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March 28 2024 1.03pm

Palace vs. Watford match thread

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View Mathers's Profile Mathers Flag 07 Aug 21 11.30pm Send a Private Message to Mathers Add Mathers as a friend

Originally posted by TheBigToePunt

I have now returned from the good ship Selhurst and am some way into the important task of weekend-appropriate rehydration. Standby to receive the type of 'wisdom' that may contain spelling mistakes therefore.

1. Watford were s***. I know its only preseason, but I know s*** when I see it, and they were s***.

2. Palace were pretty good actually. How much to read into this I don't know. I thought playing our last preseason friendly against a team in our league one week before that league starts was: A. Unusual and possibly risky (it's just a free go at kicking Zaha surely?) but, B. A better gauge than normal of how we're measuring up. Watford were so bad though that I really don't know what to make of our performance. If we played like that in a league game we'd call it a very good performance, I think.

3. The system remains a twist on the classic Dutch 433. The twist is not so much that one of our wingers like to cut inside, but that both of our advanced midfielders are deliberately placed on their 'wrong' side. Dunno why. I'm sure the manager has his reasons, but I'm not sure it suits Schlupp.

4. Gallagher should be looking at McArthur and learning. The former has acceleration and energy the latter can no longer muster, but that's irrelevant if you don't know what you're doing. Mac picked up a booking for a counter-attack-preventing foul that was as cynical as it was necessary, whilst young Gallagher, determined to press to maximum effect at every turn, conceded a string of fouls that disrupted our rhythm, let Watford off the hook whenever they might have been making a mess of playing out, and would have picked up a totally unnecessary yellow of his own in a league game. Hopefully Gallagher will be brilliant for us, but I'm not up for us spending a year smoothing his rough edges for Chelsea's benefit.

5. For all the nice, neat and very patient football we played, our main goal-sources remain exactly the same. No manager in the world has a system that could offset the loss of Zaha.

6. I presume Tomkins is on the bench as Vieira wants the best passing centre backs in the side, and as a (mostly) midfielder, Kouyate perhaps fits the bill ahead of the best actual centre back we've got.

7. Mateta. No ta. If he's got what it takes he's hiding it well. Almost as well as he hid himself when his team sent in three or four good crosses in the second half. One peach from Mitchell in particular showed up how inadequate Mateta's anticipation, movement and determination appeared to be. He did so some good work clearing Watford corners though.

8. McArthur is brilliant. He can play any system, any style, any midfield position and never give less than a solid 7 every single time. He's a better deep midfielder than Riedewald. He's a better box to box midfielder than Schlupp and Gallagher. He's a better all round footballer than anyone else we've got, or have had that I can remember. If he had ever had pace and power he'd have played in the champions league.

9. Geuhi looks good. Not very tall though. He'll need to sort that out.

10. Ayew puts a proper shift in, but if Olise or Rak-Sahki can't get in ahead of him on the right wing by the end of the season then they ain't going to make it.


Cheers all!


Edited by TheBigToePunt (07 Aug 2021 8.23pm)

Very entertaining post and good summary.

Gallagher sounds like he will entertain and frustrate in equal measure. He picked up 8 yellows last season so it’s clear his tackling is clumsy at best.

Guehi doesn’t need to be a giant as he’s strong as f*** and quicker than most CBs in the league. Anderson is 6ft4 so he’ll be our resident “Big Defender”.

 

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View cpfcse25's Profile cpfcse25 Flag Tokyo 08 Aug 21 12.20am Send a Private Message to cpfcse25 Add cpfcse25 as a friend

9. Geuhi looks good. Not very tall though. He'll need to sort that out.

Haha! that's gold!
Weird Schlupp was on the right of midfield I take it?

 

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View iheartcpfc's Profile iheartcpfc Flag SE25 08 Aug 21 2.57am Send a Private Message to iheartcpfc Add iheartcpfc as a friend

Originally posted by Elwissthebest

Regarding the comments about our defence, I'm a bit nonplussed by Tomkins' omission. For me, he's still our best centre back, although I accept he is very injury prone. Guehi and Andersen might prove to be better in the long run, and I hope they do, but neither is anywhere near the finished article yet.

Love Tomkins but I think you need to understand just how good the two new boys are. Guehi already looks unbelievable imo

Edited by iheartcpfc (08 Aug 2021 2.57am)

 

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View taylors lovechild's Profile taylors lovechild Flag 08 Aug 21 8.27am Send a Private Message to taylors lovechild Add taylors lovechild as a friend

Originally posted by TheBigToePunt

3. The system remains a twist on the classic Dutch 433. The twist is not so much that one of our wingers like to cut inside, but that both of our advanced midfielders are deliberately placed on their 'wrong' side. Dunno why. I'm sure the manager has his reasons, but I'm not sure it suits Schlupp.

Bright pointed out that under the new system when we go forward we change into a 3-5-2 formation with Ward joining the centre backs, Mitchell moving to left-wing and Zaha playing more central, but when defending we revert to an almost 4-5-1 formation. Seemed to work really well and the players (apart from possibly Schlupp) seemed to know what they were doing.

4. Gallagher should be looking at McArthur and learning. The former has acceleration and energy the latter can no longer muster, but that's irrelevant if you don't know what you're doing. Mac picked up a booking for a counter-attack-preventing foul that was as cynical as it was necessary, whilst young Gallagher, determined to press to maximum effect at every turn, conceded a string of fouls that disrupted our rhythm, let Watford off the hook whenever they might have been making a mess of playing out, and would have picked up a totally unnecessary yellow of his own in a league game. Hopefully Gallagher will be brilliant for us, but I'm not up for us spending a year smoothing his rough edges for Chelsea's benefit.

Gallagher came on like an excitable puppy, but my god he has energy in abundance and he hit the best pass of the game without blinking. The way he snaps away and commits little fouls actually reminds me of McArthur who has always done that. If he had started I think he might have been a bit calmer. To refer to Bright again, he said of Gallagher that we have been missing that type of player for a long time (i.e. one who can hit long, accurate cross-field balls). Given Viera seems to be looking to use those balls to stretch the game I can see why he has been brought in. As good as McArthur is, he is not that type of player.

5. For all the nice, neat and very patient football we played, our main goal-sources remain exactly the same. No manager in the world has a system that could offset the loss of Zaha.

While that is true, we are missing Eze and Olise, plus Bentenke scored when he came on. I personally still think we need either another goal-scoring wide player or a fox in the box type striker though (like Armstrong).

6. I presume Tomkins is on the bench as Vieira wants the best passing centre backs in the side, and as a (mostly) midfielder, Kouyate perhaps fits the bill ahead of the best actual centre back we've got.

I wonder if part of it might also be that Kouyate is more of a leader than Tomkins, who although possibly a better defender doesn't come across as someone who commands the back line.

7. Mateta. No ta. If he's got what it takes he's hiding it well. Almost as well as he hid himself when his team sent in three or four good crosses in the second half. One peach from Mitchell in particular showed up how inadequate Mateta's anticipation, movement and determination appeared to be. He did so some good work clearing Watford corners though.

Worked really hard outside the box and his long rangy legs helped him carve out a chance, but inside the box he still fails to convince. Maybe it's just a confidence thing, but I wonder if that showing will convince Parish to sanction a move for another striker.

8. McArthur is brilliant. He can play any system, any style, any midfield position and never give less than a solid 7 every single time. He's a better deep midfielder than Riedewald. He's a better box to box midfielder than Schlupp and Gallagher. He's a better all round footballer than anyone else we've got, or have had that I can remember. If he had ever had pace and power he'd have played in the champions league.

MOTM for me too. His best performance since I don't remember when. Viera's arrival and his long injury absence seems to have re-energised him. Zaha should have done better with his perfect chip pass. Freed from the shackles of Hodgson's deep-lying midfield he could thrive.

9. Geuhi looks good. Not very tall though. He'll need to sort that out.

Looks extremely comfortable on the ball and made the tackle of the game. He did do a swing and a miss at a cross though!

10. Ayew puts a proper shift in, but if Olise or Rak-Sahki can't get in ahead of him on the right wing by the end of the season then they ain't going to make it.

Ayew is a very clever player. He knows how to run across players to stop them tackling without fouling, and how to use your body to keep possession. He is also very good at taking the pressure off the defence. It was noticeable how once Banks and Rak-Sakyi came on we looked more vulnerable


Edited by TheBigToePunt (07 Aug 2021 8.23pm)

 

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View Midlands Eagle's Profile Midlands Eagle Flag 08 Aug 21 8.38am Send a Private Message to Midlands Eagle Add Midlands Eagle as a friend

Originally posted by TheBigToePunt


9. Geuhi looks good. Not very tall though. He'll need to sort that out.

Should we suggest stretching him on a rack like in the old days

 

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View PatrickA's Profile PatrickA Flag London 08 Aug 21 8.51am Send a Private Message to PatrickA Add PatrickA as a friend

A positive that I took from the game is that we look more dangerous from corners.
Rather than have Luka chip the ball into the opposing keeper’s hands, which we’ve had to endure for a few seasons, we have Jairo swinging the ball out of the keeper’s reach for our players to attack.
I thing we’ll get some joy from this as we have some good aerial strength in the squad.

 

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View Chubskip's Profile Chubskip Flag 08 Aug 21 9.48am Send a Private Message to Chubskip Add Chubskip as a friend

I've been his biggest critic but feed him and he is lethal in the air. Well done tekkers.....

 

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View Spiderman's Profile Spiderman Flag Horsham 08 Aug 21 10.48am Send a Private Message to Spiderman Add Spiderman as a friend

Agree about wanting the long diagonal pass, the only part of McArthurs game yesterday that was lacking. This is one reason we went for Andersen, his long range passing is extremely good

Edited by Spiderman (08 Aug 2021 10.49am)

 

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View aashman12's Profile aashman12 Flag 08 Aug 21 10.51am Send a Private Message to aashman12 Add aashman12 as a friend

Originally posted by Elwissthebest

Regarding the comments about our defence, I'm a bit nonplussed by Tomkins' omission. For me, he's still our best centre back, although I accept he is very injury prone. Guehi and Andersen might prove to be better in the long run, and I hope they do, but neither is anywhere near the finished article yet.

Tomkins looked like a fish out of water vs Charlton, never comfortable on the ball, and tripped over his own feet a few times.

 

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View aashman12's Profile aashman12 Flag 08 Aug 21 10.55am Send a Private Message to aashman12 Add aashman12 as a friend

Originally posted by cpfcse25

9. Geuhi looks good. Not very tall though. He'll need to sort that out.

Haha! that's gold!
Weird Schlupp was on the right of midfield I take it?

Get him on the rack in the week to stretch him a bit, be 6ft 6 by the end of the season.

 

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View george1212's Profile george1212 Flag london 08 Aug 21 11.46am Send a Private Message to george1212 Add george1212 as a friend

I was there yesterday and it was great to be back again up 1.5 years away approximately. And also a bit of symmetry in that we also played Watford in the last league game before the first lockdown. It was a great day out, good atmosphere for a friendly and largely good weather.

I thought we looked bright overall. It was hard to make out some of the new signings / players in all honesty, given the lack of names on the shirts and especially from the holmesdale upper, as it's been a while and it's quite a new look team under Veira. It's going to take me a while to see how the new players bed in and it's probably too early on the whole to judge them. But that said they all looked promising.

Wilf looked sharp as always. Our backline looked strong. Ayew is turning into a personal favourite of mine, he's excellent at carrying the ball and in creating a counter-attack. One of our best players in attack outside of Wilf easily.

Thought Gallagher was a handful when he came on, a little too aggresive perhaps but I think he has a lot of talent. A creative midfielder with a lot of energy, looks like he can carry the ball and ping it and he played a great cross field ball to Zaha towards the end of the game showing his quality. We've lacked a bit of edge in central midfield so I'm optimistic Gallagher can give us that, albiet early days and he is only a loanee.

Good win against Watford that certainly bodes well for a new season where we're all going to be curious to see how the new-look Veira side plays out.


Edited by george1212 (08 Aug 2021 11.46am)

 

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View Spiderman's Profile Spiderman Flag Horsham 08 Aug 21 11.56am Send a Private Message to Spiderman Add Spiderman as a friend

Originally posted by george1212

I was there yesterday and it was great to be back again up 1.5 years away approximately. And also a bit of symmetry in that we also played Watford in the last league game before the first lockdown. It was a great day out, good atmosphere for a friendly and largely good weather.

I thought we looked bright overall. It was hard to make out some of the new signings / players in all honesty, given the lack of names on the shirts and especially from the holmesdale upper, as it's been a while and it's quite a new look team under Veira. It's going to take me a while to see how the new players bed in and it's probably too early on the whole to judge them. But that said they all looked promising.

Wilf looked sharp as always. Our backline looked strong. Ayew is turning into a personal favourite of mine, he's excellent at carrying the ball and in creating a counter-attack. One of our best players in attack outside of Wilf easily.

Thought Gallagher was a handful when he came on, a little too aggresive perhaps but I think he has a lot of talent. A creative midfielder with a lot of energy, looks like he can carry the ball and ping it and he played a great cross field ball to Zaha towards the end of the game showing his quality. We've lacked a bit of edge in central midfield so I'm optimistic Gallagher can give us that, albiet early days and he is only a loanee.

Good win against Watford that certainly bodes well for a new season where we're all going to be curious to see how the new-look Veira side plays out.


Edited by george1212 (08 Aug 2021 11.46am)

Blimey you did have problems identifying players, Gallaghers pass was to Ayew!
Seriously I agree with your post

 

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