Match Thread: Crystal Palace v Liverpool

[Steveo]

Bradley looks like he is dire need of a huge Klopp hug, and an arm around his shoulder. slot isn’t that keen on his ability and IF we are honest this season hasn’t helped matter so far.

[sydenham red]

Also, I just have to call out Mo.
He got his contract extension, and other than the first game when he scored he's been mostly crap and non-existent this season.

Maybe he's just preparing us for January when he goes off for the Afcon, in which case why is he taking up space in the starting line-up?

He's been slow and ponderous, and while defenders have been zeroing in on him and putting early pressure on him, the occassions he's had the ball and space to do something with it, he's made terrible decisions gifting the ball back to the opposision.
In that first half it felt like Conor had no one to play with coming in from that right wing, and it's doubly frustrating in games like today against well-organized teams at the back, where some creatvity and guile is needed in breaking them down.

Slot so far has shown no balls with underperformers until way after HT. Drop salah,wirtz and konate from next starting lineup and go back to 4 3 3. Is that formation in his A4 folder?

Keeping the highest earning worst underperfomer on for 90 is shit for morale. I think he's away to Saudi in summer, we only extended the contract to get a fee

[teesred]

Bradley looks like he is dire need of a huge Klopp hug, and an arm around his shoulder. slot isn’t that keen on his ability and IF we are honest this season hasn’t helped matter so far.

Agree. He's looked vulnerable and he's always rash in his decisions. I'm not sold on Frimpong in terms of defending either.
Kerkez aside from his brain fart today has improved so I'm not overly concerned about him but Konate and the RB slot are causing us issues.
Macca clearly not right either in midfield.
We've got some issues that need sorting.
We can't keep playing as poorly as we are and expect to take points, I thought after the first half against Everton we'd clicked a bit but today was as bad as it's been, even when we had them under pressure we still looked very likely to conceded.

[jozza800]

I missed the game. What are the cliff notes?

[Gurthers]

I missed the game. What are the cliff notes?

Despite the vast outlay in the summer, we are now a much worse team.

[Nineteenx]

Despite the vast outlay in the summer, we are now a much worse team.

If it’s not broken don’t fix it

I don’t think the formation change does us any favours or the over passing having 2 inside/wide forwards mostly up has all kinds of advantages of a lone front man

[Jenson78]

After seeing highlights its unbelievable the only thing i see Salah do was blocking Doms on target shot. How ironic that their second goal was assisted by the very player Richard Hughes fucked about trying to get on the cheap. Now were probably get stuck with Brain fart Konate because no way will Madrid want him now, Surely theyre sign Guehi, will get him signed up in January and join them for free at end of the season.

[miller0863]

Knowing Palace’s physicality having played them 3 times, I did wonder about starting with two out of form midgets in MacAllister and Wirtz.

Keep saying it and will continue to do so, we need a wide forward, a 6 and a CB. We have no options to replace injured, out of form or over played players.

[justme]

Don't know whats happening with Mac Allister, he doesn't seem to be able to play 90 minutes anymore..And I would never start Wirtz on the left.. we have options in Ekitike as well as Gakpo.. Obviously the former wasn't available due to his stupidity.
Our fullbacks were terrible today.. Anyway i ain't to downhearted.. was never gonna be an easy game and they are on something like 18 unbeaten.. they'll take a lot of points of teams this season

[Crimson Dynasty]

Despite the vast outlay in the summer, we are now a much worse team.

In which sense?
We have the exact same number of points at this point in the season (15 after matchday 6) as we did this time last season- with one loss and 5 wins. Just like last year.
Unlike last year we haven't dropped any points yet at home at Anfield while last year we had already lost to Forest at Anfield a week prior after the international break then.

Granted we've conceded 5 more goals, but we've scored the exact same number as well, and while we haven't looked great in the games we've won, people seem to forget that in the early part of last season we also looked like crap, despite the wins we were pulling out of the fire - and were constantly saying we would eventually get found out and how unconvincing we looked even in our wins. Sound familiar?

In terms of the number of goals we've conceded and our overall form being terrible this season, the argument could be made that we're trying to integrate more new players into the team - with half our backline and 2/3rd's of our frontline completely new (counting Ekitkie as a starter in place of Gakpo and Isak being the other new striker).

And even if Arsenal win against Newcastle tomorrow, we'd still have a bigger lead over the second place team at this point than we did last season (2 point lead versus our on point lead over City and Arsenal last season.

Maybe that's a statement as to the idea that the entire league as a whole is worse than last season, but to the notion that we specifically are worse than last season, I just don't see it a the like-for-like comparison for the point at which we currently are versus the same point last season.

The major difference is that last year no one expected us to be challenging for the title much less to win it.
This year, whether we like it or not, we're the hunted. And the level of expectations are much much higher and elevated.

People seem to forget we also started terribly (or not playing so great either) last season and improved steadily, culminating in a consistent run into pre- and post-Christmas break period, that gave us a decent enough cushion at the top to ride out the inevitable slump that hit us as the season was drawing to a close and allowed us to wrap up the title with 4 games to go.

Personally I'd wait until there have been more games played before determining whether we're better or worse than last season.

We didn't have any new players to intergrate into the team last season (Chiesa, our only new addition, spent the majority of the season on the physio's bench), and hitting the ground running was a much easier prospect than it's turning out to be this year, while we still try to find the best combinations with the new players and with them trying to get into rythmn with their new teammates.

Let's see where we are after the next international break and whether any improvement and consistency has been attained before ruling this season a bust.

[Red October]

I would be inclined to limit the number of new players in the team until we play our way out of this.

Ali
Frim konate vvd kerkez/robbo
Grav mac
Szobo
Salah Ekitike chiesa

Would be tempted to play robbo just to bring more understanding. Too many players don't know each other. Too much change at the same time.

Frimpong has done okay.
Ekitike is in form as is chiesa. Play to our strengths and get a bit of consistency. Then introduce new players from the bench.

[Steveo]

Integrating too many new players in one hit is never easy, especially into a Premier League side with established chemistry. Last season's squad was incredibly settled - while playing largely the same starting 11 every game was a huge risk against injury and fatigue, its power lay in that consistent cohesion. Slot has mentioned this.

A major influx of talent disrupts the existing ecosystem. Trying to bed in several new regulars simultaneously can lead to stuttering performances and a prolonged 'settling-in' period an ambitious club simply can't afford.

This is why proper succession planning is the gold standard. Best done by evolution, not revolution, adding top-quality talent bit by bit. This allows one or two new players to integrate with the established core and take the reins naturally from aging veterans. This strategy ensures the squad's quality increases steadily while preserving the winning mentality (which in our case Klopp instilled) and crucial tactical familiarity that defines the team.

[miller0863]

That’s right because we want to EVOLVE not REVOLVE

[teesred]

Lat season despite not playing well in many games we regularly looked to be in control of games. That's not the case at the moment,we've rarely if at all looked in control.
New players like people mention are obviously a huge factor, the form of Konate is a big issue too. The back four looks completely unstable, only Virgil looks completely reliable.

[jimmyliver]

Knowing Palace’s physicality having played them 3 times, I did wonder about starting with two out of form midgets in MacAllister and Wirtz.

Keep saying it and will continue to do so, we need a wide forward, a 6 and a CB. We have no options to replace injured, out of form or over played players.

I came on this morning to say exactly this, after watching the highlights last night and what I said yesterday it was so important to match the physicality of palace , as good as the players are when fit and firing , McAllister and wirtz just haven’t got the physicality together , it’s one or the other for that game . Selling Diaz ( although he wanted out) was a big loss.
We need another midfielder in the grav mould , Endo and jones should of been moved on and others brought in , they are not good enough.
Forget wirtz , if we would of prioritised guehi, a 6 we would of pissed the league