Topic: Match Preview - Crystal Palace vs Liverpool - August 20th 2018 20:00pm

[Lycan]

Why are people even worrying about City? Just concentrate on ourselves not even thinking about challenges at this stage.

Is correct.

Just concentrate on us winning tomorrow. That's the most important thing to concern yourself over.

[Bend It Like Aurelio]

With the results this w/e, it’s a deffo must win game tomorrow for us.

It's a long season. It's nice to get out of the blocks quickly, but to call this a "must win" game is quite overdoing it.

Are people actually worried that City will win all their games this year? If they do, then they deserve to win the PL. It's that simple. But I think the reality is that somewhere down the line, they will have hiccups. And they still have to play us.

I'm not even bothered looking at the table at the moment. I'm just enjoying the football, and the fact that we aren't associated with that turgid crap that I just witnessed just now.

[killer-heels]

With the results this w/e, it’s a deffo must win game tomorrow for us.

Its not a must win game.

[Ipcress]

With the results this w/e, it’s a deffo must win game tomorrow for us.

Only if you think Palace are our main contenders for the title.

[PhaseOfPlay]

They're all must-win games if we want to challenge for the title. More so the games against the bottom 10 teams in the league. City will be putting them all to the sword, and we have to match them every step of the way to stand a chance. If we don't, they'll open up a gap that we'll probably never make up.

We want our challenge to rest on the two games against City, not on the 20 games against the fodder.

[deFacto please, you bastards]

They're all must-win games if we want to challenge for the title. More so the games against the bottom 10 teams in the league. City will be putting them all to the sword, and we have to match them every step of the way to stand a chance. If we don't, they'll open up a gap that we'll probably never make up.

We want our challenge to rest on the two games against City, not on the 20 games against the fodder.

This.

Take any win tomorrow. Just win

[newterp]

Only if you think Palace are our main contenders for the title.

They're all must-win games if we want to challenge for the title. More so the games against the bottom 10 teams in the league. City will be putting them all to the sword, and we have to match them every step of the way to stand a chance. If we don't, they'll open up a gap that we'll probably never make up.

We want our challenge to rest on the two games against City, not on the 20 games against the fodder.

What PoP said.

[TheShanklyGates]

They're all must-win games if we want to challenge for the title. More so the games against the bottom 10 teams in the league. City will be putting them all to the sword, and we have to match them every step of the way to stand a chance. If we don't, they'll open up a gap that we'll probably never make up.

We want our challenge to rest on the two games against City, not on the 20 games against the fodder.

Spot on. We need to get out of this mentality where it's seen as acceptable to drop points in games against bottom half teams.

[robgomm]

Hate Monday night games, especially against Palace. They seem a good side to me, well set up and make the best of what they have. But I really believe we can beat anyone this season, doesn't matter how they set up or who they are because we've got that extra depth and quality.

[jillcwhomever]

No one is saying anything about dropping points, but I'm not wasting time thinking about City every minute of the day. We just need to focus and think of our own games and not worry about what City are doing. The only time I'm even thinking about them is when we play them. Any else is irrelevant.

[BER]

'must win' getting thrown around unironically already, must be a record.

[TheShanklyGates]

'must win' getting thrown around unironically already, must be a record.

Do you want to win the league or not? Every game should be treated as must win.

[Hazell]

Do you want to win the league or not? Every game should be treated as must win.

Just pointing out Man City failed to win at Palace last season and won the league

[jillcwhomever]

Do you want to win the league or not? Every game should be treated as must win.

Just because every game should be treated as a must win game, doesn't guarantee that it will though. City dropped points at Burnley, Palace and Everton all places that they should have won last season. But in this league as proved this afternoon, results like that can happen to anyone.  So, why don't we stop fretting and just enjoy the season ahead.

[wige]

Show the anger that Klopp keeps referencing, add our base level of performance to that and we'll win. Tough ground, tough kick off time and tough opponent. Not as tough as their opponent though.

Think it's very important for us to keep pace with City in the opening 10 games. Do that and we may well get in their heads.

Lads need to take it one at a time though. Give each game the maximum attention, be hungry and angry and get the 3 points.

Got a sneaking suspicion we might just smash these tomorrow.

[meady1981]

6 pointer

[chromed]

Hate waiting until Monday to watch the reds play. Can’t wait for it tomorrow though, I’m itching to see us play every week!

Think we’ll win, don’t care about city, only LFC, we’ll do our own thing and worry about them if/when we have to.

[BazC]

Just because every game should be treated as a must win game, doesn't guarantee that it will though. City dropped points at Burnley, Palace and Everton all places that they should have won last season. But in this league as proved this afternoon, results like that can happen to anyone.  So, why don't we stop fretting and just enjoy the season ahead.

You don’t win that number of games unless you go and fight for everyone one. A lot of that fight involves thinking every second of every game is must win. Not every game is must win. Every situation within it as well. You probably won’t win every game, but the teams that win the league generally go in thinking they need to. And when they don’t win, they criticise, beat themselves up and make sure they win the next time out because losing is pretty shite all around.

Tomorrow’s a must win game just like Man City at home will be.

[Chrismonster]

On paper, we should take this Palace team apart! Fortunately, we all know football isn't that predictable.

Although we're at the start of the season, for me, I think this game will give us, or more specifically myself, a big clue as to whether we'll be challenging for the title, or for a place in the top 4. Win lose or draw, I'll be keeping an eye out for how we deal with the long ball counter, winning second balls, knock on's etc, things that have let us down in the past.
It'll be interesting to see how our midfield copes with braking down that proverbial bus as well as helping out at the back.

I'll be keeping a close eye on Kaita, because from what I've seen of him so far, he appears to be that player we've been crying out for for some time now, and in these sort of games, he seems to have all the attributes needed to help deal with smaller clubs frustrating and snatching cheap points away from us.

I'm very optimistic about this Liverpool side, on paper at least, it's the most balanced Liverpool team I've witnessed in my adulthood.. I'm going for a 3-1 win to us.       

[jillcwhomever]

You don’t win that number of games unless you go and fight for everyone one. A lot of that fight involves thinking every second of every game is must win. Not every game is must win. Every situation within it as well. You probably won’t win every game, but the teams that win the league generally go in thinking they need to. And when they don’t win, they criticise, beat themselves up and make sure they win the next time out because losing is pretty shite all around.

Tomorrow’s a must win game just like Man City at home will be.

I don't see how anyone can doubt the way we play that we do try and win every game, I'm pretty sure that is entirely what the manager does every week when he works with the players. We go into a game wanting to win.

[daggerdoo]

Yeah they're all must win games at this point. Used to tell myself different so the possible outcome of draw or loss was easier to deal with. It's not really worth thinking about anything other than a win, and we should be winning tomorrow night. 2-1 I think, Keith and Sadio.

[JC the Messiah]

We're all worried that the best team might not win, that the variances of football will come into play and we'll drop points tomorrow. We expect to win, but fear falling short.

The bookies have Palace at 13/2, and us at 9/20 to win. They also expect that we'll win this game far more than we won't.

We're certainly far more likely to beat Palace than united are to beat Brighton. The fear comes because we have an opportunity, and a team that we actually believe in. We have better players, a far better manager, and we WILL beat them.

[robgomm]

6 pointer

If we're getting 6 points then this is definitely a must win.

[El Lobo]

We're all worried that the best team might not win, that the variances of football will come into play and we'll drop points tomorrow. We expect to win, but fear falling short.

The bookies have Palace at 13/2, and us at 9/20 to win. They also expect that we'll win this game far more than we won't.

We're certainly far more likely to beat Palace than united are to beat Brighton. The fear comes because we have an opportunity, and a team that we actually believe in. We have better players, a far better manager, and we WILL beat them.

We’re not

[bornandbRED]

We have to start to build that Madrid/Barca/Man Utd under whiskey nose mentality, where every game must be a win - to the extent the opponent doesn't expect to get any kind of result, and is shocked if they do. That's the way to win the title, especially against a City team like this. Another 4-0 drubbing would be a nice way to declare ourselves tomorrow.

[Raid]

What City did well last season was maintain their levels regardless of who they were playing against. Dropping 14 points all season was an astonishing effort.

To be in the conversation at the business end of the campaign we need to do similar, string together long runs of wins against all opposition. Getting out the blocks fast has proven crucial for Chelsea and City in the last two seasons so it would be great for us to get a few consecutive wins on the board.

[JackWard33]

Do you want to win the league or not? Every game should be treated as must win.

Jeez bit silly this. We want to win every game. We’re not going to win every game against the bottom 14 clubs. Palace away is one of the 4 or 5 hardest of those games. We’ll win it quite often, sometimes we won’t.
I mean I don’t want to break anyone’s heart here but we’re not hitting 100 points this season

[steashy]

im not into this must win thing so early in the season, what i do want is us turning up to palace tomorrow night and showing everyone whos watching that were coming to take your points off you and your going to have play the game of your lives to get a result against us. correct me if im wrong but we scored more away goals last season than most teams so lets go out and smash these and lay our own bench mark, fuck city the reds are coming up the hill

[PoetryInMotion]

Jeez bit silly this. We want to win every game. We’re not going to win every game against the bottom 14 clubs. Palace away is one of the 4 or 5 hardest of those games. We’ll win it quite often, sometimes we won’t.
I mean I don’t want to break anyone’s heart here but we’re not hitting 100 points this season

We may or may not. It doesn't matter. The closer we get to those numbers, the better our chances of winning it. That's all that matters. We need at least a couple of massive winning runs (not just unbeaten runs) to challenge or win. The last time we challenged, there's was a spell where we won around 13 wins on the trot before losing to Chelsea. So, if we need to better that, we need to win a lot of games on the trot, that means even winning some of the harder games against the bottom 14 clubs and even some games against the Top sides (at least at Anfield).

[JC the Messiah]

We’re not

I expect us to win, but the worry is that the right team might not win, it happens. It feels like we have not to lose this season as the expectation is greater.

But we will bloody win tomorrow. By quite a few goals.

[JackWard33]

We may or may not.

We won’t.
None of the rest of your post negates my point does it?
We won’t win every game. We won’t win every game against the bottom 14 because no one ever does
Tomorrow is the second game of the season.
This place and our fan base are going to be fucking unbearable if every time we don’t win a league game it’s seen as a some kind disaster

[PhaseOfPlay]

Jeez bit silly this. We want to win every game. We’re not going to win every game against the bottom 14 clubs. Palace away is one of the 4 or 5 hardest of those games. We’ll win it quite often, sometimes we won’t.
I mean I don’t want to break anyone’s heart here but we’re not hitting 100 points this season

The problem is that when we fail to win these games, and City do, it puts us much further behind them every time it happens.

The league winners generally win most of their games against the bottom 14 clubs. Last season, 9 of the 17 games we failed to win were against the bottom 14 clubs. Those dropped 19 points would have put us 6 points off City, all else being equal.

[Sarge]

Had to add this from Twitter.




Me during sex: hurt me

Her: Oh Gerrard slipped, Demba Ba onto it. Ba against Mignolet here for Chelsea... And Ba scores!

Me: w h a t

Her: Kroos sends it forward here to Benzema, he's got the option to Marcel-OH, and Karius! It's gone in! Oh my word!

Me: s t o p

[TheShanklyGates]

Jeez bit silly this.

Not really. Phaseofplay has explained it better than me.

[PhaseOfPlay]

We may or may not. It doesn't matter. The closer we get to those numbers, the better our chances of winning it. That's all that matters. We need at least a couple of massive winning runs (not just unbeaten runs) to challenge or win. The last time we challenged, there's was a spell where we won around 13 wins on the trot before losing to Chelsea. So, if we need to better that, we need to win a lot of games on the trot, that means even winning some of the harder games against the bottom 14 clubs and even some games against the Top sides (at least at Anfield).

We need at least one winning run of 7 or more games. 11 out of the last 15 league champions have had at least one run of 7 wins or more.

[JackWard33]

The problem is that when we fail to win these games, and City do, it puts us much further behind them every time it happens.

The league winners generally win most of their games against the bottom 14 clubs. Last season, 9 of the 17 games we failed to win were against the bottom 14 clubs. Those dropped 19 points would have put us 6 points off City, all else being equal.

We’ll win most our games against the bottom 14.
Tomorrow is one of the harder ones so we’re less likely to win it than some of the others but we’ll still win it the majority of the time
It’s not a ‘must win game’ in a 38 game season

City got 100 points last year - that’s a record. It’s a completely fucking insane number which is why it’s a record and shows the benefit of nearly a billion pounds of fees and wage investment from a sovereign wealth fund. That’s not our bar - it’s not attainable by us. If they get less points this season we may have a shot at the league - if they get close to the same we won’t... in fact we may also get our record points total and still not win the league.
There’s literally zero point in heads falling off is we draw away at Palace (for example) - if our fans are going to measure our results against a 100 point or even 95 point target they’re going to have a miserable season, they may even contrive to make our record points total a negative because we finish behind a financially doped monster.

[PhaseOfPlay]

We’ll win most our games against the bottom 14.
Tomorrow is one of the harder ones so we’re less likely to win it than some of the others but we’ll still win it the majority of the time
It’s not a ‘must win game’ in a 38 game season

City got 100 points last year - that’s a record. It’s a completely fucking insane number which is why it’s a record and shows the benefit of nearly a billion pounds of fees and wage investment from a sovereign wealth fund. That’s not our bar - it’s not attainable by us. If they get less points this season we may have a shot at the league - if they get close to the same we won’t... in fact we may also get our record points total and still not win the league.
There’s literally zero point in heads falling off is we draw away at Palace (for example) - if our fans are going to measure our results against a 100 point or even 95 point target they’re going to have a miserable season, they may even contrive to make our record points total a negative because we finish behind a financially doped monster.

We need to win them at the same rate as City do, though. Otherwise, we'll fall behind.

There is no reason why we can't also aim for 100 points.

[JackWard33]

We need to win them at the same rate as City do, though. Otherwise, we'll fall behind.

There is no reason why we can't also aim for 100 points.

Aim for what you like... aim for 114.. might as well

[PhaseOfPlay]

Aim for what you like... aim for 114.. might as well

You're misunderstanding me. I'm not having some pie in the sky dreamer moment. There are 84 points up for grabs against the bottom 14 teams. You only need to outscore every one of them by a goal, which is easier to do when you have superior firepower - which is what City did last season. Getting maximum points against the top 6, though, is harder, as you face equal attacking threats, as well as stronger defences.

So the question to ask is - are Salah, Firmino, Mane, Shaqiri and Keita capable of scoring 2 goals per game against the bottom 14 teams?

If you think they are, then a 100 point season is possible.

[jillcwhomever]

You're misunderstanding me. I'm not having some pie in the sky dreamer moment. There are 84 points up for grabs against the bottom 14 teams. You only need to outscore every one of them by a goal, which is easier to do when you have superior firepower - which is what City did last season. Getting maximum points against the top 6, though, is harder, as you face equal attacking threats, as well as stronger defences.

So the question to ask is - are Salah, Firmino, Mane, Shaqiri and Keita incapable of scoring 2 goals per game against the bottom 14 teams?

If you think they are, then a 100 point season is possible.

The problem is it doesn't take into account that even if you have superior firepower and better players, other teams can still gain points on any given match day. Palace, Everton and Burnley took points off City last season. So having everything above still doesn't guarantee you anything. It could well be possible, but the point is football is the game it is because sometimes less superior teams can win points off better teams.