Crystal Palace (A) - Sat 5th Oct 2024 (12:30pm)

[Engineman Hicks]

1 hour ago, Strontium said:

So far we've played the sides currently in 10th, 11th, 12th, 13th, 15th, 18th and 20th. That is an astonishingly easy run of fixtures, and we still managed to get beat by the side in 10th. Flat Track Bullies 'R' Us.

 

Very much need to step it up a gear when we actually play someone who isn't relegation fodder.

Ha ha. You don’t care about being popular do you. We’re briefly top of the league, only beaten one and you’re carping that we’re not that good really. How to make friends and influence people. 

[AngryOfTuebrook]

17 minutes ago, Barrington Womble said:

 

The reality is if you want to be in the running come game 38, you need to win 9 out of the 10 games we've had so far, but you'd normally excpect the manc and forest game to flip where you dropped points. We've done really what is expected and it's a good start in terms of points. But it's equally true to say the levels need to go up massively from here if we want to maintain where we are. Palace were a shambles for the first 30 today, it doesn't get any easier, yet we rarely looked like increasing our lead. 

If we beat Chelsea and Arsenal, then I'll start to get excited.  In the meantime I'm just enjoying the good bits and trusting that the manager and players are working on the rest.

[Engineman Hicks]

That little girl walking over and shushing the away end after she scored a penalty was a highlight. She’s got balls (metaphorically not literally). 

[Bobby Hundreds]

38 minutes ago, TheSire said:

You must hate your wife.

I'm not married she's not stupid and I am.

[El Rojo]

1 hour ago, 3 Stacks said:

Signing the Georgian keeper early will be one of the best pieces of business in years.

Let’s see how he handles the pressure of playing in what when it doesn’t go well is the most scrutinised position with one of the biggest clubs in the world first. It’s a very different gig and Kelleher has proven himself to a high level in it. 
 

Also, as excellent as he is, Alisson is an absolute sicknote. 
 

 

 

[3 Stacks]

3 minutes ago, El Rojo said:

Let’s see how he handles the pressure of playing in what when it doesn’t go well is the most scrutinised position with one of the biggest clubs in the world first. It’s a very different gig and Kelleher has proven himself to a high level in it. 
 

Also, as excellent as he is, Alisson is an absolute sicknote. 
 

 

 

I'm just talking about the initiative of it. It takes another future issue off the club's plate, when we've found it difficult when we've needed to be reactive in the last few years.

[Reckoner]

20 minutes ago, AngryOfTuebrook said:

If we beat Chelsea and Arsenal, then I'll start to get excited.  In the meantime I'm just enjoying the good bits and trusting that the manager and players are working on the rest.

Some of the passages of play indicate they are working on some great football, we just can’t sustain it or do it consistently. The indecision in front of goal needs sorting out too, dilly dallying, passing it too late.

[Bob]

39 minutes ago, Barrington Womble said:

 

The reality is if you want to be in the running come game 38, you need to win 9 out of the 10 games we've had so far, but you'd normally excpect the manc and forest game to flip where you dropped points. We've done really what is expected and it's a good start in terms of points. But it's equally true to say the levels need to go up massively from here if we want to maintain where we are. Palace were a shambles for the first 30 today, it doesn't get any easier, yet we rarely looked like increasing our lead. 

That's as it may be, but it lacks context of a new coach and a stupidly short pre season.

 

Maybe you do need to win those 9/10 to win in the current man city skewed present, but it's really fucking easy not to.

 

Brentford - klopp hardly ever beat them.

Palace away at 12:30, an easy opportunity to drop something.

United away - their biggest game of the season ever year right now.

 

We might be looking less than perfect but those 9/10 are beyond my own expectations, frankly.

[3 Stacks]

I think people are waiting for us to be exposed as frauds when we get into our tough run, but we'll see. The big games are always different tactically to the small ones.

 

The problem if it arises will probably be more the squad and some of the players. 

[Code]

We have conceded two goal in the league.

 

Let me repeat that, we have conceded just two goals in the league after seven games.

 

Yet people find reasons to complain, live in the moment, learn to love it.

[Smell The Glove]

We definitely shouldn't be complaining, top of a league in which no team is looking amazing, but you can have slight concerns. Our midfield for example still needs work and the right balance.

[Lee909]

Did love that within a minute or two of Endo coming on he's just thrown himself fully into a great tackle. Have to love the guy, doesn’t seem to fit what Slots after but fully committed everytime he's comes on

[Barrington Womble]

1 hour ago, AngryOfTuebrook said:

If we beat Chelsea and Arsenal, then I'll start to get excited.  In the meantime I'm just enjoying the good bits and trusting that the manager and players are working on the rest.

 

You absolutely have to enjoy it while you can. But maybe I've watched too much football over the years, but the opposition we've played so far gives me nothing to get excited about where the whole season is concerned. As the old saying goes, it's just one game at a time. As @3 Stacks says, the games.against better opposition will be tactically different. But they'll all be tactically different to each other, villa pose different problems to city, arsenal different to spurs. 

 

And there'll be no need to get stressed is some of the results don't go out way. I think we need to get most of our home games won (especially as we've already lost 1), but if you look at city's record over the years, I don't think they win too many away from home to the top 10 and they're getting 90+ points nearly every season. 

[Chocoholic]

39 minutes ago, Code said:

We have conceded two goal in the league.

 

Let me repeat that, we have conceded just two goals in the league after seven games.

 

Yet people find reasons to complain, live in the moment, learn to love it.

And only one of those goals, by Forest, cost us points.

[Barrington Womble]

44 minutes ago, Bob said:

That's as it may be, but it lacks context of a new coach and a stupidly short pre season.

 

Maybe you do need to win those 9/10 to win in the current man city skewed present, but it's really fucking easy not to.

 

Brentford - klopp hardly ever beat them.

Palace away at 12:30, an easy opportunity to drop something.

United away - their biggest game of the season ever year right now.

 

We might be looking less than perfect but those 9/10 are beyond my own expectations, frankly.

City exist bob and arsenal have been going at a similar pace the last 2 seasons. And preseason is never long any more. Over a 4 year cycle we have the euros, world club cup (Which hopefully we'll be in the next one), world cup and the nations league. The reality is all managers need to work with a 5 or 6 week pre season where it will be mostly kids for 3 weeks. 

[Bob]

4 minutes ago, Barrington Womble said:

City exist bob and arsenal have been going at a similar pace the last 2 seasons. And preseason is never long any more. Over a 4 year cycle we have the euros, world club cup (Which hopefully we'll be in the next one), world cup and the nations league. The reality is all managers need to work with a 5 or 6 week pre season where it will be mostly kids for 3 weeks. 

Yeah, all true, but all the more reason why my expectations under a new coach were fairly lessened and why I'm not willing to just put a 9/10 and clear at the top start down as just doing what's expected.

 

The lack of fluidity and results being better than the performance is about what I expected. Frankly that's what last season was, just it was with best coach we've had in a generation 9 years into his reign.

 

9/10 wins, whether against an easier fixture list or not, is more than I expected.

[Bob]

Just to add, I'd be more bothered if we were playing shit football well, than playing decent football a little poorly.

[3 Stacks]

24 minutes ago, Barrington Womble said:

 

You absolutely have to enjoy it while you can. But maybe I've watched too much football over the years, but the opposition we've played so far gives me nothing to get excited about where the whole season is concerned. As the old saying goes, it's just one game at a time. As @3 Stacks says, the games.against better opposition will be tactically different. But they'll all be tactically different to each other, villa pose different problems to city, arsenal different to spurs. 

 

And there'll be no need to get stressed is some of the results don't go out way. I think we need to get most of our home games won (especially as we've already lost 1), but if you look at city's record over the years, I don't think they win too many away from home to the top 10 and they're getting 90+ points nearly every season. 

It's not sexy but what we've been doing really well is not allow chances where forwards are parked from like 10 yards out, cutbacks, stuff like that. If you want to score against us right now, it needs to be quality.

 

We were living on the edge a bit today, though. Someone like Palmer is probably scoring one of the chances Palace had.

[niallers]

PL teams in the last four years who had at least 68% possession, committed at least 15 fouls while suffering no more than seven.  Liverpool vs Forest, September 2024 Liverpool vs Palace, October 2024

 

From Andrew Beasley on x

 

I know slot mentioned it in the post match on tnt, but this point needs to be hammered home at every press conference.

 

[Barrington Womble]

8 minutes ago, 3 Stacks said:

It's not sexy but what we've been doing really well is not allow chances where forwards are parked from like 10 yards out, cutbacks, stuff like that. If you want to score against us right now, it needs to be quality.

 

We were living on the edge a bit today, though. Someone like Palmer is probably scoring one of the chances Palace had.

 

I agree - but we're conceding plenty of chances and the keeper is still working. Playing against better forwards might cause us different challenges. But we don't know how we'll set up against them either. Before today I took a bet at 6/5 that our keeper would make 3 or more saves, it felt like buying money - teams will have chances, but they're generally not good enough chances test a keeper like Ali too much and I expected him to make a good number of reasonable saves. 

[Lurtz]

39 minutes ago, niallers said:

PL teams in the last four years who had at least 68% possession, committed at least 15 fouls while suffering no more than seven.  Liverpool vs Forest, September 2024 Liverpool vs Palace, October 2024

 

From Andrew Beasley on x

 

I know slot mentioned it in the post match on tnt, but this point needs to be hammered home at every press conference.

 

 

Yep but the media would ridicule us. 

[Carvalho Diablo]

1 hour ago, Lee909 said:

Did love that within a minute or two of Endo coming on he's just thrown himself fully into a great tackle. Have to love the guy, doesn’t seem to fit what Slots after but fully committed everytime he's comes on

 

Playing the Milner role to perfection.

[Creator Supreme]

2 minutes ago, Carvalho Diablo said:

 

Playing the Milner role to perfection.

Which is why he's worth hanging on to. If he's happy to play that role, we should keep him, especially as the squad is small anyway.

[Aventus]

5 hours ago, Strontium said:

So far we've played the sides currently in 10th, 11th, 12th, 13th, 15th, 18th and 20th. That is an astonishingly easy run of fixtures, and we still managed to get beat by the side in 10th. Flat Track Bullies 'R' Us.

 

Very much need to step it up a gear when we actually play someone who isn't relegation fodder.

We've spent most of the last couple of decades being frustrated that we are able to up our game against the big teams, only to switch off against the fodder and drop valuable points, which have eventually cost us trophies. 

 

Its fair to say we haven't had a huge test yet, it's unfair to criticise us for having the nerve to beat almost every team we've faced this season just because if their relative standings. 

 

We've got a heavy couple of months coming up, please reserve any judgement until that's over. 

[TheSire]

3 hours ago, Bobby Hundreds said:

I'm not married she's not stupid and I am.

What if you were Bobby Millions?