vectraman

Especially as all the possession crap is meant to wear the opposition down and we pounce when they’re tired. Not working is it? Pointless passing for no gain whatsoever. Don’t get it and never will. Possession is pointless without purpose. Sigh.

Who is with Downes in midfield? We will get over run in there without big Les alongside. No muscle in there at all. oh well fingers crossed for a high possession jammy 1-0 win. As opposed to a high possession no shots on target 1-0 defeat…

We actually have a striker who has never been given a chance in Tall Paul. I’m sure if he’d been on the pitch last 20 mins v Forest he would have created a bit of confusion/chaos in their box. But no, not even on the bench. That to me is madness. Clearly RM doesn’t fancy him as he doesn’t fit the ‘system’ but if the system is we tippy tappy all around the area looking for a perfect through ball, and not crossing it, we are really going to struggle to score goals. I feel sorry for TP - he has scored goals, but never got a proper chance with us. I hope he starts tomorrow night v Cardiff and gets a decent runout.

In his second ever premier league match. He has never played at this level, and he may or may not be good enough. I believe he will be, but this is the problem with learning as you go. Sometimes you learn by being crap. Sometimes by being good. Fingers crossed he comes good. I think he will 🤞🤞

We need tall Paul in the middle. Good crosses no one to get in the end of them ☹️

We’ve been terrible and got away with it. Our turn to have a good second half and sneak a win out of this 🤞

He’s going to have to wait a while to be old enough to play walking football..

My heart: We defend with our lives and get to half time 0-0. SJP is getting anxious they can’t get a goal against us despite dominating. Second half sees a resolute backs to walls defensive masterclass, Lady Luck co on our side. Holding out at 0-0 until we get a rare foray into their half, BBD scores with our only on target shot and we win 1-0. 🤞 My head: We get caught in possession pissing about at the back. Gordon squares to Isak, 1-0 after 8 minutes. We carry on trying to play out. Keep getting caught out and ht it’s 3-0. Second half we try and tighten up but it’s too late. A kind Newcastle score 2 more for a comfy 5-0 win.

So we have signed 12 players (allegedly - I can’t think who they all are) but we will kick the season off with possibly only 2 new starters from last seasons side. BBD and Taylor. Yes, yes I get that we spent £35 million securing THB and Downes, but that means we have spent £22 million on another 10 players… Quantity over quality at its finest. Fingers crossed we get some quality loan signings in, else our shopping in Poundland will only end with one outcome sadly. 🤞 3 quality loan signings who are first team starters change the odds of survival a bit more in our favour…

Whilst I understand what you mean with the team spirit line, it didn’t help Burnley, Sheffield Utd or Luton stay up last season, and they must have also been on a high… I am not sure team spirit alone will stop us conceding 80 odd goals next season.

As a possession based team, what do we do against the really good possession based teams when we don’t have the ball? Eg half the prem teams…

Personally a good rubbing isn’t a bad outcome 😉

We had 7 games last season where we conceded 3 or more. Against top flight opposition defo 8 or more games we concede 3 or more.

Who tf is o’Neil??!!

God I hope not.

The reason we looked tighter in the play offs was McCarthy in goal. We stopped pissing about at the back playing tippy tappy crap and cleared the ball forwards because he’s not comfortable with the ball at his feet as Baz is. But he is better at stopping shots which is pretty critical as a keeper compared to Baz. If we revert to type and play tippy tappy ball out from the back we will get destroyed very often. If we play a more pragmatic style as we did in the play offs, we have a chance (albeit slim). It’ll be down to the manager how we go. As 4th best team in the championship we have an awful lot to do to be slightly competitive in the top flight. Burnley pissed the champ and were crap in the prem. trying to play pass it out football. If we try the pretty football route we will get absolutely destroyed. No question. Solid, resolute, quick break style is our only chance against probably 15 of the sides. Fingers crossed we have a pragmatic RM not an obstinate non flexible one…

Ryan Fraser was a proven premier league performer. This young Palace lad has played 120 mins in his entire career in the premier league over 6 appearances. Ryan Fraser also won’t cost the estimated £12 million being mentioned, far from it. We don’t need potential, we need starters, and he clearly isn’t. Yet. Assuming we really do have a tight budget, ~£12 million just doesn’t seem sensible. We must get a striker in who will cost big cash. That’s the priority to me.

Cole Palmer you beauty 👍

Saka, ffs take on the left back, you’ll beat him 😱

Let’s get Walking Kane off, Toney on and give the Swiss some Hassle. Kane has walked the entire match, won nothing in the air because he hasn’t jumped, and isn’t getting in scoring positions. Off you go Kane.

Sideways, sideways, backwards, sideways. Just for God’s sake be a bit daring and take them on down the wing. Saka should be roasting their left back. He’s got him beat every time. Just chooses not to take him on.

I agree, less sometimes is more. Sometimes it isn’t. For Clyne, Cuco Martinez. For Rodriguez, Juanmi. Cheap also isn’t necessarily a bargain. I’d be happy if we signed Elijah Adabayo from Luton to replace Che. 10 goals in 27 games last season. Will we? Who knows! Probably not. But that’s the type of player I’d be hoping to sign. For every Lavia we had Gunn, Bazunu, Charles, Larios…..(City can keep their crap keepers!)

Well if we are (allegedly) playing 3 centre backs, and two are Benarek and THB, which of stephens or the other two would be your 3rd cb then? In my nipper’s words, Stephens is a try hard, but not good enough, and the other 2? If our aim is to be a yoyo club, that’s fine. I get that. Financially it’s sensible. To get safe in the prem, you’d need to spend North of £100 million. Which we can’t allegedly afford. I don’t pretend to understand ffp, I’m interested in football not politics. Charlie Taylor I believe is a decent, sensible signing, assuming we have signed him. We need more, similar to him. Prem experienced and half decent. Not league 1 with potential, or championship knows the manager but crap last year. Cheap yes. Squad fillers? Yep. Better than we have? Probably not. Hence not improving the squad. We need to recruit first team starters, not squad fillers. They won’t keep us up. That’s recruitments job to select the right players. I genuinely can’t name anyone - I don’t play football manager, nor do I study obscure players in Norwegian/ Swedish/South American leagues. But I sure hope the club does…

There is no problem. We are assembling a squad ready to push for promotion in the 2025/26 season. Because we will be in the championship next season if that is our ambition and standard of signing. Two cbs with not a moment of prem experience between them, one from a crap Swansea team, who was also crap himself, and one from a league 1 side. They may be cheap, but buy cheap buy twice…..we never learn really. If we seriously think we will be playing out from the back and staying up I give you Burnley. Look at the Forest and Brentford squads. They are who we need to finish above. We won’t * yes I know we are in early July, and could sign some great players, but I get a cheap and cheerful vibe. Martin will be sacked after 10 games and 5 points. Then what with his team all signed? Yep, shoot me down for not believing, but I’m not seeing a prem team forming (yet).

If we do sign McCarthy on a deal, it may just keep us up. Not because he’s an amazing stopper, but because he isn’t a twinkle toes with the ball at his feet. Once Bazunu got injured we changed our style, stopped so many suicidal playing out from the back moves and became more variable, mixed up some long balls, less predictable. Playing tippy tippy pass out from the back every match in the top flight would see us get some huge beatings. Mixing it up might help our cause - we aren’t good enough playing Man City style with bottom 6 players. Burnley proved it doesn’t work last year. 🤞 we do sign a proper keeper rather than the same old same old, but I rather fear we are going cheap and not so cheerful. But better than Baz anyway. Bar obviously set very low here…