Sheaf Saint

Just watching the goals back now... 1st - Our entire defence ball-watching and 3 Everton players left unmarked in the area. 2nd - Ridiculous challenge from Yoshida, was only ever going to go one way and we have a keeper that doesn't save penalties 3rd - Fonte switched off and allowed himself to be dispossessed when Everton had numbers forward. Good finish, but anything at Forster's near post seems to go in. Can anybody please exlpain to me how this is the manager's fault? The shape and tactics were OK today, what was lacking was any quality going forward to punish Everton when they looked vulnerable. Redmond is a total waste of space and can't score/create a single thing. Tadic has quality but is badly out of form right now Rodriguez didn't get much service and nearly scored a brillianbt indiviudal goal in the first half, but that was the extent of our goal threat. JWP and Clasie never offer anything in terms of attack Boufal only had 20 minutes and didn't get any decent service Long has the ball skills of a pub league player and is only effective when the opposition is playing a high defensive line, which Everton weren't all game, let alone after going ahead. Changes needed in the playing staff, but to sack the manager now would be a wrong move IMO.

Yeah of course, it's all Puel's fault that Fonte just switched off and gave the ball away so cheaply in our own 3rd. Muppet!

Can't blame Puel for this. It's not nhis tactics that have been lackign today, it has been our total inability to create any decent scoring opportunities let alone score from them. Redmond is an utter waste of space. Tadic has not been in form since returning from that nose injury, but we know he has quality when on form. Long has the touch of a JWP and Clasie work hard but offer no goal threat at all. And as I type, we let in another after Fonte gets caught dawdling with the ball in our own 3rd. Puel can only work with what he has got. The players have been nowhere near good enough today.

WTF was Yoshida thinking!? He was never going to win that ball without giving away a foul. Ridiculous. Everton have been utter sh*t today, and we have just surrendered a 2-0 lead to them now. F*cking pathetic display boys. F*cking pathetic!

FFS. Woeful defending to leave Valencia unmarked in there. Pathetic goal to concede.

Right now I would swap JWP for Boufal. Everton are woeful and there for the taking, but we need somebody who is more capable of creating chances than Ward-Prowse.

And for the umpteenth time this season, the opposition score from their first shot on target. It's getting depressingly frequent now.

Isn't it interesting that we don't look any less effective since Redmond was sent off.

From some maybe, but I thought he had a decent game overall at Stoke, just as he has on a few occasions recently. His overall play has been much, much better of late, and it was clear to me that the only thing missing from his game was goals. A few people were having a pop at his misses against Stoke and Boro, but neither of them were the simple tap-ins that people were making out, and the failure to score was more a result of the quality of the supply than J-Rod himself. I'm dead chuffed for him for yesterday. There have been times where I have found myself questioning if he would ever get back to his pre-ACL injury form, but recently he has been showing a lot of strength, desire and some really nice touches and ball skills. It has been obvious for a little while that he is the more likely answer to our striking problems than Shane 'Forrest Gump' Long and it is very gratifying to see that he has been able to repay the faith that Puel has put in him. Let's hope this is just the start of a rich vein of form for him.

Wasn't me making the comment

How can you give a FK and a yellow for high feet when the defender's head is that low to the ground FFS!?

Has it occurred to you that perhaps he was referring to Cedric's apparent ability to get injured on a regular basis?

:lol:

One scrappy chance that only came about due to a dodgy back-pass from JWP. They created absolutely nothing themselves in the entire 90 minutes, apart from one long-range shot in the second half that was never going to trouble Fraser. The idea that we were lucky not to lose is laughable.

Or perhaps he is just as frustrated as the rest of us at our lack of goals from open play this season, and was delighted to see our record signing rifle in a peach of a goal.

There was one moment in the first half last night where he had used a bit of skill to squeeze between two defenders. All he had to do was look up and run with the ball and he would have been clean through to a 1-on-1 with the keeper. But instead he just froze, like a rabbit in headlights, and allowed the defenders to re-group and block him off again. I fear that this isn't something that can be coached out of him.

Can everybody please drop this fallacy that Redmond was Mane's replacement? Boufal was Mane's replacement - Redmond was bought to replace Juanmi.

How about... **** off Monk?

Yep. I've been reserving judgment on him so far, but he was terrible tonight. It's clear he has quick feet and a bit of pace, but he dithers on the ball far too much and always makes the wrong decision, before shouting at his team-mates and blaming them for his indecision.

FFS - how is it his fault the club didn't buy a decent striker in the summer before he joined?

Why is VVD the only player who looks even remotely like scoring in the EL games?

Agreed. Fonte left Benteke completely unmarked for the third goal. Schoolboy stuff.

Palace have what we don't have - fast attacking players who know where the goal is. I didnt see the first half but from what I did see it wasn't an overall awful performance. It's just that the utter lack of quality in the final 3rd is really starting to hurt us now. Genuine question here - when was the last time we even scored after conceding first? I can't remember. It seems that as soon as we give the opposition a lead to protect, we just know we won't penetrate their defence. Losing away from home and needing a goal, and relying on Shane Sunday-League Long from the bench is never, ever going to produce the required result.

Given how we don't really have a first 11 any more, and how Puel manages to utilise the whole squad to field a team capable of competing against whoever we are playing, isn't it about time we renamed these build-up threads to the "see who can make the closest guess as to the starting 11 sweepstake" threads?

No worries there. The games are in January and we all know how useless he is in the winter months.