Crystal Palace 0 Liverpool 7 (Dec 19 2020)

[tlw content 12,229]

 

 

 

Report by

Dave Usher

 

I admit I thought this was going to be a tough one. In fact, it wouldn’t have completely shocked me if we’d lost this, never mind drawn. I’m not sure why and it certainly seems stupid now.

 

Possibly because we’ve not been great away from home. Possibly because we put a lot into that midweek performance against Spurs. And possibly because I’ve fallen into the same trap a lot of people do and over-estimated Palace. 

 

Palace are a weird team. No-one ever says “easy game this week, we’re playing Palace”. Everyone sees them as ‘tricky’ opposition and Selhurst Park is always described as “a difficult place to go”. Yet Palace are always in the bottom half. How 'tricky' can they be? I’m not knocking them as given their resources they do as well as can be expected, and they do carry a threat in attack. It’s just weird how loads of people see them as being far tougher opponents than they actually are.

 

I suppose it’s like how a lot of people see them as some kind of bogey team for us when the reality is the opposite. We’ve had a few bad results against them but mostly we tend to beat them. Not as emphatically as this, obviously, but our record against them is really good. In fact our club record home win came against them and now our biggest ever away win is also against Palace. Some bogey team, eh?

 

This wasn’t a 7-0 game though. Usually a performance like this would result in a 4-0 but virtually everything we hit went in. I think we had eight shots on target and seven of them went in. We also had a couple of great chances that missed the target too, but as I say this would ordinarily have been a four or at a push a five goal win.

 

In fact, the main difference between this and the Spurs game was finishing. We played really well in both games but against Spurs the chances didn’t go in. This time we were absolutely ruthless. I’m not a fan of XG and frankly think it’s a load of pointless bollocks. Spurs won the XG the other night despite getting completely dominated so it means nothing.

 

I don’t think the goals we scored against Palace will have all been particularly high XG. The first and the sixth probably carried a high probability of scoring, but Hendo’s, Bobby’s two and Mo’s second definitely won’t have. Not sure on Sadio’s as I’m not an XG nerd. The point is, if we’d been this sharp against Spurs we’d have murdered them as Jose’s “gameplan” would have looked a whole lot different.

 

 

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[Pudns 14]

Brilliant report as per usual Dave,I think it was hendos goal against Brighton last season maybe....  

[Supremolad 149]

Top top Mane sulking analysis there, Dave.

 

Really enjoyable match report. Thumbs up.

[Supremolad 149]

12 minutes ago, Pudns said:

Brilliant report as per usual Dave,I think it was hendos goal against Brighton last season maybe....  

Yep, I think it was too. Hendo has a lovely whip on those balls from that area of the pitch.

[rb14 1,099]

And top, top Mrs Brown analysis there, Dave. 

[m0e 1,525]

I thought Sadio's turn and shot was world class and as good as anything you'll see.

 

I also thought Keota was poor until the third went in.

 

Otherwise, great report.

 

Totally agree on the European teams being used to 3 game a week. I read a Klopp interview in the summer where we spoke about his second season here when we were not in Europe, and how we prepared the training schedule as if we were, so that we could get used to the intensity.

[DalyanPete 262]

Must be getting old, XG?WTF!

Thank God for Google.

Great report as usual, I admit Baby and Taki filled me with fear, very good performance from both to be fair.

[suzy 2,506]

I said to Mr Suzy after the match ‘I guess we can’t say Palace are our bogey team anymore!’

[skaro 5,213]

5 minutes ago, suzy said:

I said to Mr Suzy after the match ‘I guess we can’t say Palace are our bogey team anymore!’

 

Hopefully.

They beat us 4-3 in an FA Cup semi final in the same season that we beat them 9-0.

 

 

[Paul 6,984]

Robbo deffo picked Bobby out. He looks up for ages before playing that ball in. It’s mad how underrated he is. Easily world class; easily the best in his position in the world. 
 

And Sadio did touch hands with Klopp as he came off. 

[alles ist gut 3,899]

Absolute top Portuguese Allardyce analysis too, Dave.

[Mark M 1,520]

10 hours ago, rb14 said:

And top, top Mrs Brown analysis there, Dave. 

I'm Irish and feel ashamed to be associated with such a crap TV programme 

[manwiththestick 3,706]

4 hours ago, Paul said:

Robbo deffo picked Bobby out. He looks up for ages before playing that ball in. It’s mad how underrated he is. Easily world class; easily the best in his position in the world. 
 

And Sadio did touch hands with Klopp as he came off. 

For me he has to do a bit more to be talked about in the same breath as Leighton Baines.

[Dr Nowt 24,113]

Spurs will suffer once they get their compliment of injuries to their most important players. Kane has at least one lengthy spell out every normal season, he's definitely having one with the mental fixture list truncated into this one's schedule.

 

He'll pull up lame in February or March no doubt and we'll be treated to the usual tedium of whether he'll be fit for the Euros or not. 

[Frank Dacey 296]

I was quite confident about this with them having no crowd in and Benteke being suspended just as he'd finally located the net after about five years, then I saw that Fat Jon Moss was the ref ad that got me worried again as any game with him in charge is a lottery. It shows how well we performed that probably for the first time this season a match report didn't mention either the ref or VAR.

[dockers_strike 2,089]

Great report Dave. Yep, I totally agree that the non Euro playing clubs like Palace will now feel the 'level playing field' of 2 games in almost as many days. We were very good but I feel palace who had played the same night we played Spurs found the going tough, mentally if not physically.

 

Myself, I want to see that twat Wilder really suffer now. He made his 'stand' against Jurgen's 5 subs into an almost personal crusade. Well yeah, let's see how you and your boys shape up playing 3 times in a week.

[Anubis 17,428]

I think Minamino's hard work in this game was overlooked. In the first half, I remember him actually clearing a Palace attack from our penalty area, and not a corner either. Hopefully he'll start to settle a bit more and weigh in with a few more goals.

 

Oh, and Sadio did touch hands with Klopp but he wasn't allowing Klopp any hugs. Brilliant.

[halewood pete 1,851]

Enjoyed that report Dave,I too thought we may find it hard going,but what a team we have,everyone who has come into the side for injuries to "regulars "has more than held their own,and seemed confident and comfortable in their roles, made up keita and minamino had a good game too,Hope we give West Brom a pasting. 

[sir roger 5,990]

Did the liner not already have his flag up for an offside or a foul before Ayew and Zaha messed up their break anyway.

[aws 6,783]

26 minutes ago, sir roger said:

Did the liner not already have his flag up for an offside or a foul before Ayew and Zaha messed up their break anyway.

I think he did. 

[Tj hooker 1,852]

Great report Dave proper enjoyed it 

[dave u 6,019]

4 hours ago, sir roger said:

Did the liner not already have his flag up for an offside or a foul before Ayew and Zaha messed up their break anyway.

 

That means nothing. VAR would have found a way to give that.

[Pete 716]

Great report again. 
Merry Christmas to you 

[Stickman 7,120]

Loved the third goal one of the best I've seen for a long long time from the lovely cushioned ball from Bobby in his own half and then the 80 yard sprint to get on the end of an inch perfect pass from Robinson that he didn't even have to check for to the cool finish and then the celebration....Just oozed class 

Kinda reminded me of Terry Mac's famous one against Spurs in 78 ( another seven goal romp) although it did piss me off when they showed our goals on a highlights reel it was basically just the finish and not what led to it

[Scooby Dudek 1,770]

14 hours ago, sir roger said:

Did the liner not already have his flag up for an offside or a foul before Ayew and Zaha messed up their break anyway.

Yes he did, however he looked on in the freeze frame but that doesn't mean anything.