saintant

Poor tactical set up leading to much panic would be my guess'

Sounds like Diallo is playing well. Ralph should be making an early tactical change here.

So what is really happening? Are we ripping them apart with silky football or are our backs against the wall?

Not watching but comments indicate we are just waiting for them to score.. Early tactical switch might be needed rather than waiting for the inevitable.

This was my exact thought. A team with no pace rarely does well at this level. Think I'd have left AA in and put AMN at right back but let's see how it pans out. We'll need to pass and move very well without any pace up front if we are to trouble them.

Still prefer the ABK and Salisu partnership in a pair.

Agree, he's not the greatest full back but he does always put a shift in. Maybe we could identify him as a weakness and exploit that to our advantage.

We don't seem to be winning free kicks around the opposition box so JWP is not getting the chance to score goals. I think we need the likes of Stu Armstrong, Aribo and Edozie and others getting into these areas where they might draw fouls. So far we are not really working as much in these potential danger areas and, as a result, we are being deprived of opportunities for JWP to work his magic. I hope we can redress this somehow because we need his goals from set plays.

Not sure we have much of a pressing system these days or, if we do, it's much less high up the pitch so causes less problems for our opponents. I miss the high press but accept it was hard to maintain although with 5 subs maybe we could cope better.

Seems the Palace fans have a completely opposite view to Ralph. According to them they were unable to compete against Everton's low block in their last game. Their fans will probably fancy their chances if Ralph opts to press. Let's see who turns out to be right.

Still not convinced we'll see him until after the World Cup.

Not on the same level as them. They continually bleat that they never benefit from VAR decisions in their favour and reckon there is a conspiracy to make sure little old Bmuff get relegated as they don't belong in the big league.

Bmuff fans in melt down and are convinced there is a VAR conspiracy against them. They are working themselves into a right old frenzy.

Mike Dean innit!

Bournemouth are dire to be honest. Bit of tip tap football that nearly always leads to them creating nothing and giving the ball away. Think they'll be in the relegation shake up come the end of the season.

Just reading the Palace fans forum on their defeat to Everton and a lot of them are fairly critical of Vieira. Also they seem to feel their two fullbacks are poor and they don't have proper midfield players. Hope we can set up to take advantage of this. Their home record is good although their wins have all come against teams lower down the league and not in the best of form. We'll certainly need not to be intimidated in what is always a noisy stadium. Having said that we've done well there in recent seasons.

Agree but anyway it's good to see us being more aggressive and letting opponents know we'll go toe to toe and not back away from the fight. We can be far too passive but currently the likes of Lyanco, DCC and Perraud are getting stuck in. There'll probably be red cards and penalties along the way but as long as it's within reason I'd far rather that than us rolling over without battling.

Yeah, JWP has done it before but not sure he's on top of his game now and he'll need to be to contain Zaha.

If we could beat Palace that would be a massive result. Much will depend on how we handle Zaha. If we can keep him quiet then a win is possible. If he runs the game we'll struggle to come away with anything. We'll need to have a go at them because I don't reckon they are great defensively so hope we take the game to them as much as possible. A draw would be more than acceptable but 3 points would really help us going into matches against a strong Newcastle side and an unpredictable Liverpool.

Just watched the incident again on highlights and I wouldn't call it a headbutt. Both players faces were right up against one another in an aggressive manner but there was no movement by either to butt the opponent so a yellow card was fair punishment.

Next 3 look pretty tough but let's see how we go.

Agree that AA worked his socks off today and those hard yards are vital to the team. The only time I thought he let himself down was when he intercepted that loose pass and then didn't really make up his mind in a positive way and ended up giving it away with a careless touch. He should perhaps have oped to drive on and get a shot away or play in Aribo.

Very pleasing to see us score two excellent goals from open play this week where we took the ball out of defence and worked it forward with good running and intelligent passing. It just goes to show we can do it so the next step is to do it more regularly.

Where has this story come from?

Think he'd be good up top alongside Che from the start and will learn quickly that way rather than odd appearances as a sub. Get him in at the deep end cos I reckon he'll swim.