Crystal Palace 0 Liverpool 0 (Feb 25 2023)

[tlw content]

 

I think this is just about all we could have expected given the way we’re playing and considering the starting eleven we put out there. One look at that midfield and a forward line without Nunez was enough to have me fearing the worst. I’m just grateful that Zaha was out for them or this could have been even worse than it was.

 

This was shite. We were shite. They were shite. It was shite. Saturday night shite under the lights. We were more competitive shite than we often have been though so at least there’s that. We didn’t roll over or get outfought, we just weren’t very good. The clean sheet is welcome but don’t be fooled into thinking it means we’re shoring things up. All of the flaws that have been there all season were in evidence here too. It’s just that Palace without Zaha (and Eze) didn’t have the quality to expose them. We did our best to gift them goals but they were just too shit to capitalise on it.

 

You make mistakes against Modric, Benzema and Vinicius and you let in five. You make the same mistakes against Schlupp, Ayew and Mateta and you can still keep a clean sheet. That’s partly why I wasn’t as disheartened by the Madrid defeat as others may have been. We don’t play them every week so not only will we not concede five very often, we may not concede any. Three consecutive clean sheets in the league shows that.

 

It means absolutely nothing though. We kept a clean sheet at Newcastle only because Alisson was unbeatable. The post saved us against Everton and the bar saved us in this one. In fact the woodwork has saved us in all three of those ‘clean sheet’ games. Three games without conceding suggests improvement but it’s still far from secure and we could concede three or four against United next weekend if we show the same weaknesses we’ve shown in these recent games, let alone in the ones when we were getting trounced.

 

The only thing I take from this game is that we didn’t lose. A point at Palace isn’t actually a bad result for a team chasing fourth spot. United drew here this season for example. It is damaging when you have higher aims than just top four, but in our situation it’s fine as long as we win most of our home games. If we’d played better and been a bit unlucky to only get a point I think that would be a hell of a lot easier to spin this result as a positive, but when you stink like we did then the draw feels more like defeat.

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[sir roger]

The commentator on my dodgy stream said that Palace have the lowest running stats in the Prem this year which is probably why we weren't watching players streaming through our midfield for once.

[bossy]

Good, measured report Dave. We have been spoiled and of course it’s annoying when we don’t sustain success, but still, I’m grumpy zen for the most part. As long as in the summer we make the signings Klopp wants. My only disagreement with you is I don’t think we’ll get 4th, we have too many shit performances left in us. Here’s hoping that Darwin and Diaz serve up some excitement and fun before the end of the season.

[johnsusername]

Shame that this was the big response after our biggest ever European home defeat.

 

Keita looks terrified of being on a football pitch! 

[stringvest]

3 minutes ago, johnsusername said:

Shame that this was the big response after our biggest ever European home defeat.

 

Keita looks terrified of being on a football pitch! 

 

Keita was terrible, but he wasn't the one looking terrified.

[3 Stacks]

On the theme of running out of steam and fitness, I watched the game in French and Sinama Pongolle was a pundit. He was saying how he knows for a fact that there's a bunch of players in the squad who are overweight and unfit. 

 

I doubt he would actually know this or that people currently at the club even know who he is now and would tell him that, but he said it with conviction, said he's around the club on a regular basis. 

 

[dave u]

He is around the club a bit because of legends games and that, but I'm not having it that players are overweight. They train hard, they're consumate professionals and they have a fucking dietician telling them what to eat for every meal!

[johnsusername]

Too many roast dinners. They're all going the Toby Carvery in Aintree after training. 

[King Kenny 86]

They all know the cull is coming.

We are playing with effort mostly but no belief, confidence or conviction 

Even Hendo is like that.

It is time to thank with all our Hearts Matip, Fabinho, Milner,  Firmino (and to a small part Ox) for all they have given us. 

Fuck Keita off 

As you say we have questions over Jones and Carvalho and a query over where Elliott is best placed.

That could be 7 or 8 leavers out of the squad, but the progress of Bajetic and Doak and Konate will aid some of that but as on the pod I agree 4 first choice players are needed in the summer 

 

[Captain Howdy]

Good report but don’t agree we scrape 4th, I think we’ll fall way short

[Barnesey]

Whatever the reason we seem to lack energy. The team is nowhere near compact enough. The high line has dropped and the midfield is too far away. Look at the difficulty we have moving the ball forwards after a short goal kick. We move the ball too slowly allowing opponents to close us down and put us under pressure. No one is looking to run behind their lines from where we used to create so much. 
 

Not sure why but confidence may be a big part of the problem. Goodness knows how we sort it but a different voice in the changing room may help. I’m not suggesting anyone leaves but fergie used to freshen up his coaching team on a regular basis. 
 

Trent has always been too casual; looks awful in this iteration of the team. And hendo gets more criticism than he deserves - if we’re shit for the last 30 minutes that is usually when he has gone off. Not absolving him of all criticism but keep it balanced. 

[CrownPaints]

2 hours ago, dave u said:

He is around the club a bit because of legends games and that, but I'm not having it that players are overweight. They train hard, they're consumate professionals and they have a fucking dietician telling them what to eat for every meal!

I’ve thought for a while that Trent looks bulked up. I know part of that is his natural growth from a 19 year old but I can’t work out if his slowness is down to lack of effort or being too bulky. He never had amazing speed but it’s like he’s wading through treacle at the moment. Another one for the medical team to f*ck up.

[SasaS]

A thought crossed my mind when whatching the game how Virgil looks a bit chunky.

[sir roger]

4 minutes ago, SasaS said:

A thought crossed my mind when whatching the game how Virgil looks a bit chunky.

Stroopwafels will do that to a guy.

[DaveT]

Just watched this for the first time, expecting to have to FFWD through most of it, but I didn't think it was as bad as is being made out, especially considering the two midfields we had for most of the game. 

We had plenty of nearly moments and some decent chances. Such is the lack of sharpness (Jota), composure (everyone) and bit of luck (Mo, crossbar), we could have had a couple of goals, where we'd then be saying, average performance good result. 

Keita was terrible in the sense that he didn't really do anything. The booking he picked up, which, allegedly, is the reason he was pulled at half time....well, if there was a booking (or even a fucking foul) every time a defender grabbed Mo's arm a couple of times...you know what I'm saying. Contrast his booking with..... Gakpo getting booted high on the shin shortly before that, and Elliot getting blocked by Mitchell with and elbow in the face. Niether resulted in a booking (the Gakpo one wasn't even given as a foul).Yet again confirming that the isuuing of yellow is the most random, inconsistent thing in modern football.

Trent gots lots of stick, some of it deserved, but the situation where they hit the bar... looked to me that he had his ankle tapped twice by Schlupp - every other fullback in the division flops to the floor on top of the ball in that situation and gets a free kick. But we're above that kind of thing, aren't we (except for Milly).

 

Henderson should NEVER play no 6 again - it was a couple of sloppy passes from him that caused problems for Trent and Joel (which they nevertheless didn't deal with either). He was looking much better as the no 8, getting those triangles with Trent and MO going again. 

And we really need to sort out our defending from set pieces, which used to be so good.

 

 

 

 

[Denny Crane]

Our oldest league team fielded since 1953.

 

 

 

 

[stringvest]

3 hours ago, Barnesey said:

Whatever the reason we seem to lack energy. The team is nowhere near compact enough. The high line has dropped and the midfield is too far away. Look at the difficulty we have moving the ball forwards after a short goal kick. We move the ball too slowly allowing opponents to close us down and put us under pressure. No one is looking to run behind their lines from where we used to create so much. 
 

Not sure why but confidence may be a big part of the problem. Goodness knows how we sort it but a different voice in the changing room may help. I’m not suggesting anyone leaves but fergie used to freshen up his coaching team on a regular basis. 
 

Trent has always been too casual; looks awful in this iteration of the team. And hendo gets more criticism than he deserves - if we’re shit for the last 30 minutes that is usually when he has gone off. Not absolving him of all criticism but keep it balanced. 

 

I'd love you to watch that performance again and tell me what Henderson did to avoid the stick he had on here.  But I agree with you on Trent - he looks distracted and demotivated.  He's not the only one.  Salah seems to be half arsed in his execution, and the rest of the attack and midfield are just not stepping up.  We look a  team of stale footballers going through the motions at the moment.

[beejay]

Great summary, Dave. The zen factor is where we are,  let's all stay with the manager and team until the summer when we will finally make some changes. 

 

Our last few years have been ace and provided we stick with Klopp we should enjoy the next few seasons as well when the belief kicks back in. 

[dave u]

Klopp's press conference last Friday was really good. He more or less said "I know its fucked but we cant do anything until the summer so stick with us and lets see what we can salvage from the season".

[stringvest]

1 hour ago, dave u said:

Klopp's press conference last Friday was really good. He more or less said "I know its fucked but we cant do anything until the summer so stick with us and lets see what we can salvage from the season".

 

I guess that's about as good as he could have made it, with the exception of some sort of acknowledgement that the management and owners fucked up by not replacing players on the wane before they reached the levels they're currently delivering.  He had experienced a slump like this before, yet he chose not to learn from that lesson.  That sort of message would go a long way to assuaging the frustration and anger of those supporters who could see this happening.

[Marcas]

Spot-on report, wouldn’t disagree with any of it. I just hope JK is a ruthless bastard during the summer. Much as the guys have been brilliant and given us 5 of the best years since the ‘80s, there’s zero room for sentiment and there’s 5 or 6 who can’t cut it. I’m trying to think of any player who’s been a bigger let down than Keita and I can’t think of one. Diouf was a disaster, but everyone knew he was a cunt to begin with so no-one was disappointed. But that wee fraud Keita grinds my fucking gears. Aside from that, well done Dave for calling out the elephant in the room: Trent has been a joke all season. His on-pitch demeanour is a disgrace and I wouldn’t be surprised if his social media is full of him lounging on yachts with Lewis fucking Hamilton all summer. He needs to remember the hunger he had at 18 instead of his next £xhundred hairstyle

[DalyanPete]

Great honest report that is shit to read.

 

I'm with you on the shites results, really pissed off if they pick up up a point.

 

[Red74]

I’m starting to think the Southgate humiliation of Trent pre World Cup has had more of a bad effect on him than we’d have thought. 

[Denny Crane]

One counterintuitive positive is Klopp actually settled for the point. Almost like ok we are a bit shit so if you can't win make sure you don't lose away from home. Normally he always goes for the win. 

[etho]

It's about time Trent got called out.

He plays like and his demeanor is that is that of a spoilt teenager who thinks it's all beneath him. He doesn't look hungry