cup fiasco finally ends. I'm ruling nothing out, big shocks could be coming.
Did you not know

It’s because Pep and his wife split up

Simply as that I was told on here the other week
 
I've just watched this from big Steve and he's summed it up perfectly. Something isn't right behind the scenes this season. We all know about the injuries but the last six weeks we've had enough talent fit and available to get back on track, which until Southampton and yesterday we did. Dropping points there which has now put our champions league qualification on a knife edge and losing our only chance of a trophy on Saturday was down to Pep, nobody else, Pep. He's said countless times when the players stop listening and believing in him he'll know it's time to go, has that now happened? The question has to be asked because it's totally baffling what's happened this season and in particular the last two games.

We all know Nunes isn't the long term answer at right back but he's done a decent job of it and has improved massively. How do you think he feels getting dropped for Akanji, who offered nothing on Saturday save to pass the ball sideways and backwards. Why couldn't Grealish get onto the field to offer something different when it was obvious Savhino wasn't working? Why didn't he throw the wildcard of the young Argentinian kid on earlier? How does Lewis feel after having a great game against Forest and scoring to not get a kick in the final? Lastly why, why did Pep change and disrupt the whole team, the team that at long last, after a shit season, had finally found some rhythm and form and was winning games, to shoehorn Akanji and Haaland back in? Why, fucking why?? His brainfart against Southampton cost us two invaluable points. We couldn't score against a team that had conceded eighty four goals. Eighty four fucking goals yet we made them look like prime AC Milan in defence, so inept were we. If he was resting players for the final well we all saw how well that worked didn't we?
We spunked two hundred million on players in January and only one is getting a game. Why? After wailing all season about the massive hole the Rodri injury left in the team, why did we look at and identify a player to fix that problem, spend sixty million pounds on him, then don't play him? Why, fucking why??

All these questions need to be asked. Has Pep got enough credit in the bank to rebuild this squad and team? Absolutely, but that comes with a big but. That but is every Empire and Emperor has it's day and gets deposed in time. Look at Mourhino. He was once the special one, a serial trophy winner and now he's just a sad caricature of what he once was. Has Peps style, which was once all conquering, been found out and is about to be consigned to the history books?

We will soon find out once this annus horribilis season, sadly extended by this bloody world cup fiasco finally ends. I'm ruling nothing out, big shocks could be coming.


It's mental when you break it down, didn't even think of the January signings and only one is playing - baffling! Khusanov had a decent start and now he's not kicked a ball in about 2 months. Pep called Nico our 'mini Rodri' after we hammered Newcastle 4-0 and now the guy can't get a minute. What the fuck is going on
 
It's mental when you break it down, didn't even think of the January signings and only one is playing - baffling! Khusanov had a decent start and now he's not kicked a ball in about 2 months. Pep called Nico our 'mini Rodri' after we hammered Newcastle 4-0 and now the guy can't get a minute. What the fuck is going on

I know! I only got back from Wembley yesterday afternoon and went straight out on the piss to try and numb the pain of failing in yet another fa cup final,which was there for the taking, like Wigan and the rags last season. Three finals in a row and we've lost two of them to opposition we would beat eight times out of ten normally. Now sobering up I had to try and break it down, as painful as it was doing so and I did, hence my post.
 
I've just watched this from big Steve and he's summed it up perfectly. Something isn't right behind the scenes this season. We all know about the injuries but the last six weeks we've had enough talent fit and available to get back on track, which until Southampton and yesterday we did. Dropping points there which has now put our champions league qualification on a knife edge and losing our only chance of a trophy on Saturday was down to Pep, nobody else, Pep. He's said countless times when the players stop listening and believing in him he'll know it's time to go, has that now happened? The question has to be asked because it's totally baffling what's happened this season and in particular the last two games.

We all know Nunes isn't the long term answer at right back but he's done a decent job of it and has improved massively. How do you think he feels getting dropped for Akanji, who offered nothing on Saturday save to pass the ball sideways and backwards. Why couldn't Grealish get onto the field to offer something different when it was obvious Savhino wasn't working? Why didn't he throw the wildcard of the young Argentinian kid on earlier? How does Lewis feel after having a great game against Forest and scoring to not get a kick in the final? Lastly why, why did Pep change and disrupt the whole team, the team that at long last, after a shit season, had finally found some rhythm and form and was winning games, to shoehorn Akanji and Haaland back in? Why, fucking why?? His brainfart against Southampton cost us two invaluable points. We couldn't score against a team that had conceded eighty four goals. Eighty four fucking goals yet we made them look like prime AC Milan in defence, so inept were we. If he was resting players for the final well we all saw how well that worked didn't we?
We spunked two hundred million on players in January and only one is getting a game. Why? After wailing all season about the massive hole the Rodri injury left in the team, why did we look at and identify a player to fix that problem, spend sixty million pounds on him, then don't play him? Why, fucking why??

All these questions need to be asked. Has Pep got enough credit in the bank to rebuild this squad and team? Absolutely, but that comes with a big but. That but is every Empire and Emperor has it's day and gets deposed in time. Look at Mourhino. He was once the special one, a serial trophy winner and now he's just a sad caricature of what he once was. Has Peps style, which was once all conquering, been found out and is about to be consigned to the history books?

We will soon find out once this annus horribilis season, sadly extended by this bloody world cup fiasco finally ends. I'm ruling nothing out, big shocks could be coming.


I am seeing this constantly...fans blaming Pep's tactics for poor attacking play.

In my opinion the problem is far simpler, the creative midfielders are KDB who is 33 and now static, and Foden who is playing well below what he is capable of. That I don't think is on Pep.

You commented about the Jan signings. Half were central defenders for the future because at the time Stones, Ake and Akanji were all injured. We also bought in Marmoush and Gonzalez. Marmoush has played regularly and done OK but Gonzalez has struggled. Echeverri is very young. Perhaps he will be our David Silva but he will need time to adapt. It looked desperate in the Cup Final to bring him on. We need to get KDB out of our side and start working on a new no.10 / creative player but we can't do that until next season.
 
A genius would have realised the problems and rectified them. He bought in January and we are still shit and he is making the same mistakes. He needs to go, if we as fans knew full well how yesterday would go then it is crazy that he didn't. A team having none of the ball, creating very little but still beating us is nothing new at all this season. That comes from the man calling the shots.

It felt gutless and nearly as bad as that Wigan day, Foden needs to not play another minute. As does KDB, the sympathy minutes he has received could prove costly to us. He keeps trusting the same players that have let him down all season. Not winning is one thing, not turning up and seemingly not care for two cup finals, with one against your rivals is criminal. Haaland trying to get the crowd going after the disallowed goal was fucking laughable. How about you get involved in the game and have a bit of bottle, do your job and take a pen. I don't even want top 5 at this point, they don't deserve it in the slightest
Worst post of the year...well done !!
 
Saw this today

That explains the horrendous decision not to send Henderson off on Saturday. Nothing else does because anybody who saw that incident knows it was a nailed on red card. How the fuck does an official with that associated history with one of the two finalists get the gig? Just how???
 
Well played Palace. You deserved the win. City had the chances to equalise and win the game but fluffed it. I've gone from miffed yesterday to mild acceptance today and I'm actually pleased for the Palace fans. That's because I remember Citys 1st trophy in recent times...the fa cup in 2011. I remember going for a walk after & thinking god we've done it. For 42years I had been telling every Utd fan who goaded me that before I die City will win something. I haven’t forgotten where I've come from and of course being a blue I hope we win everything every season. But it's unrealistic. Referee mistakes, injuries & competition from others make it so. Anyway well done Palace and I hope the fans have a great big party because that's what City did and its nice to see others getting on as well as seeing my own club grow and be successful.
City were poor but can we stop this Palace deserved to win shit. They weren’t very good and had 1 shot. 1 shot. Honestly they didn’t deserve to win. As bad as we were the best player on the pitch was Henderson.
 
I've just watched this from big Steve and he's summed it up perfectly. Something isn't right behind the scenes this season. We all know about the injuries but the last six weeks we've had enough talent fit and available to get back on track, which until Southampton and yesterday we did. Dropping points there which has now put our champions league qualification on a knife edge and losing our only chance of a trophy on Saturday was down to Pep, nobody else, Pep. He's said countless times when the players stop listening and believing in him he'll know it's time to go, has that now happened? The question has to be asked because it's totally baffling what's happened this season and in particular the last two games.

We all know Nunes isn't the long term answer at right back but he's done a decent job of it and has improved massively. How do you think he feels getting dropped for Akanji, who offered nothing on Saturday save to pass the ball sideways and backwards. Why couldn't Grealish get onto the field to offer something different when it was obvious Savhino wasn't working? Why didn't he throw the wildcard of the young Argentinian kid on earlier? How does Lewis feel after having a great game against Forest and scoring to not get a kick in the final? Lastly why, why did Pep change and disrupt the whole team, the team that at long last, after a shit season, had finally found some rhythm and form and was winning games, to shoehorn Akanji and Haaland back in? Why, fucking why?? His brainfart against Southampton cost us two invaluable points. We couldn't score against a team that had conceded eighty four goals. Eighty four fucking goals yet we made them look like prime AC Milan in defence, so inept were we. If he was resting players for the final well we all saw how well that worked didn't we?
We spunked two hundred million on players in January and only one is getting a game. Why? After wailing all season about the massive hole the Rodri injury left in the team, why did we look at and identify a player to fix that problem, spend sixty million pounds on him, then don't play him? Why, fucking why??

All these questions need to be asked. Has Pep got enough credit in the bank to rebuild this squad and team? Absolutely, but that comes with a big but. That but is every Empire and Emperor has it's day and gets deposed in time. Look at Mourhino. He was once the special one, a serial trophy winner and now he's just a sad caricature of what he once was. Has Peps style, which was once all conquering, been found out and is about to be consigned to the history books?

We will soon find out once this annus horribilis season, sadly extended by this bloody world cup fiasco finally ends. I'm ruling nothing out, big shocks could be coming.


Yes I would prefer to listen to Big Steve than some cock in yank land who probably hasn't been to a game in 20 years if ever at all tbh
 
City were poor but can we stop this Palace deserved to win shit. They weren’t very good and had 1 shot. 1 shot. Honestly they didn’t deserve to win. As bad as we were the best player on the pitch was Henderson.
It's a Bluemoon trait. The race to be oh so magnanimous is warm and cuddly to some.
Palace were shit - but yep, our defending for the FA Cup stealing goal was even shitter.
 
City are a side in transition. The aging players who served us so well are out of the door or moving through it. We haven't managed their replacement well this time, instead we kept the old side together and went for the 4th title back to back. Now that side is breaking up.

Fans want to see City win, and easy solutions. It isn't easy. And even if you do rebuild a side, Cup Finals can still be lost. They turn on pens., sending offs etc. We didn't get the breaks at Wembley and we couldn't find the passes to unlock a determined opposition. That's largely on KDB, and Savinho. Savinho might develop. Foden came on and did even worse than Savinho on the right. KDB is at the end of his career. It was predictable. I don't think many City fans expected City to blow Palace away. I thought we'd edge it.
 
I am seeing this constantly...fans blaming Pep's tactics for poor attacking play.

In my opinion the problem is far simpler, the creative midfielders are KDB who is 33 and now static, and Foden who is playing well below what he is capable of. That I don't think is on Pep.

You commented about the Jan signings. Half were central defenders for the future because at the time Stones, Ake and Akanji were all injured. We also bought in Marmoush and Gonzalez. Marmoush has played regularly and done OK but Gonzalez has struggled. Echeverri is very young. Perhaps he will be our David Silva but he will need time to adapt. It looked desperate in the Cup Final to bring him on. We need to get KDB out of our side and start working on a new no.10 / creative player but we can't do that until next season.

I wasn't blaming him for our poor attacking play, though we have to tinker it to become more effective. Understandably that can't happen until we finish the season and refresh the squad.
I blamed him for mass changes against Southampton, one of the worst premier league sides in history, which cost us two invaluable points. I blamed him for disrupting a side that had at last found some form, fluidity and got back to winning ways which has just cost us the cup final.
The rest were questions that have to be asked, as unpalatable as they may be. That will be down to Pep, the squad and our owners to discuss and sort out in the summer.
 
overall shite day all around, made worse by rival supporters mocking.

No excuses here, despite the officiating etc but you need to put the ball in the back of the net to win. And we haven't done that.

Infact I read we've had over 40 shots in two games since Haaland has been back and scored none.

I hope Pep reverts back to what's worked these last few weeks, but I know he won't
 

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