Crystal Palace v Aston Villa Saturday 22nd August 2015...3pm kick off.

If you look at our team critically, we have no ability to control games. There are just too many players of limited technical ability knocking around our first eleven.
Guzan - Clark - Gabby - Gestede all gift possession to the opposition with regularity.

I'm furious, I really am. I haven't been so angry at the Villa for a long time. Excluding my thorough dislike for Lambert and his tactic, that is. Sherwood fucked up and only Traore's excellent goal saved us from complete humiliation.

So the positives:

Traore - welcome to the Premier League! Really excited to see more of him.
Grealish - seems to have grown some balls, tires the opposition out, needs to keep his head and just needed more confidence with his shot
Sanchez - starting to come into his own a bit, still work to do but getting better
Richards - expect I'll be in the minority but other than when he got over-ambitious going foward I thought he was solid
Amavi - an error for the second goal but looked knackered by then, upto that point thought he had a very good game

And the negatives:
Guzan - made a couple of important saves but still far too much of a liability
Bacuna - poor attitude, plays himself and others into trouble
Agbonlahor - horrific
Clark - really dropped the ball today
Gestede - as with Richards above, might be slightly contentious but seemed to struggle, potentially as a result of being fed little to nothing of worth
Gana and Westwood - non-entities

Overall, it was a good game to watch but frustrating as owt as I really can see the potential but we're yet to see it really click into place - I can't say I'm surprised by this and remain positive (three games in after all) and Palace certainy looked like an efficient outfit after the break - I'd rather lose 2-1 to a team of Palace's quality than 4-3 to Bournemouth.

The reversed goal decision was absolutely spot on and credit to the officials for having the conviction to get behind it. I think all in all we were unlucky but didn't warrant more than a point. Tim has got a lot to think about.

FoxyAV wrote:I'm furious, I really am. I haven't been so angry at the Villa for a long time. Excluding my thorough dislike for Lambert and his tactic, that is. Sherwood fucked up and only Traore's excellent goal saved us from complete humiliation.

I am also angry in the way we just through it away, we were poor for most of the 2nd half but the draw would of been a decent result, to throw it away just by being naive really winds me up.

Some great points but I'm not sure I can agree that Westwood and Sanchez shouldn't play together. I think Sherwood's (or Wilkins) thinking is that we have a lot of creative options up front with Grealish, Gil, Traore, Gueye as well as a very attack minded Amavi. But Grealish, Gil, Traore aren't going to offer too much by way of defence (although Jack is starting to grow into that a bit more).

So you need some players who are willing to do the unglamorous and simple stuff. At least while you have players like Clark who is either epic or dodgy. And at the moment, he's not doing enough for my liking.

And, yes, kudos for the ref for reversing the original goal decision. Quite why he didn't reverse the other two though, is beyond me :)

Trotters wrote:Some great points but I'm not sure I can agree that Westwood and Sanchez shouldn't play together. I think Sherwood's (or Wilkins) thinking is that we have a lot of creative options up front with Grealish, Gil, Traore, Gueye as well as a very attack minded Amavi. But Grealish, Gil, Traore aren't going to offer too much by way of defence (although Jack is starting to grow into that a bit more).

So you need some players who are willing to do the unglamorous and simple stuff. At least while you have players like Clark who is either epic or dodgy. And at the moment, he's not doing enough for my liking.

And, yes, kudos for the ref for reversing the original goal decision. Quite why he didn't reverse the other two though, is beyond me :)

I'm not so sure. As pointed out earlier, Gueye was mostly anonymous and there was no one helping out Bacuna so by bringing in Sanchez we've taken two players/positions out of the match. Westwood and Gueye looked good for the first two matches and Sanchez worked really well as a substitute, to come on and take the wind out of the opposition's fresh attacking legs. If we'd gone on the attack from the go today and then brought on Sanchez when Pardew changed the game round would we have seen a different result? Should we really be reacting to the home manager's tactics, why should we go on the defensive and then when our defenders are knackered and making poor decisions and the opposition brings on fresh attacking legs we take off a defensive player and go on the attack ourselves?

We beat a Bournemouth team that just overran West Ham at home and only lost to ManU by a lucky deflection and an awful penalty decision. Those two matches, despite us not playing that well and not having the attacking players we rely on we can forget about, won one and lost (rather unfairly) the others. Sod us failing to beat ManU when they were at their weakest, they struggled against us while we were at our weakest. We have some great attacking players coming in/back and today Grealish and Traore played really well. So why screw with the defence (or rather the midfield ahead of the defence) that has done so well so far and scupper our chances?

Next match no Gabby and no 4-3-3 containing three defensive midfielders. Reinstate Westwood and Gueye next to each other and then let's have some fun with our attackers.

P.S. I'm still furious. Although I'm mostly furious that while Bournemouth has its airshow with the planes flying over all that sea they have down there, at Shoreham - also by the sea - they have old jet planes performaning tricks on land and over a very main road which is busy in summer, especially when there's an airshow on and now (at least) seven people are dead.

Right, just got home from the game via the pub where the palace fans were insufferable.
Gabby miseed two one on one opportunities that should be bread and buter for a top striker.
Guzan should have pumped the ball forward but instead chose to go short to Amavi when a palace player was bearing down on him.
We struggled with their pace down the wing.
Second balls were poor.
Our players lack intelligence.
Traore is going to learn he doesn't get time on the ball and positional space is key.
We were successful first half, especially down the left wing and getting behind their defence but didn't  do it enough.
Grealish, good but went sideways in the second half too often.
Puncheon and Gayle look good, I would buy them.
Guestede too predictable shares same space as Gabby
Gana good
Our players lack intelligence

Oh, Clark gets a yellow card every game, we are going to need cover.

Off-topic but I agree with you FoxyAV. I live in Shoreham & these days we get out of town for it - a tragedy waiting to happen.

Put the game in perspective but for what it's worth we really need an EPL experienced player.

Disappointed I just wish Gabby would put his chances away.

Basing this on motd highlights. Spent the day at the Safari park, avoided the result, sat down with a cider. We need a bloody centre forward, Gestede will play a part but please sign Austin, sell Gabby to Sutton Town and we'll be fine.
Traore is quick!

It's early days and I know it is 'work in progress' but I honestly think if we don't invest in a proven striker before the transfer deadline then I think we will really struggle again this season. The difference is there will be no Benteke to come back from injury and save us this time. But as I say , early days.

Thinman wrote:It's early days and I know it is 'work in progress' but I honestly think if we don't invest in a proven striker before the transfer deadline then I think we will really struggle again this season. The difference is there will be no Benteke to come back from injury and save us this time. But as I say , early days.

Ayew and Gestede could still come good and who knows what's wrong with Kozak but yes, I agree with you and keep thinking we need an Austin bloody quickly. But then Grealish and Traore are right behind Sanchez in the MOTM poll and Gil isn't back playing yet. We will get better, we will start scoring goals, Traore and all the rest will start providing balls for our strikers. I can't help think a gambling man would look at the cost of Austin over, say, three years and the amount of money we'd lose if we fell out of the PL due to lack of goals and spend that money in a flash. We literally can't afford to screw around anymore.

Firstly let's not forget - this is a good Palace side, that will cause problems for a lot of teams this season. We, on the other hand, are still very much finding our feet - both the new players to this league and as a team.

We nullified Palace in the first half, struggled at the beginning of the second after Pardew changed it up but after we equalised it didn't feel like we'd concede again - and Traore was scaring the shit out of them. All in all (the disaster of the second goal aside) a good, solid performance against tough opposition.

That said we still look toothless and give possession away far too cheaply in the final third.

The only reason you can think for playing Gabby is for the experience he brings (unless Sherwood has been hoping that he does something that lures some mug in to buy him - if that's the case it's bloody backfired) - he really has to go.

I'd love us to bring in top notch goalkeeper - Guzan was a fault for the second goal and if he doesn't instill confidence in the supporters you know the same can be said for the defense. Lescott, if we can land him, will add some much needed experience, positional sense and organisation and we really need a top notch finisher - Austin brings that and he links play up well too so would seem like the obvious choice...and a bloody good right back would be useful too.

Having said all that - more than anything we need a proven goal scorer...sort it out Tim.

Like many am quite concerned about our strikers, I think Gestede may get a few from set pieces and the like but he seems to be a bit too easily nullified at present and Gabby cannot finish. So regardless of how many chances we create i cannot see us putting enough away as things stand

I get the feeling TS is on board with the need for another striker. He has commented a few times now on lack of cutting edge and doesn't seem to think that Kozak is the answer.

Gestade looks Championship at the moment. I'm not knocking the lad as I think he will take time, but will develope into a premiership player. Similar with Ayew, he needs time to learn and adapt to this league.

The obvious choice is Austin, but nobody has really made a move, except for Norwich, who if reports are correct have had £14m bid knocked back. Is that by QPR or the player? I really don't know if we are after Austin and both sides are playing hardball and seeing who blinks first at the end of the window, or we have other plans if any at all.

After reading comments by Kenny Jacket about him trying to use Afobe as a goal scoring number 10, I think he sounds just what we need. The big questions being can he make the step up and can we get him?