Hanshithispantz

Actually I've just read HTT's post again Obviously taking half of Palace's squad and just throwing them into ours would be a horrific idea like

It's hard to say who has the 'worst XI in the league' as you never have a clear picture (how much is Lascelles & Clark/Lejune's partnership down to ability, or Rafa's instruction for example) and many players are pretty much just interchangeable so saying X would play ahead of Y is meaningless as you could be saying the opposite a day later. The fact that we have an average of 43% possession whilst doing remarkably well is pretty telling like. It obviously isn't Benitez' m.o to so blatantly relinquish possession in almost every game like we are - to the point where Mark Hughes seemed to think he was Johan Cruyff when Stoke came here - he's doing it because he isn't confident we can control the game with the ball due to the pretty clear lack of quality. I just don't get how people can talk about a sides balance without taking into consideration that the only reason we look good is because Benitez has managed to sort us out. Put Mark Hughes in charge of this group of players and he wouldn't have a fucking clue what to do.

I'm pretty sure almost any side in the league would genuinely be looking at our best XI and be thinking of taking 3-4 at most.

Our team is only 'balanced' because Rafa has completely sorted us out like, it's the same as what has been said about Stoke and West Ham. Give them Rafa and he'd sort them out without drastically overhauling the squad. Palace have a fair few players who would improve us, no doubt about it.

His ability in the air is mental tbh. Outside of the 6ft 2ers he's probably the best player we have in the air somehow. (Defensively as you say, he probably isn't going to be thundering many into the top corner)

I just think he's shite at the role he has to play tbh. It goes for just about every striker that they're better with great support, but Joselu massively suffers without it from what we've seen. First 2 games or so he played he looked perfect for us but he seems to be getting further and further away from the rest of the team as the weeks have went on (not necessarily literally, but it feels like it). He's been completely anonymous since Stoke but there's definitely a handy player in there.

Really can’t see how anyone could come to the conclusion he ‘makes us better’ like.

There were signs of that last season like, where they looked pretty much unbeatable for stretches and then absolutely horrific in others.

Surprised by Huddersfield mentions like, I think they look a lot better than most sides do after promotion. I thought they'd be a bit like Blackpool of 2010 but I think they look a lot more solid as a team than they did.

The express have just made that up though. He's probably worth around £20m now though and he suits the way we play to a tee. We should have been all out to get him last January.

I'd take Townsend back straight away like.

Couldn’t pass, gave Palace several opportunities to break (which they couldn’t take), failed to tackle them, tried to foul them and he couldn’t even manage that I thought he misplaced a couple passes but other than that he seemed fine. He wasn’t great like and neither was anybody else, but when he came on I thought Shelvey noticibly was allowed forward on the ball more whether by instruction or not and we looked better.

How was he ‘fucking awful’?

Aye scissor from the side, almost identical to Kane's. Dangerous as out.

Don't start. In terms of on the ball play he makes Danny Simpson's passing from the back look like Dani Alves's. Injury wise I meant aye that makes sense now

Don't start. In terms of on the ball play he makes Danny Simpson's passing from the back look like Dani Alves's. I'm a massive defender of Paully D like, but aye, it's pretty clear what his limitations are

It was two teams with tactics that cancelled each other out and neither manager willing to take a risk to win it. Always going to be settled by a set piece. This tactics cancelling each other out stuff only goes so far like. Both teams were alarmingly poor on the ball. It was basically only Townsend and Zaha who looked like they'd kicked a ball before. Primarily because there was no space, due to how both teams were set up. I don't see what this tactical yin and yang craic has to do with Palace not having any strikers and Joselu being poor like. There was a lack of quality throughout both sides and it's highlighted best of all up front. When Townsend and Zaha got on the ball the game threatened to burst into life but that was about it. Have you been listening to a load of footy podcasts or something recently? No i don't do podcasts. That would be fine if Joselu had missed a load of chances but he barely had the ball in the final third, that wasn't all his doing, that was because of how the rest of the team failed to function. Ah aye I said as much myself a few pages back like. My original post is canny s**** reading back like, it wasn't meant to come across as blaming Joselu, was just a throwaway comment about how poor both squads are - although we can play much better than this, the lack of quality means it's never going to be consistent. It was in reaction to someone seeming to suggest that the game went to Rafa's plan which I don't think it did, I think he'd have been massively dissapointed with the performance of most had we not grabbed a pretty fortunate winner. Agree with that. Now go and read Inverting The Pyramid. I deserve that.

Pretty confident Rafa will go with Dummett like. Mbemba looks streets ahead of both like, he's surely injured, aye?

It was two teams with tactics that cancelled each other out and neither manager willing to take a risk to win it. Always going to be settled by a set piece. This tactics cancelling each other out stuff only goes so far like. Both teams were alarmingly poor on the ball. It was basically only Townsend and Zaha who looked like they'd kicked a ball before. Primarily because there was no space, due to how both teams were set up. I don't see what this tactical yin and yang craic has to do with Palace not having any strikers and Joselu being poor like. There was a lack of quality throughout both sides and it's highlighted best of all up front. When Townsend and Zaha got on the ball the game threatened to burst into life but that was about it. Have you been listening to a load of footy podcasts or something recently? No i don't do podcasts. That would be fine if Joselu had missed a load of chances but he barely had the ball in the final third, that wasn't all his doing, that was because of how the rest of the team failed to function. Ah aye I said as much myself a few pages back like. My original post is canny shite reading back like, it wasn't meant to come across as blaming Joselu, was just a throwaway comment about how poor both squads are - although we can play much better than this, the lack of quality means it's never going to be consistent. It was in reaction to someone seeming to suggest that the game went to Rafa's plan which I don't think it did, I think he'd have been massively dissapointed with the performance of most had we not grabbed a pretty fortunate winner.

It was two teams with tactics that cancelled each other out and neither manager willing to take a risk to win it. Always going to be settled by a set piece. This tactics cancelling each other out stuff only goes so far like. Both teams were alarmingly poor on the ball. It was basically only Townsend and Zaha who looked like they'd kicked a ball before. Primarily because there was no space, due to how both teams were set up. I don't see what this tactical yin and yang craic has to do with Palace not having any strikers and Joselu being poor like. There was a lack of quality throughout both sides and it's highlighted best of all up front. When Townsend and Zaha got on the ball the game threatened to burst into life but that was about it. Have you been listening to a load of footy podcasts or something recently?

It was two teams with tactics that cancelled each other out and neither manager willing to take a risk to win it. Always going to be settled by a set piece. This tactics cancelling each other out stuff only goes so far like. Both teams were alarmingly poor on the ball. It was basically only Townsend and Zaha who looked like they'd kicked a ball before.

Not that today's performance was on Joselu like, we were sloppy in midfield and did nowt to help him.

I don't think this was some Rafa masterclass like It was 2 teams with no strikers playing against against each other.

Without exaggeration the worst game of football I've ever seen.

Shelvey’s passing has been absolutely horrible like