Palace - Post Match Thread

[Josh_D]

You underestimate him then, he might have been quiet in terms of touches of the ball, but his movement was fantastic, and it was key to us scoring 5 goals. He pulled their defenders out wide, and into midfield, and that was why we created so many chances, and far more on target than we have recently. He was also close to getting a couple for himself, and he gets stuck in, which is hard for a defender to deal with, there was one shoulder to shoulder where he took the defender out of the game for instance.

He'll have brighter games directly in front of goal, and will be devastating, but he is just what Pep wants from our forward players, and yet he himself came off disappointed, he shouldn't be.

Agree with you. However, I'm somewhat happy he was frustrated/disappointed when he came off. It shows his hunger/desire for excellence, improvement, etc. Every player should strive to be better and not be complacent or accepting. Maybe they aren't, but you can tell he wants to win and score like any kid in a park.

 

[Dribble]

We're not though, for much of the season a 'team' we have not been, we show flashes of it, but we're so inconsistent as a 'team'.

Some say we have the best squad, but a look at our bench today says bollox we do, we may have the best first team, but too often, we play too individually, we may even play the best football occasionally, but that's the issue, its only occasionally.

How we had the 'team' out at Middlesbrough last week is utterly bizarre, and one for Pep to answer, and though we did have injuries, I still can't fathom what that was about, and its not the first time.

I believe in what he'll eventually do, and we see glimpses of it now and again, but four of our players today won us the league 5 years ago, that's over 1/3 of today's team, and that is the reason we haven't pushed on, and that is not knocking those four in anyway.

I hear you about the team at Middlesbrough and to be honest I think that had a lot to do with both Aguero & Jesus being fit. The team which played yesterday is arguably the team most of us would have selected with the possible exception of Fernandinho at right back albeit I get Pep's reasoning on that score. I think Aguero's injury has made life easier for Pep and will bring him closer to his Blueprint for the future.

The fact you mention the four players who helped us win the league 5 years ago highlights another issue and underpins the reason why I think Pep will need another 2 major transfer windows before we really begin to see his plan coming to fruition. Pep dealt with what he saw as the necessary changes when he first came and adopted a mend and make do stance on the rest.

He said after the Middlesbrough game that he doesn't have the full backs who can get up to attack and back to defend and we know this is an area of concern he will address. In terms of us being the best team in the league, I see Pep's point in that respect as I think he means that we've dominated most teams we've faced but been undone by defensive errors and an inability to score crucial goals even though Aguero's personal stats are outstanding.

Yesterday's team shows the direction Pep is headed and there are City stalwarts whose contracts are coming to an end who know they'll probably be moving on in the summer. I have confidence in his approach and believe we will begin to see a more solid & dynamic City in the coming months.

 

[1961_vintage]

I know that "it was only Palace" (you know, the team that had previously given Chelsea, Arse, Spurs and Liverpool tough games) but wow how good was Merlin yesterday. To unanimously get the MOTM award when there were many other excellent performances says everything. He is an absolute joy to watch.

 

[Juan King]

Couldn't fault any of the players yesterday, I thought they were all excellent. We really miss Silva when he is out & it was great to see him back, he was outstanding. Clichy has had some stick on here recently, but I thought he had a great game yesterday also. Let's hope for more of the same against Leicester, we owe them a beating.

 

[prestonibbo_mcfc]

Funny how many more goals we score when we pass it forwards, instead of backwards and sidewards.

 

[yerwot?]

the alternative to sideways and back is lumping it forward in blind hope and giving up possession. When teams put ten men in their own half, our movement off the ball has to be relentless and coordinated, against CP, it was, against the rags it wasn't. GJ is a natural at it, dragging players out of position, making space for others and he's only been here five minutes. Looking forward to seeing him get even better

 

[caseball]

I thought Fernandinho had a great game. In the first half he played very well in the full back position and only spoiled it with a couple of poor passes. He's obviously not a natural when it comes to handling wingers but he stuck at it. When he moved up into a full midfield role, he kept us at it. We need more players with his energy. Sane looks like he's coming to terms with the game in England and it's good to see he has a bit of fire in his belly. If he can keep it under control, he'll be a thorn in a a lot of sides. If only Sterling had a bit if that. He's too nice.

 

[hammocity]

Like the positive post game thread, only 41 pages though, if we had got beat the moaning fuckers would be inundating the tally way up to a 100 pages, keep it up.

 

[mekonmcfc]

A great overall team performance on saturday, we always look better with Silva in the team he just makes us tick. But saturday everyone contributed, it was De Bruynes best game for a long time looked to be enjoying it. Clichy was superb both going forward and backwards, Otamendi was immense and never looks troubled with the ball at his feet, and is helped massively having VK there.
Was joy to watch and was helped by Palace not actually parking the bus it made for a great game. Zaha wouldnt be a bad addition to our squad !

 

[TBooksbluearmy]

This was the best all round team performance all season. Every player contributing to our dominance in possession over Crystal Palace. Vey hard to chose a man of the match. Nicolas Otomendi had his best game for us since we signed him, while Vinny is back to his best. I just hope that he will stay injury free for the rest of the season, and come back raring to go. Kevin had a hand in 3 of the goals including scoring 1. Both Leroy and Raheem were outstanding by stretching Palace right across the width of the pitch. Both the defensive midfielders also had good games. While both fullbacks also helped the attack out by pushing the Palace wingers deeper and deeper into there own half.