EPL, Saturday Feb 25th, 19.45, Crystal Palace vs Liverpool
Referee: Darren England. Assistants: Dan Cook, Dan Robathan. Fourth official: Steve Martin. VAR:Andre Marriner. Assistant VAR: Richard West.
“The Horror….The Horror” …. Colonel Kurtz
As a form of therapy I decided to do the pre-game piece. If ever there was a game we needed to win it’s this one. If ever there was (historically) a game we should win it’s this one. But "History pistory we’ve all fallen down” this week anyway.
First of all Palace.
Right, Just paid a visit to a Palace forum (hi Lads) to get a flavour of how they are looking forward to the game. They are just as confused as any other fans forum. As far as their team goes there have been doubts about`Mitchell (right full) and Zaha (our buddy) but the smart money is on both playing.
love us to change to 4-3-3 but I highly doubt he’s going to change it for this game when we’ve been effective at nullifying higher level opposition playing 4-2-3-1.
When we played them at Selhurst for 30mins we got slaughtered by the space their full backs got with us playing 4-2-3-1. Pat changed it to 4-4-1-1 and we should have got a draw out of the game. To stifle space for their full backs I think we should go 4-4-1-1
Trying to figure out if them getting hammered by Real is a good or a bad thing?
I would put my house on all 3 starting. (Schlupp, Ayew and Mateta)
I know it was Real Madrid but watching that midfield 3 of Fabinho, Henderson and the young lad they were completely played off the park. If we press and put them under pressure we would have a really good chance. Fully expect us to give them the freedom of Selhurst though and to create the square root of **** all as per usual with Ayew and co.
The back 5 pick themselves
Not necessarily the side that I would pick but I think PV will go with this for the other 6 places:
Doucoure Lokongo Schlupp Olise Zaha Mateta
The general vibe, tactically, is either low block/fast counterattack or get at us from the start, high press our dodgy midfield and release fast forwards. In other words the Real Madrid or the Brighton tactics.
Given they have figured out various methods for beating us and the proof has been played out many times this season, the question is which way do they go ? I think they will probably go low block myself, like Anfield earlier this season.
There, Anderson gave a masterclass in long ball distribution and close quarter irritation of Nunez which led to a red and a 3 game ban, the first of a number of rhythm busting sequences, for our forward signing. Weirdly we played better with 10 men against them, just as Saudi Arabia did against us last week. Palace waited, pounced and scored and then went back into their shell to wait again.
They are a bit tentative on the forum. A bit unsure. Confidence doesn’t seem to be very high. (Welcome to our world). Results since the World Cup interlude have not been great. They have played 10 and won 1. At home, at Selhurst Park, they have played 6, drawn 3 and lost 3. They average a goal a game and concede 1.5 goals per game. Not great. As a quick comparison, we’ve played 8 league games since the World Cup, we’ve won 4, drew 1 and lost 3. We score and concede a goal a game. As bad as it’s been it’s still a country mile better than Palace. The one proviso here is that they have recently taken points off Saudi, Utd, Brentford and Brighton all of whom sit above or around us in the table. No-one has scored much against them recently either. All a bit tight all around.
Historically, since Jurgan has been at the helm, at Palace we’ve done well. Actually we’ve been brilliant. Played 7, won 7, scoring 22, conceding 5.
The team last season, at Palace, was Joel plus the usual 4 in defence. Jordan, Fab and Ox in the middle and Curtis, Bobby and Diogo up front. It was AFCON times and we had Taki as the only forward on the bench. Bobby tends to score at Palace and it wouldn’t be a shock if he played Saturday night.
Now what do you do with a problem like Maria ? (anyone ?). Us, Liverpool. The Reds.
If you took away the Madrid game …massacre, midweek, I would be fairly confident the team could have chalked up another 2-0 type of steady win. However we were humiliated in front of the world on Tuesday, not beaten, murdered. So I don’t know how we’ll go on Saturday. At least there are 4 full days of rest so I imagine it’s from the same squad we’ll pick again.
Because we do well at Palace I think Jurgan might change it up a little. Naby hasn’t had a game in a while and since his latest comeback has played quite well. The midfield were playing in treacle by the end on Tuesday.
It’s a 50-50 call for me on Joe v Joel. Palace will have 2 weapons against us I feel. The first is pace and Joe wins there. The second is from set pieces where we have been fairly rubbish, Joel wins there.
Bobby does play well against this lot and he scores against them. Is it time for a re-call ? The other option is a complete wild-card, Ox or Curtis ? I think Diogo is still way-off in terms of fitness and touch.
I dream of another Everton or first 20 against Saudi. Seems like a lifetime ago but it wasn’t’. A win, any win, then we can get back to licking our wounds in peace.
What do you think ?
