Topic: PL: Crystal Palace 1 v 3 Liverpool VVD 8’ Ox 32’ Edouard 54’ Fabinho 89’

[PoetryInMotion]

Only six loans allowed next seasons, that makes it trickier for Chelsea to keep him.

Only 6 senior loans for players not from their academy. Think Gallagher is from their academy, so shouldn't stop them from keeping him.

[Fromola]

Regarding the penalty:

-Who was at fault for the collision? Jota or the goalie? IMO their Goalie couldn’t avoid making contact with Jota (so it was a foul)

-if there is no contact from the goalie, could Jota have reached the ball? Yes because he is quick enough and that close to goal it’s an opportunity to score a goal

So it was a penalty, being clumsy or out of control is no excuse for smashing into someone and his contact stopped Jota from collecting the ball or side footing it in from close range

I think the fuss over the pen stems from VAR.

If the ref gives it then there's not much fuss about it, although it might be a soft one. I don't think there's enough there for VAR to spend 5 minutes and then decide it should be a pen.

[afc tukrish]

City drop two points
We gain two points
Everton are well, Everton
VAR gave us something, dodgey as it was we got it
Done better than some imagined with players out or away
Cup Final


Was a good week.

Word...

[Asam]

I think the fuss over the pen stems from VAR.

If the ref gives it then there's not much fuss about it, although it might be a soft one. I don't think there's enough there for VAR to spend 5 minutes and then decide it should be a pen.

The ref decided it was a pen not VAR, the ref still has the option to go with his on field decision if he wants to

I agree it shouldn’t have taken 5 minutes but the right decision was made in the end

[cipher]

11 pages and I don't think anyone's mentioned that Fabinho has now scored 4 goals in 5 games!  What a player.

As for the game, take those 3 points and move on.  It's great to see we've come through January unscathed after losing Salah, Mane, Keita to Afcon and Thiago being out as well.  We'll need all of them back as the boys today looked mentally spent in that second half.  Too many wayward passes and very poor decisions after a great opening 35 minutes.

I'm also looking forward to having Elliot back, but lets remember he's still only 18 and is coming back from a nasty injury.

The Quad is still on!

[jonnypb]

The ref decided it was a pen not VAR, the ref still has the option to go with his on field decision if he wants to

I agree it shouldn’t have taken 5 minutes but the right decision was made in the end

No the ref was told by VAR to review his decision as VAR thought it was a penalty otherwise the ref’s original decision of no penalty would have stood. VAR is basically telling the ref your decision was wrong.

[royhendo]

Jurgen passing beers to fans after the game. 

https://twitter.com/DeanCoombes/status/1485307097487233024

 

Good weekend all round wurnit?

[Lfc19ynwa]

I like Palace, there fans sing songs about their own team, no utter gobshites played for them, bar Pardew

they're alright for me

The ground is a shithole though , it makes Goodison look positively space age

[JC the Messiah]

There's two main issues with it.

1) Managing games effectively when we're in front and taking unnecessary risks to give the opposition a way back in the game. Not the high line per se but just poor game management.

2) Not reacting when it's not working. Villa away last season the obvious example.

Sometimes we just need to keep things tight for 10 minutes. It was noticeable just how well we managed the game on Thursday night.

Plenty of mitigation today in terms of tiredness etc.

How many games do we lose, or even draw, when we take the lead?

[Asam]

No the ref was told by VAR to review his decision as VAR thought it was a penalty otherwise the ref’s original decision of no penalty would have stood. VAR is basically telling the ref your decision was wrong.

After he reviews the decision on the side of the pitch he still has the option to go with his original decision doesn’t he?

[kasperoff]

I think the fuss over the pen stems from VAR.

If the ref gives it then there's not much fuss about it, although it might be a soft one. I don't think there's enough there for VAR to spend 5 minutes and then decide it should be a pen.

It was very soft and I think almost everyone would agree. However, where been on the receiving end of serval like that, especially last season with Welbeck and Calvert-Lewin. Man Utd were getting one a week not long since. So I couldn't give a shit quite frankly. We're owed several.

I'd love refs to show a bit of common sense in situations like that, but they aren't allowed to it seems.

It's a pen by definition, but really soft in reality and in the situation.

[redmark]

How many games do we lose, or even draw, when we take the lead?

Drawn 3/16 this season when taking a lead, I think, after today. No losses.

[kasperoff]

11 pages and I don't think anyone's mentioned that Fabinho has now scored 4 goals in 5 games!  What a player.

As for the game, take those 3 points and move on.  It's great to see we've come through January unscathed after losing Salah, Mane, Keita to Afcon and Thiago being out as well.  We'll need all of them back as the boys today looked mentally spent in that second half.  Too many wayward passes and very poor decisions after a great opening 35 minutes.

I'm also looking forward to having Elliot back, but lets remember he's still only 18 and is coming back from a nasty injury.

The Quad is still on!

Very good points well made.

Fabinho is just brilliant isn't he? We've Navigated the AFCON very well to be fair.

[FLRed67]

Not every goal that's conceded requires a scapegoat.

That Palace goal was just a beautiful piece of football. That pass. 

City are going there in a few weeks, 72 hours after they play a  Champions League game 

[jonnypb]

After he reviews the decision on the side of the pitch he still has the option to go with his original decision doesn’t he?

How many times has that happened this season when a ref is told to go and review their original decision!?

[jonnypb]

Very good points well made.

Fabinho is just brilliant isn't he? We've Navigated the AFCON very well to be fair.

Yes he’s a fantastic player, one of the best in the world for his position. Also dare I say that when he takes a penalty I feel more confident that he’s going to score than any other player.

[alonsoisared]

What you're saying is Michael Owen level obvious and generic stuff. We are obviously extremely good at it, which is why we win most games, not just in 2019-20, but even now. There are a few moments in some games, where it goes wrong, but that doesn't mean it's high risk for us. It looks as if it is for those who stick to cliches like the complains about zonal marking, but if it is so much of a risk, why do we win most of our games? It is more reward and less risk with our players who are well drilled with it, which is why we keep persisting with it.

We win most our games regardless because we are a better team than 18 other sides in the league and we have an attack that regularly gets us 3+ goals a game. The issue is that you can't rely on that to happen every week to win enough games to take the title.

I don't know what's going wrong but I don't think it's laughable to suggest something needs changing with our defensive set up. We are nowhere near as solid now as we were in the title winning season. That's why we've scored 2 at home to Brighton and not won, 3 at Brentford and not won. It's why we took a 2 nil lead at Chelsea and still gone in at half time level. It's why we've taken the lead late in second halves in crucial games like City and Spurs, only to not take the 3 points. And it's why today ended up being a massive sigh of relief at the penalty when we should've closed the game out comfortably. Any time a team runs at us we concede chances.

Obviously we can't be perfect and we can't win every game. But there's been a real theme over the course of the season of us losing leads which we didn't see a couple of years ago. We are gifting chances to the opposition and even with a 2 goal lead we don't seem to be able to control things enough to suck the hope out of them. We attack, lose the ball and two passes later they're in on goal.

It's not a moan, and I do think we can fix it and keep ourselves in the title picture. But I do find it weird that people are so precious over any suggestion that the team could be improved in a certain area.

[darragh85]

were very lucky to get a win today but couldnt care less as long as we got the 3 points. went from looking like comfortable 3 points to a very uncomfortable win.

we seemed to take our foot off the gas when we went 2 nil up. this has happened a couple of times this season. is it tiredness? we had a tough game on Thursday night.

[Penfold78]

Fantastic 3 points today. Ugly, lucky - this is how to get back in the race. Palace are no slouches and while I dislike Croydon having lived there in the early 2000s I do admire the skills in that side. Love how we can kill teams off during our uber-intense hot spells of the game. Just got to remember not to inflict our own wounds during our cold spells. Allison had a worldie today, he often does but we can’t use him as a guarantee. We can be cynical about the League Cup but that away win vs Arsenal sets us up mentally really well for the next few weeks and before we can blink our Afcon three will be back. Plenty of reason to cheer. Really chuffed Ox got a very important  goal.

Not a penalty for me, Jota seems to deliberately shift his momentum into the keeper rather than carry on his natural trajectory. No big deal, just don’t forget about these soft ones when the swivel eyed amongst us are saying all the refs want us relegated or some such jibberish.  Anyway the ball from Trent should be the talking point.

[RedForeverTT]

We have a couple of weeks to rest up and I hope the boys make the best use of it and do go get covid or injured playing with their dogs.

We looked so burnt out in the second half that this team needed a break away from football to recharge.

[Son of Spion]

I agree that the ball may have gone past, but Guaita wasn't near the ball as well, he went towards Jota and clearly tripped him. So, is it now allowed that you can trip an opponent off the ball?

I'd say it's a 50-50, but calling it never a penalty in a million years is a bit too much, imo, especially considering the amount of stupid penalties that a few other teams have got.

For me, it wasn't a penalty. Plenty we've had against us weren't penalties either, so I'll certainly accept this one. 😊

With my red-tinted specs on, it's a pen to us.

With my non-biased head, on it's never a pen in my eyes. For me, Jota gives up on the ball, sees the keeper then leans into him to get a penalty. "Very clever, professional, smart, intelligent play" when our good friend Harry Kane does it, of course, but still not a penalty.

With my 'watching a random game with two sides I neither know nor care about' head on, if I saw that penalty given I'd be scratching my head in disbelief, particularly after VAR and the ref watching it on screen.

At the end of the day, though, I'm not arsed. We've been screwed so many times by terrible decisions that I'm quite content to take this one and enjoy it. I'll still be honest and say I really don't think it was a penalty, and I'd be absolutely gutted if one the same went against us.

Anyway, it's pretty subjective really, and we'll all see things a bit differently. We got the points though, and that's all that matters now. 😊

[the_red_pill]

11 pages and I don't think anyone's mentioned that Fabinho has now scored 4 goals in 5 games!  What a player.

...

Think he could do a job upfront...
What a player! This is not right- we were supposed to struggle!

[Kenny's Jacket]

How many games do we lose, or even draw, when we take the lead?

Brentford, Brighton, City, Spurs, Chelsea

[Andy @ Allerton!]

Funny how the inbred c*nts that pass in media in this country suddenly rail against referees and VAR and stay silent otherwise

Fuck them and their shithouse reporters, websites and twat newspapers.

c*nts

[Barrow Shaun]

Just in case anyone was thinking otherwise, it wasn't a penalty, and VAR/officials are shite.

Good 3 points though.

[Armand9]

I think the fuss over the pen stems from VAR.

If the ref gives it then there's not much fuss about it, although it might be a soft one. I don't think there's enough there for VAR to spend 5 minutes and then decide it should be a pen.

i beg to differ, soon as they showed the replay (and that isn't VAR, we've had that for decades) you could see jota 'swerve' into the keeper, making sure of the collision, no pen for me, i'd be livid if that was against us

now the spurs game, that's a fucking pen

How many games do we lose, or even draw, when we take the lead?

too many

[Barrow Shaun]

i beg to differ, soon as they showed the replay (and that isn't VAR, we've had that for decades) you could see jota 'swerve' into the keeper, making sure of the collision, no pen for me, i'd be livid if that was against us

now the spurs game, that's a fucking pen

Agreed. Both.

[PoetryInMotion]

We win most our games regardless because we are a better team than 18 other sides in the league and we have an attack that regularly gets us 3+ goals a game. The issue is that you can't rely on that to happen every week to win enough games to take the title.

I don't know what's going wrong but I don't think it's laughable to suggest something needs changing with our defensive set up. We are nowhere near as solid now as we were in the title winning season. That's why we've scored 2 at home to Brighton and not won, 3 at Brentford and not won. It's why we took a 2 nil lead at Chelsea and still gone in at half time level. It's why we've taken the lead late in second halves in crucial games like City and Spurs, only to not take the 3 points. And it's why today ended up being a massive sigh of relief at the penalty when we should've closed the game out comfortably. Any time a team runs at us we concede chances.

Obviously we can't be perfect and we can't win every game. But there's been a real theme over the course of the season of us losing leads which we didn't see a couple of years ago. We are gifting chances to the opposition and even with a 2 goal lead we don't seem to be able to control things enough to suck the hope out of them. We attack, lose the ball and two passes later they're in on goal.

It's not a moan, and I do think we can fix it and keep ourselves in the title picture. But I do find it weird that people are so precious over any suggestion that the team could be improved in a certain area.

What do we need to improve with our defense? Midfield, I agree that there are flaws, but defense? Regarding personnel, we've some of the best defenders in the league and we have able back-ups, what else do we need? If you want us to drop back, our attackers will lose what makes them create as many chances as they do, and the whole team will lose its identity. You don't find faults for the sake of it and change something that only fails rarely. Our defenders make mistakes just as our attackers miss chances occasionally. You are making it as if it's a Brendan side where our attack keeps rescuing our defense, not at all. It has nothing to do with others being precious about it.

We don't need 3 goals to win every game. We've kept 10 clean sheets in 21 games, that's half the number of games where we've needed just 1 goal to win. Our defense cost us at Brentford and West Ham, but against Brighton, Chelsea and Spurs, our midfield was even more culpable. Our attack cost us at Leicester and were sluggish against West Ham. It happens. Doesn't mean we need to change the whole thing.

Only pointing to the few outliers and ignoring so many times where we've been doing well makes us look spoilt, and unrealistic. We're the fourth best defense in the league in terms of Goals Conceded, and two of those who have conceded lesser play a low block and create much lesser chances than we do. It's only really City with their billion pound team that are going strong without conceding goals/leads.

Our midfield is a little unbalanced as Hendo is ageing, and we're short of options without Thiago, Keita and Elliot and probably need additions there in the summer. That's all there is to it.

[PoetryInMotion]

For me, it wasn't a penalty. Plenty we've had against us weren't penalties either, so I'll certainly accept this one. 😊

With my red-tinted specs on, it's a pen to us.

With my non-biased head, on it's never a pen in my eyes. For me, Jota gives up on the ball, sees the keeper then leans into him to get a penalty. "Very clever, professional, smart, intelligent play" when our good friend Harry Kane does it, of course, but still not a penalty.

With my 'watching a random game with two sides I neither know nor care about' head on, if I saw that penalty given I'd be scratching my head in disbelief, particularly after VAR and the ref watching it on screen.

At the end of the day, though, I'm not arsed. We've been screwed so many times by terrible decisions that I'm quite content to take this one and enjoy it. I'll still be honest and say I really don't think it was a penalty, and I'd be absolutely gutted if one the same went against us.

Anyway, it's pretty subjective really, and we'll all see things a bit differently. We got the points though, and that's all that matters now. 😊

True that. We got the points and would've won without the penalty anyway.

[Andy @ Allerton!]

From the Guardian

They reported on the last 3 or 4 Man U games where VAR and dodgy decisions were very much in play

And said not a sausage

See how this Manchester Based 'Newspaper' reports VAR and refereees on a non-Manchester based team...


https://www.theguardian.com/football/2022/jan/23/patrick-vieira-calls-kevin-friend-naive-for-liverpool-penalty-call

[lamonti]

For all the stupidity of complaining about our high line by commentators, media and some of our fans, the high line is what allows us to win possession high up and attack like we do and it's what allows to play our offside trap effectively on most days. There are very few exceptions where we are picked, and then these start being vocal about it during those rare off days. What about all those days where it is extremely effective, eh? Bellends.

Fundamentally, the lack of pressure in the midfield (lack of legs, or lack of shape) is what causes the problem. At one stage Anderson just got the ball off the keeper, strolled up the pitch unchallenged then chipped it over the top of us and we were in the shit all of a sudden. It took them no effort, just one decent-ish ball into space.

[keyop]

Never in doubt 

That first 35 minutes was as good a perfomance as we could wish for. Despite a few errors, we utterly dominated them and they couldn't get out. We pressed high, won the ball in dangerous positions, and punished their mistakes. It was exactly the kind of start to make after City dropped points yesterday.

However, we ran out of gas pretty quickly, and that period from 35-55 minutes was almost the opposite of what came before it and we lost control of the game a little. I assume players are tired after so many games with little rotation, but we looked rattled at times and were uncharacteristically sloppy in possession with a lot of unforced errors. I thought the pen was soft but ultimately the right decision, and it was a relief to get the 3rd and secure the 3 points.

Despite some wobbly moments, a win is a win, and I take huge comfort from our performances whilst Mo and Sadio have been away, plus we've still got Thiago, Elliot, Keita, and Divock to come back in for the business end of the season. Winning before a break always feels good, and we now have 2 full weeks until Cardiff - a game where we can rotate if needed before Leicester on 10th Feb.

We're still in all 4 competitions and the title race is far from over. Onwards and upwards.

[FowlerLegend]

I don't agree with this. Yes, we were under the cosh in the second half, but we played a really good first half where we could've scored 4 and in the end we got the win.

Also, whatever you say about Palace causing us trouble historically is a hyperbole. Since the draw in 2014, we had won 7 straight games in the League in Selhurst Park before today.

Yeah, we could have been 4-0 up after 35 mins but we weren't and it's a 90 min game  You still have to manage the game. From that position we could well have drawn or lost the game. It would have been the 4th time we have given up 2-0 leads in the league, 5th if you include European games.
The midfield has not been performing quite right for most of the season and we will have to do what we can for the rest of the season before it is addressed in the summer.
Hopefully though we can keep Thiago, Fabinho and a.n.other fit enough for the rest of the season to push City.
My comment about Palace was them being a team that caused us trauma at significant moments. We haven't had a game with huge significance against them for a long time but they ruined Stevie's last game, we drew a must win game there under Rogers and we lost a semi final against them after beating them 9-0. The point is they are s team that make you nervous and they certainly did that today!

[smicer07]

About time we got a soft penalty.

[lamonti]

Palace were impressive. Olise and Gallagher and very good players. I know Eze has a lot more to come.

They've bought remarkably well to replace that ancient squad under Hodgson that had so many players going out of contract.

[Andy @ Allerton!]

About time we got a soft penalty.

Entertaining how much everyone else is losing their shit too

[keyop]

Other than Afcon, are there any other games for our players before we play Cardiff?

I'd assumed this was an international break (like Nations League or some other bullshit) rather than a winter break, but it looks like we actually have some recovery time to get players back and recharge for the final push.

If that's the case (and assuming Mo/Sadio/Naby come back in one piece), then our squad will be in good shape by the time we play Leicester - especially with Jota/Jones/Ox/Konate looking good lately and giving us good rotation options. Plenty to look forward to between now and May.

[killer-heels]

Other than Afcon, are there any other games for our players before we play Cardiff?

I'd assumed this was an international break (like Nations League or some other bullshit) rather than a winter break, but it looks like we actually have some recovery time to get players back and recharge for the final push.

If that's the case (and assuming Mo/Sadio/Naby come back in one piece), then our squad will be in good shape by the time we play Leicester - especially with Jota/Jones/Ox/Konate looking good lately and giving us good rotation options. Plenty to look forward to between now and May.

The Brazillians go play some games, as does Minamino. Might be some others as well as I think its only the European players who get a break.

[Red Beret]

Jurgen passing beers to fans after the game. 

https://twitter.com/DeanCoombes/status/1485307097487233024

That's Ferguson behaviour that.

[Andy @ Allerton!]

Jurgen passing beers to fans after the game. 

https://twitter.com/DeanCoombes/status/1485307097487233024

Duncan Ferguson put a shit load of money behind the bar at the Winslow. When punters arrived and got the ale in and tried to pay, they were told that Ferguson had bought their ale for them.

Classy moves from Jurgen and Duncan that.