Crystal Palace v The Reds at Selhurst Park Saturday 31st March KO 12.30
After the eight week international break, or so it seems, we travel to Palace on Saturday for a dinner-time kick off against Roy Hodgson’s brave lads. Instead of the usual match preview I’ve taken inspiration from the old ‘Spyin Kop’ days that RAWK used to host and gone to find out what the Palace faithful are thinking about this one. The ‘Palace faithful’ in this case is my mate Nick, a season ticket holder at Selhurst and a keen student of all aspects of the game. (His last reply in the post below, about the Premier League, should concern us all). In summer we play on the same cricket team and where I like to imagine I’m batting with a rapier, Nick uses a broadsword. If Palace beat us on Saturday I’ll probably get hit by that broadside, figuratively at any rate, throughout the coming summer. But they won’t beat us. Will they?
YK We need the three points, you need the three points. We had a blip against Manchester United recently when Mourinho expertly parked the bus, a tactic that Liverpool occasionally struggle with, but apart from that we’re red hot at the moment, and have been since the autumn. So a couple or so questions. Will Palace ‘Park the bus’? Do you have what it takes to contain the Salah-Firmino-Mane trident? Can you grab your three points?
NICK In my experience, ‘parking the bus’, is a phrase like ‘tikka takka’ which is for other more glamourous clubs! I haven’t seen Palace employ it successfully (as in hoping to snatch a point or unlikely win against the more fancied teams)- I have sat through turgid games which have been characterised by and endless onslaught, and at half time, at 0-0, one only has the hope of scraping through to the end. Inevitably we lose once we tire, and then its all been a bit pointless. (!) When we have been proactive against teams expected to overrun us, we have done well, (Man City, Chelsea).
With Zaha fit again and Sakho back in defence (dependable, despite his amusing wild goose-chase brain fades), we will hopefully defend from the front and wings. When Townsend and Zaha are at it, they keep quite a few opponents occupied, but if we sit back we just look like conceding. Macarthur and Milivojevic are the ones to contain your trident, hard workers, great solid footballers. Both have mistakes in them though.
I think we have a chance, after getting injured players back after what has been an almost cruel series of knee, thigh, ankle twangs. Zaha is the key. Perhaps the travelling Kop may get impatient if Salah goes scoreless for too long and Benteke may be sparked into remembering what his point is by playing against his former club but I suspect he may be telling his Grandchildren about the great Villa season in 25 years time).
Roy meanwhile will quietly stand in his area in a wet black anorak, looking like an uninspiring manager, but with a cunning attacking plan in his wet pocket.
YK I want to ask you about Roy later, since he evokes such pleasant memories among Liverpool supporters. Zaha too since I know you rate him highly, and I rate him too. But can you say some more about the Liverpool old boys? Sakho divided supporters when he was here. There were some who thought a Rolls Royce footballer existed beneath the deceptive appearance of an out-of-control threshing machine. There were others who only saw the machine. Then of course he annoyed Klopp with his slightly surprising regime of 'dieting' pills and his casual approach to time-keeping. In fact I think the last conversation they had together was at the end of a pre-season tour of the States when Klopp suggested the club might leave him on Alcatraz during a boat trip of San Francisco Bay. (We thought he was joking. So did Mamadou. But it was the Klopp steel. Sakho never played again). He was a massive hit at Palace wasn't he, when he first arrived? What are your feelings now?
And then Benteke. A dignified man who never moaned about being marginalised at Anfield, left the club elegantly, and occasionally showed flashes of what had made him so feared at Villa. But basically not suited to the Liverpool team. Is he suited to the Palace one? Have you forgiven him yet for that penalty he won against you in the 94th minute all those years ago? It was still very raw for you when we spoke about it recently.
NICKSakho galvanised our season last year by his power, incisive passing forward and his charisma. He is a very bulky, decisive defender, if on occasion “thrashy”! He has suffered through injury this season so is not up to speed properly yet, but a classy addition to our team. Popular too. I hope he employs his telescopic legs to block shots from your attackers rather than to mistime tackles in the box.
He did a strange thing earlier this season when, in a goal area melee, he though it a good idea without warning to back heel the ball from two metres to our keeper, taking both teams, the whole crowd and particularly Hennessey by surprise. Luckily it was misdirected and went for a corner! He represents the chaotic, but committed for the supporters.
Benteke. I want to like him as a player as I think he seems a good man. But I am in the majority of Palace fans who don’t expect him to score. He tries things creatively, and either he is on a different wavelength to those around him or his touch is too poor to make things happen. He drives fans mad with his insouciant attitude. We all like to see a centre forward charging after a lost cause, but CB has hardly ever done this. When he did he got the biggest round of applause in one game! His headed goals for Villa have bought him a career and Palace fans keep being disappointed when he doesn’t score the inevitable hatful, which we keep being told he will. Our goals are not scored by our main striker. Our goals are score by our now injured second striker, Sako.
There is also the continuing legacy from his snatching the ball from our regular penalty taker in the final minute against Bournemouth which would have secured 3 points only to miss with poor attempt at a dink. The whistle went and he turned to walk straight to the changing room with the whole crowd apopleptic (not dissimilar from the anger after his ‘winning’ that pen for Liverpool against us a few years back!) Zaha makes things happen all game on the wing, but rarely does CB get in the position to convert, frustration ensues. He needs to score goals for his confidence, its been said all season, maybe Saturday will be the day of reckoning, or maybe Roy will drop him for Sorloth, that would put the cat among the pigeons.
YKSorloth? I don't think I know him. He sounds like a character out of Lord of the Rings.
I have to admit I'd happily see Zaha with a tight hamstring that can't be risked. I saw him with you in that match against Stoke earlier in the season and he was audacious. There aren't that many audacious players in the Premier League, willing to back their own freaky talent, but he's one. I'm relieved to hear you say that no one in your side is really on his wavelength.
Tell us about the atmosphere at Selhurst Park. It was pretty impressive against Stoke I thought. The percussion accompaniment to the chanting isn't to everyone's taste I know. It can seem a bit strange and 'European' to the English ear. But the singing from the Holmesdale Road End was incessant and at moments of high drama it seemed to get the entire ground joining in.
NICKSorloth, not heard of him? He was tearing up the Danish league until he became our marquee signing in January, he wears a full beaver hat and husky coat to training and keeps fit by pulling double handed swords from lumps of granite. Watch out for the curse of Thrawdor.
I didn’t say nobody is on Zaha‘s wavelegth it was Benteke’s. Wilf (as we call him, for it is he) was bought by Sir AF at United, when his final delivery was coming to nothing, raw. Moyes didn’t develop him, but develop he did- he has very fast feet and nous to go with it now. Most teams have 3 or 4 on him.
As for ‘where’s your famous atmosphere?”, it can be raucous and infectious, if the Holmesdale are up for it, particularly if there’s a comeback possible. The fanatics once went on strike to make the point that it was only they who gee it all up - it was like a wake in a library. We sit close to the away contingent so it’s hard to get a handle on it sometimes.
Newcastle, Liverpool, Swansea, Burnley are good visitors who react to the game in front of them and the vibe, but others like Arsenal and Utd spend too much time suggesting we only came to see their beautiful patterns - so patronising, it ruins it.
Best was 3-3 Liverpool, from 0-3- sorry but it was fabulous.
YKSorry for taking the piss about Sorloth. This is the sort of thing that normally comes back and bites me in the bum. No doubt the fella will come on and score a 96th minute winner.
I doubt it though. I'm going for 1-2 to us. As much as I agree with you about Zaha I think he'll spend more of the afternoon defending than attacking. Two of our unsung heroes since Xmas have been Alexander-Arnold and Robertson. We have a lot of pace and ingenuity throughout our team, not just in the attack.
Couple of final questions if I can Nick. Where do you stand on Hodgson? He's mainly a figure of fun at Anfield, as you probably know. When he was our manager he spoke of us as if we were a plucky little Championship team rather than the highly decorated club we are. Some fans who'd experienced Roma 77, Paris 81, Istanbul 05 etc couldn't buy into his parish-pump vision for the club. Has he won you fellas over?
And Jurgen Klopp. It's obvious why we adore him. But why does everyone else?
NICKMark, I think that in comparison to Pulis or Pardew, Roy actually talks about his team, coaching and the club’s status when interviewed. He doesn’t engage in speculative trivia. Nor does he foreground himself by jumping about in stupid hats or dance and strop about when we score knowing the camera is on him. It’s good he supported Palace before setting off to coach around Europe. He was tremendously popular at Fulham and West Brom so perhaps there’s a clue there. Avuncular, yes, but boring? Not for me. He is a progressive manager not a bet-hedger and has experience to burn. I much prefer him to pragmatic Sam A.
I can’t say why it didn’t work at ‘pool.
Supporting a highly decorated club is different to a club like ours which, while in the Premiership, can aspire to survive, but in the Championship hopes for promotion. I’m unclear which I prefer. I am supposed to decide whether to renew season tickets for next season but feel slightly exploited, as the club, if it survives again will be millions richer courtesy of Sky. This business model sickens me, despite my affection for my local team. Leicester’s season when they won the league made us dreamers in the lower reaches, but it is an uphill struggle for 40 points all the time. It’s no real achievement to bloody Arsenal’s nose in one game a season.
I used to watch Liverpool on European nights on Wednesdays in the 70’s and 80’s and had a real affection for those marquee teams which seemed to represent us all. I particularly liked the cut of Bob Paisleys jib - he was emblematic of some kind of man. Union leader, comic or politician.
Klopp can smile, that’s his secret. He has a great European vibe, Dutch almost. Compare his face to Mourinho’s or Pochettino. I think we wish him well. Time to knock Man City off a perch or two?
That being said I love ‘going to the football’, and hope that Roman, my 19 yr old son who will be there on Saturday sees a thrilling game, particularly when we run out 3-1 winners ( I am guessing that’s his prediction)!
