mrfahaji

That video of JWP sums it up pretty well - glimpses of a good player, certainly one who can make a nice pass and take an excellent free kick/corner. However, the fact that the video was padded out with nearly a minute of close ups, copious replays, and several clips of 5 yard passes suggests that the guy making the video needed a fair bit of filler to go with the killer. Perhaps a fitting tribute to JWP. As for the Beckham comparison, I counted 1, possibly 2 crosses from open play that resembled the sort of deliveries seen on the Beckham video. I'm sure Ward-Prowse has the attributes, but whether or not he can pull it all together and regularly produce the goods remains to be seen.

I wasn't defending the initial 5 minutes, just that he played an extra minute because we made a substitution in injury time once the 5 mins had been shown.

van Dijk, Romeu, Lemina, Gabbiadini, Bertrand, Tadic, Cedric, Hoedt, Boufal, Austin. The problem is, these 10 are based on players being best under certain conditions. Austin is very good at scoring goals, that's why he makes the list, but if we don't play to his strengths he wouldn't. Then if we played to his strengths, we might not be playing to, say, Gabbiadini's strengths. It's also a bit flawed in that if you have 5 defenders and 5 attackers, you're not going to play a 5-0-5. Although with that 10, you could feasibly play: Cedric van Dijk Hoedt Bertrand Boufal Romeu Lemina Tadic Gabbiadini Austin If not a 4-4-2, drop Gabbiadini back and make it a 4-5-1. Surely be overrun in midfield with Boufal, Tadic and Gabbiadini as our attacking midfield though.

That is quite an insane compilation. Funny how the scorers always run off in the opposite direction after they score, you'd think they'd at least acknowledge the pass! While there's no doubt JWP is capable of delivering a good ball, I don't see him being a prolific crosser - after all, this video only shows the goals from Beckham crosses, not all the near misses. Ward-Prowse delivers, what, one or two decent balls (non-FKs) a game? And by decent, I mean ones that put the defenders under pressure, the sort that the crowd applaud the effort, not necessarily ones that create a goalscoring opportunity.

We don't crumble, we just politely accept that we're going to lose 1 or 2 nil and play out the game accordingly.

Does he though? I'm wondering if he is actually that quick. He has quick feet, always looks 'nippy', and is certainly faster than Tadic, but how often does he cover the ground quickly in the way that Long does? Does he ever beat a defender hands down for pace? I have a feeling the stats mcbendy posted, although far from reliable evidence, also failed to show Redmond as one of the speediest in the squad.

The only thing I'd say about the ref criticism is that we deliberately waited until the injury time board had been put up before making our sub, presumably because it's a more effective way of eating into the time - I think the ref has to add a mandatory 30 seconds for a substitution in normal time? - and therefore if it was 'minimum of 5' plus a substitution, I certainly expected it to last a bit longer in reality.

I'm not sure they needed a lift after the way they've started, they would have been full of confidence anyway. It's going to be a tough game but I wonder if in actual fact the big win might help us, because a) it may help United to feel a little over-confident and b) it might sharpen our players' focus even more (though one would hope they would already be prepared to the max).

It's a welcome change from the norm tbh - in recent seasons (particularly last year) I think it has only taken 3 or 4 weeks for the top 5/6 to be the typical title contenders.

They were great saves, but also saves we are used to seeing him make - i.e. he makes himself big from close range and the ball hits him. The frustration most people have with him is how slow he is to move and get down to shots from distance. Palace looked to have picked up on that, Loftus-Cheek in particular placing shots from range along the ground in the corners. Fortunately they were slightly off target. So even though Forster definitely deserves credit for some crucial stops, I'm not sure how much evidence there was of 'being back to his old self' (not that his old self ever included being good at saving shots from distance).

Fine idea, but how is Boufal going to find some form if he doesn't play?

After seeing them completely outplay us last week at St Mary's, Watford were always going to be a stern test for Manchester City today.

Overall agree. I'd probably give both Redmond and Tadic a 7 for first half, but Redmond 5 and Tadic 6 in second. Lemina maybe a 9 to be honest, he was sublime both in and out of possession.

92 votes so far, 91 for Lemina. Not sure I've ever seen it so one-sided! I thought the single vote for Davis may have come from verlaine, but sadly not.

Lemina out-Romeu-ing Oriol today

Think it's a mistake to bring van Dijk on at 0-1. Hoedt & Yoshida both playing decently, and the other option is changing shape, which could backfire. I suppose it could help with any late aerial bombardment.

Game has opened up a bit but we're not taking advantage very well. Should be much quicker with counter attacks, looks like we're just happy to get it away from our goal. JWP won't help with that, but he might keep hold of the ball a bit better.

Alan Parry just said "Lemina was LEFT OUT in what proved to be Frank de Boer's last game as Palace manager against Watford. Sorry, I got a bit mixed up there, it was Ward-Prowse who was left out, the Palace man." 100% of that passage was wrong

Redmond frustrates me a lot, but they've both been decent today. Think Redmond is at his best when he is 'buzzing' around, coming inside, looking for the ball. When he stays wide he is quite one dimensional - slows things down but then doesn't ever find a cutting pass (at least Tadic stops and dallies because he is looking to eventually do something good). Palace haven't been great but vs Watford and this performance so far is like night and day. Shows that these players are capable of doing the right things with the right setup. Let's hope we can keep it going in the second half.

I think he will. The reason he didn't play against Watford was he'd just travelled back from Gabon.

I was thinking that - keeping them low as well.

Needed to be quicker from Redmond then. That being said, if Long bent his runs fractionally, he'd save himself from being caught offside when the ball isn't timed to perfection.

In other words, Shane Long is being Shane Long.

Long way to go yet but so far it has demonstrated how important it is to have a good defensive midfield partner for Romeu. Lemina is playing well, I don't recall Davis or JWP having such an influence from that position.

Can see how it might be if you read it as a p1ss-take post, but the danger on here is it's not always easy to tell them apart from the posts that appear to be genuinely taking a view... I thought ashnats was being serious to an extent, hence my comment. Apologies if it was just one big joke though, I missed it.