Crystal Palace PL (H) Post match thread

[bellsouth]

Not gonna improve our inability to keep a clean sheet or our brilliant ability in giving away late goals! …. We might already be 5 up though so can see your point!

To be fair, Haaland loves a bit of keep ball in the corner to wind down the clock. Something we could have done with today!

 

[Beanhead]

I hope youre right but i just dont see it in this current team. We have no players who take responsibilty and step up when it gets hard, like Gundo has in the past

6 weeks ago no one could see our resent results. We could quite feasibly win our next 6 and be top again. We are the only team in the league that anyone with any sense wouldn’t bet against. In fact we could win 12 on the bounce. One good performance and we could easily start to dominate. Just be thankful that we are having this period now. Plenty of time to fix it. I am not worried. I think by the end of January we will be much closer to the top points wise.

 

[LongsightM13]

You won't see worse at this level. Mind you, the bloke on the right was close. Walker is finished, I think.

Walker can’t do 90 intense minutes anymore, it seems
Same as Spurs, breathing out of his arse for the last 20 and his side wide open
That said, have to lay the blame for today firmly with Baldy and Lillo

 

[Lovebitesandeveryfing]

You know, it's not the losses I'm critical of. Villa are playing well, and they were well worth their three points. Furthermore, they'll bother more than one this season. Wolves was just one of those weirdo losses that we get every season. There's always one, and I'll give the lads leeway on that. Arsenal was a scuzzy defeat from a jammy deflected goal, which we absolutely did not deserve.
No, it's these draws from leading positions, and very late on. That's something quite new, and you actually have to go back to Pellegrini's last season to see that phenomenon happening this regularly.
It is doing my head in.
Obviously the season's not over, unless something very funny is happening with the calendar. But today has dented my confidence that we will be champions come May more than any other match. The weird thing is that it actually seems to do us good to go behind (as with Luton, as with Leipzig). Even the other night, against Red Star, we're absolutely cruising for nearly all the game, and suddenly it becomes Keystone Cops time.
Suppose I'll see it differently tomorrow. Better sign off from here, for my sanity.

 

[Silvatoure21]

The problem as I see it is that yes, they are not amazing, but we look nothing like a team that can win 18 in a row again. Maybe KDB and Haaland coming back will change that, but at the moment, I can't see us doing it because of us, not because of our opponents. At the moment, I can see the winning team getting something like 82 points and us still not managing to beat them.

Maybe I'm making the cardinal sin of writing off City, but it just feels different to me this time.

I hear you but I know from time after time that you can never write City off. But yes we are not playing anywhere near title winning football, but we are by no means out of it. We are still a world class team with everything to play for.

 

[Nellies left peg]

Absolutely no faith in this team protecting a lead and seeing games out now. Consistently finding ways to drop points every week. Bottlejobs.

Every week in my super 6 I always put us down as conceding , never a clean sheet. Had it as a 3-1 win today. No confidence in us defending a lead

 

[Father Paul]

Gvardiol and Guardiola were two hideous twins today, in control of the game for 70mins and Pep makes no subs, the line-up was bad enough but players were cleary fatigued Stones should've come on at 2-0 not 2-2!

Gvardiol defensively was shocking today, he creates chaos in our back line, 1-on-1 he might be worse than Laporte he certainly cannot play at LB needs benching.

I agree.

 

[jimharri]

When did we last keep a clean sheet?
On current form we will not be winning any trophies this season.
Pep needs to sort out the defence pretty quickly. As soon as we lose the ball in midfield and the opposing team counter we concede and always late in the match. Gvardiol is not a left back.

What; in all competitions, or just the PL?

 

[TFC]

Left the house 2-0 up, got to where we're going, 2-2. Ffs City

 

[citymad]

Is is too ridiculous to think that we are we now seeing Pep finally running out of ideas on how to change a game ? It doesn’t seem like the players have that composure anymore.

 

[super_city_si]

Peps clearly trying a new system but he’s trying to play high full backs with walker and gvardiol. It’s suicide. Even if it was last years walker, he still shit in the final third. So what do you gain? It just leaves us wide open to the counter.

We’re off the back of a mentally and physically exhausting season. Why push players for the full 90 when they’re clearly fucked? If Kovacic, Nunez or Stones can only play once a week then Why did pep play them in a nothing game?

Pep has his reasons. I’d love to know what his thinking is right now

Real mind fuck from him right now

 

[Paulmcfc2703]

The balance of the team is not right and Gundo leaving is probably one of the main reasons.

Gundogan not being replaced is an absolute joke.

Still we can all look forward to those Kovacic goals in the second half of the season

 

[ninjamonkey]

Who didnt see that coming?

Almost every game this season I've moaned about us completely giving up all intent to actually score once we take the lead and there's exactly why. The game was won, even they were just waiting for the third so they can wave the white flag, all we had to do was carry on at the same intensity, bag the inevitable third and then you can drop a gear and play keep ball.

We aren't solid enough defensively to protect narrow leads and aren't good enough on the ball to limit the silly mistakes that lead to conceding. We also don't have it in us to respond, up the level and score again when it does show signs of swinging against us. It's a stupid tactical decision and it's probably costing us the title.

How are we creating chances in games? Theres no plan of attack. Without doku we get fuck all from the wings and we dont play quickly or directly enough to cut open teams down the middle. It's just don't lose the ball and hope somebody decides to do something at some point.

Why wasn't the benched used today? Lewis was flagging badly after about 70 minutes. Kovacic has had 2 very good games and ready to go, Nunes who was very good midweek or stones were all options to freshen the midfield up and we choose not to make a sub once more. I know we havent had a lot of options of late but pep wanted this. Hes deliberately handicapped himself with a tiny squad and now seemingly doesnt even trust more than about 14 outfield players. Can he not see half the team look fucked every game after 60-70 minutes?


Think most of us said we can't drop anymore points after the villa loss until new year as a minimum and we drop 2 in what should be a comfortable home game.

We all know we've clawed back bigger deficits in the past but we've never been chasing 2 and right now 3 teams which makes it so much more unlikely and we've already played some important home games where we would typically close the gap. We have to go to anfield and spurs in the second half of the season where we never get results, we're going to go 5 and 6 points behind arsenal and liverpool tomorrow, then they play each other whilst we are in Saudi and suddenly were approaching a double figure gap over Christmas.

 

[Fat Freddy's Cat]

It really is. Gvardiol looks like a Championship full-back, and a really crap one. Walker looks finished. Dias is what these days? Akanji is a mistake waiting to happen, the goalkeeper is iffy, and the best two defenders, Stones and Ake, are, mysteriously, not first pick. Bullshit.

The transfer activity though, next level awful.

Lol, got any positives

 

[madloaf]

Left the house 2-0 up, got to where we're going, 2-2. Ffs City

So its YOUR fault!

 

[Lavinda Past]

I don't have 50 years, just the 40.
Cityitis shouldn't be making an appearance these days - we all have to accept that for the stature of the club we've become.
But at the same time there are some right entitled fuckers on here. We're not quite right currently, so pull together and support the club TOP to BOTTOM - most importantly ALL the players who pull on the shirt.

Sadly, it doesn't work like that John.

We had a shit transfer window over the summer, Pep's team selection has been erratic, and his game management has been fucking dreadful

We need a couple of decent signings in January in addition to getting KDB, Doku and John Stones back full-time.

The last thing we needed this season was to be involved in the tin pot World Club tournament.

Getting mugged by Woy Hodgson shows just how far Pep is off his game this season.

 

[Shirley]

Results like today although disappointing have me preferring a CL win at Wembley rather than 4 on the spin

 

[balotellishaircut]

I know we have some old cunts on here - but fuck me you must be the oldest if you can remember that season!

ha ha no I’m only 52 but I like reading about City history whenever I have any spare time, prepares me for games like today.

 

[cupsforcockups]

Doesn’t matter about a good first half it what happens after 90 that really matters and we just are not good enough at this time

 

[bumbleblue]

Fucking hell what’s happened to us? Needs sorting if we are to anything this season.That’s at least 8 points gone in the last few mins of games. Might even be more than that.