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Palace 0-2 Saints. Wild celebration reaction thread.


Shroppie

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Shane Long managed to pass the ball to the keeper after a nice little through ball

 

Cant fault Shane's effort but he is no regular goalscorer

 

I find it incredible that a striker at the top level of football is as bad as he is at finishing. The problem seems to be worse if he has time to think about what he is going to do as per that chance where he had time to take a touch and could have picked his spot left or right but ended up commiting that shocking pass back to their keeper. Also the incident where he was basically one on one with him (the keeper) and bizarrely chose to slow down instead of speed past him. Contrast that with the Wolves goal, cross - head - goal.

 

Despite all that I still like the guy, he's always making a nuisance of himself, and the fact he keeps returning to the starting 11 kind of proves that he is very good at everything apart from scoring.

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Just watched the highlights and something I never noticed in real time was the way Hojbjerg just walks away with his head down after Palace missed from the Vest mistake. Not a fan of his at the best of times but I’d want to see my captain giving Vest a good bollocking for making that stupid mistake. Noticed it from McCarthy a few times too, never seems to get angry when someone drops him in the ****.

 

So glad we had a game tonight after Saturday, didn’t give us time to dwell on what went wrong and now it’s out of our system. Free hit on Saturday now with no league implications.

 

Perhaps they have a better mentality than that which has led to the superb camaraderie of the team; we win together, we lose together, we make mistakes together and we succeed together.

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I find it incredible that a striker at the top level of football is as bad as he is at finishing. The problem seems to be worse if he has time to think about what he is going to do as per that chance where he had time to take a touch and could have picked his spot left or right but ended up commiting that shocking pass back to their keeper. Also the incident where he was basically one on one with him (the keeper) and bizarrely chose to slow down instead of speed past him. Contrast that with the Wolves goal, cross - head - goal.

 

Despite all that I still like the guy, he's always making a nuisance of himself, and the fact he keeps returning to the starting 11 kind of proves that he is very good at everything apart from scoring.

 

Best at winning aerial duels in the PL apparently, the Athletic calls him our 'glue man', doesn't get the flashy statistics but is important to the way we play and creates chances for others with his heading, closing down, running off the ball etc.

 

He's basically a bit like Heskey I suppose, everyone could see what he brought to the team and how he helped others perform, but then at the end of the day he is a striker and chances fall to him, he doesn't take those chances and in other games that is going to cost us.

 

It will be interesting to see if he gets a new contract. Apparently a very well liked figure at the club and very influential off the pitch as well.

 

Really we need to find a Shane Long type player that can take the odd chance as well.

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I'm elated. Superb effort for the entire ninety minutes. Total team performance. Great work from Bertrand, Stephens, Redmond, Ward-Prowse, and Armstrong.

Hope to see this continue.

 

Quite magnificent. And good to know that by resting key players Ralph has a cup run in his sights as well as a good league position. Unlike Koeman.

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Best at winning aerial duels in the PL apparently, the Athletic calls him our 'glue man', doesn't get the flashy statistics but is important to the way we play and creates chances for others with his heading, closing down, running off the ball etc.

 

He's basically a bit like Heskey I suppose, everyone could see what he brought to the team and how he helped others perform, but then at the end of the day he is a striker and chances fall to him, he doesn't take those chances and in other games that is going to cost us.

 

It will be interesting to see if he gets a new contract. Apparently a very well liked figure at the club and very influential off the pitch as well.

 

Really we need to find a Shane Long type player that can take the odd chance as well.

 

Read that yesterday, it was a good article. Really emphasised how good his all round team play is. It mentioned that despite not being the tallest around he has won more aeriel duels per 90 minutes than any other PL player this season.

 

If only he was a natural finisher as well, he'd probably be up there among the best attacking players in the league.

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I find it incredible that a striker at the top level of football is as bad as he is at finishing. The problem seems to be worse if he has time to think about what he is going to do as per that chance where he had time to take a touch and could have picked his spot left or right but ended up commiting that shocking pass back to their keeper. Also the incident where he was basically one on one with him (the keeper) and bizarrely chose to slow down instead of speed past him. Contrast that with the Wolves goal, cross - head - goal.

 

Despite all that I still like the guy, he's always making a nuisance of himself, and the fact he keeps returning to the starting 11 kind of proves that he is very good at everything apart from scoring.

 

I like him too and think he’s well worth his place. Perhaps we should just stop calling him a striker.

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I like him too and think he’s well worth his place. Perhaps we should just stop calling him a striker.

 

He is, as someone else said, a nuisance. Much more than a striker. And he's our nuisance. Defends from the front, causes oppositions to hurry up and make mistakes. But a finisher he is not. Give him a new contract.

PS son says he's fastest in the league. Not sure

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He is, as someone else said, a nuisance. Much more than a striker. And he's our nuisance. Defends from the front, causes oppositions to hurry up and make mistakes. But a finisher he is not. Give him a new contract.

PS son says he's fastest in the league. Not sure

I'm almost ALMOST ready to say, he's been worth the fee we paid for him. As long as he's played with people who can score he's a useful addition to the team. He is a useless finisher though, he's a bit like a much fitter version of how I play football.
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He is, as someone else said, a nuisance. Much more than a striker. And he's our nuisance. Defends from the front, causes oppositions to hurry up and make mistakes. But a finisher he is not. Give him a new contract.

PS son says he's fastest in the league. Not sure

I have always said that I would rather have him playing for us rather than against us....

 

Sent from my SM-G975F using Tapatalk

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Knew we’d win because I spent the whole evening too violently ill to care. If anyone is looking for a good ab work out, I’d recommend the norovirus.

 

Equally - if anyone wants to lose some of that Christmas flab, go to India....a bout of amoebic dysentry and I was down to 8 stone!

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Quite magnificent. And good to know that by resting key players Ralph has a cup run in his sights as well as a good league position. Unlike Koeman.
I'm not sure Ings was rested for the Cup. Think this was too soon for him after Saturday, when I thought he looked a bit jaded later on.

 

I expect to see him on the bench again.

 

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I'm almost ALMOST ready to say, he's been worth the fee we paid for him. As long as he's played with people who can score he's a useful addition to the team. He is a useless finisher though, he's a bit like a much fitter version of how I play football.

 

He is to Danny Ings what Brett Ormerod was to James Beattie. A perfect foil. Never gonna score many goals but is a constant thorn in the side of defenders which creates space for the natural finisher to do his job.

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Fantastic result. Brilliant recovery from the players after the massive disappointment of the Wolves game.

 

Now up to 3rd in the form table (last six games):

https://www.soccerstats.com/formtable.asp?league=england

 

Also fascinating looking at our home/away form. 20th in home form but now up to 5th in away form. Of course our home form is skewed a little bit by the 9-0 result, but we've won 6 out of 12 away from home. If we finish with 9 or 10 away wins this season that will be some effort!

https://www.soccerstats.com/homeaway.asp?league=england

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Fantastic. To think some on here already had us losing three in a row and being back in a relegation fight. 3 points off 5th. What a turn around. Give Ralph that new contract now!!

 

This is right. If we had held on and beaten Wolves, we would have 34 points, level with Man U. Crazy league. 3 months ago, we were certs for relegation.

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Another great performance last night, particularly from JWP and Armstrong.

 

Looking back at the Wolves game, we were victims of our own success a bit. Cedric and Armstrong kept Troaore quiet, so he switched sides, where Redders and Bertrand did the same. Hence the half time switch up front .

 

In hindsight, maybe we should have brought on Romeu to shield the CBs. or maybe told Bertrand to stick on him and let Redmond look after Doherty.

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That was a cracking result. Lovely to see shots either going in or having to be saved rather than going over the top. We need that regularly as it will probably be noted and teams will be more wary of backing off leaving space behind to exploit.

 

That was the way to increase possession statistic by playing in the opponents half, quick passing, decisive running, high tempo and pressing in numbers. Only Vestergaard was still playing square balls to Stephens in our half. Old habits etc. Stephens was hopeless defending in the second half against Wolves but stepped it up last night and led the way with his penetrating through balls to the front runners. Passing around our own half is a waste of time. I have come to the concusion that possession/passes should only be measured into the opponents half and in the opponents half. that would be a much better reflection on the game.

 

We could play that game against any sitting side at SMS, Palace were quite defensive and we pulled them apart because of the speed of our play. Dispensing with the passing around the back five often instigated by little pass outs from Macarthy has paid dividends. The keeper kicking often puts the ball into danger areas that troubles defenders and eliminates defensive problems for us.

Edited by derry
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Brilliant performance. I'd give JWP MOTM for shifting to right back against Zaha and absolutely dominating him. Who'd have thought he'd grow to be our hard tackling hatchet man (after Romeu). The only time he got skinned, he tracked Zaha for half the pitch and flattened him with a perfect challenge, setting up a counter attack. Brilliant.

 

Armstrong, Redmond and Bertrand absolutely brilliant.

 

Weird performance from Palace, they just stood off and let us play. Not saying we didn't play brilliantly but they played into our hands. For a short spell they tried to press us into mistakes and we still look a bit dodgy when facing our own goal but they didn't keep it up for long.

 

Biggest criticism is that we didn't bury them, and even at 2-0 with 20 to go you still wonder if we're going to shoot oursleves in the foot. 4-0 wouldn't have been an unfair result.

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Superb result. With Bednarek out and Vestergaard in, I feared the worst but thankfully we didn't need to rely on Long's finishing (he works hard and I like the guy but Kammi summed up well his biggest frailty, his finishing, not ideal for a striker! LOL) and, luckily Tosan suffers a similar affliction for Palace so Vestergaard got let off but he should not be starting in this league. He's a liability. Every match. In PL terms, what is 9m for a CB? Nothing. A Romeu or Soares transfer (which we can't do this season but adds perspective). Surely Pongracic would have been a steal to replace Vestergaard as he really does seem able and anything is an improvement on this carthorse?! Time will tell for Wolfsburg but we surely get the occasional scouting project correct.

 

Not putting a negative slur on a great result but the board should learn, we desperately still need an injection of quality but each time we win, I fear the further from the much needed strengthening we drift. Still, up to 9th which is superb. Even Bournemouth won. If we had beat Wolves, we could have been 7th (crazy season)

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Superb result. With Bednarek out and Vestergaard in, I feared the worst but thankfully we didn't need to rely on Long's finishing (he works hard and I like the guy but Kammi summed up well his biggest frailty, his finishing, not ideal for a striker! LOL) and, luckily Tosan suffers a similar affliction for Palace so Vestergaard got let off but he should not be starting in this league. He's a liability. Every match. In PL terms, what is 9m for a CB? Nothing. A Romeu or Soares transfer (which we can't do this season but adds perspective). Surely Pongracic would have been a steal to replace Vestergaard as he really does seem able and anything is an improvement on this carthorse?! Time will tell for Wolfsburg but we surely get the occasional scouting project correct.

 

Not putting a negative slur on a great result but the board should learn, we desperately still need an injection of quality but each time we win, I fear the further from the much needed strengthening we drift. Still, up to 9th which is superb. Even Bournemouth won. If we had beat Wolves, we could have been 7th (crazy season)

 

Long's almost like a defensive midfielder that happens to play further up the pitch now. You're not playing him because you're expecting him to score a load of goals, but because the work he puts in helps the team massively.

 

That said, I'm sure he'd be the first to say he'd expect himself to be scoring more often than he does.

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A cracking evening out and as professional an away performance as I've seen for quite some time. I thought the whole team played their part and yes there was the odd mistake. Vestergaard got caught trying to play the ball out and we got away with it but that was his only real mistake. He looked comfortable alongside Stephens who I thought was outstanding again. It wasn't long ago that Stephens was being slated and look how he's improved. Vestergaard could do the same when playing in a confident team. A great performance capped off with two cracking goals. Bring on Liverpool!!

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Superb result. With Bednarek out and Vestergaard in, I feared the worst but thankfully we didn't need to rely on Long's finishing (he works hard and I like the guy but Kammi summed up well his biggest frailty, his finishing, not ideal for a striker! LOL) and, luckily Tosan suffers a similar affliction for Palace so Vestergaard got let off but he should not be starting in this league. He's a liability. Every match. In PL terms, what is 9m for a CB? Nothing. A Romeu or Soares transfer (which we can't do this season but adds perspective). Surely Pongracic would have been a steal to replace Vestergaard as he really does seem able and anything is an improvement on this carthorse?! Time will tell for Wolfsburg but we surely get the occasional scouting project correct.

 

Not putting a negative slur on a great result but the board should learn, we desperately still need an injection of quality but each time we win, I fear the further from the much needed strengthening we drift. Still, up to 9th which is superb. Even Bournemouth won. If we had beat Wolves, we could have been 7th (crazy season)

 

In all fairness to Vestergaard, following that early giveaway he didn't really put a foot wrong. But then, he wasn't really exposed as Palace were mostly woeful in our half all evening.

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I’ve always though Shane Long was a great player, always a real handful, chases balls down, leaps like a salmon... if he put away even 50% of the chances that come to him, he would be a top top striker.... and probably not playing for us

I think we get the best from him tbh... love the guy....

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I did feel sorry for Long, he dosen't get many great chances for all the effort he puts in week in week out, and you could see the frustration and anger after his tame effort straight at the keeper. He was trying to do the right thing, a side foot to the corner but didn't catch it right and it looked a horrible miss. Balance that with the great header v Wolves, and the deft finish v Hudds (albeit disallowed for a marginal offside) and I wouldn't say he can't finish.

Redmond got his wonder goal, he's been threatening that for a while (similar effort v Wolves hit the bar), want to see more of that from him. He has the skill to create the yard of space needed to get shots away.

Great reaction from the team, even after a setback they have the belief and confidence to bounce back now.

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He was trying to do the right thing, a side foot to the corner but didn't catch it right and it looked a horrible miss.

 

It's easy to do when you are low on confidence, you try to curl it into the corner but get bad contact and heel the ball rather than wrap your instep around it.

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Our record at Palace must be our best in the league. I’ve been about 10 times and can only remember us losing a few years back when Forster had a nightmare.

 

Same - can only remember that Forster game when didn’t get anything. Even then score flattered them.

 

Mind they probably think same about St Mary’s

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Best that I have seen Saints play in a very long time. Totally bossed the game. Would have to go back to the League Cup semis and final in 2017 for a similar level of performance in my view - and they were not in keeping with how we had been playing in the League that season.

 

Just a pity that there weren't a few more of us to enjoy it. The block next to us was not very full.

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That was a cracking result. Lovely to see shots either going in or having to be saved rather than going over the top. We need that regularly as it will probably be noted and teams will be more wary of backing off leaving space behind to exploit.

 

That was the way to increase possession statistic by playing in the opponents half, quick passing, decisive running, high tempo and pressing in numbers. Only Vestergaard was still playing square balls to Stephens in our half. Old habits etc. Stephens was hopeless defending in the second half against Wolves but stepped it up last night and led the way with his penetrating through balls to the front runners. Passing around our own half is a waste of time. I have come to the concusion that possession/passes should only be measured into the opponents half and in the opponents half. that would be a much better reflection on the game.

 

We could play that game against any sitting side at SMS, Palace were quite defensive and we pulled them apart because of the speed of our play. Dispensing with the passing around the back five often instigated by little pass outs from Macarthy has paid dividends. The keeper kicking often puts the ball into danger areas that troubles defenders and eliminates defensive problems for us.

 

I totally agree. If Vestergaard and, to some degree, Bednarek, start to make vertical passes only, the game will be even more accelerated. But Bednarek improved already markedly compared to the beginning of the season. It is not only the presence and the passes in the opponents# half, it is also the ambition to make a goal fast after winning the ball.

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Our record at Palace must be our best in the league. I’ve been about 10 times and can only remember us losing a few years back when Forster had a nightmare.

I can remember a recentish one - Slug and Lettuce Clapham ran out of Doom Bar before midday - got to my seat to find my view was so poor that I couldn’t see a wedge of the pitch from the halfway line to the goal post - and we lost 1-0 to a spawny goal that Gazza had no chance of saving (he played well) on a dirty drizzly swirling windy afternoon.

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I can remember a recentish one - Slug and Lettuce Clapham ran out of Doom Bar before midday - got to my seat to find my view was so poor that I couldn’t see a wedge of the pitch from the halfway line to the goal post - and we lost 1-0 to a spawny goal that Gazza had no chance of saving (he played well) on a dirty drizzly swirling windy afternoon.

 

I remember that one well.

 

Don't forget we did pretty well there in the Championship. Lambert muscled in and out jumped Clyne when we won there in our promotion season.

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I remember that one well.

 

Don't forget we did pretty well there in the Championship. Lambert muscled in and out jumped Clyne when we won there in our promotion season.

We had the whole side stand for that game - the locals were up in arms about our generous allocation - Steve Parish their chairman was a poster on their version of SaintsWeb and he pointed out something along the lines of by giving us such a huge allocation we pretty much financed their academy for the next couple of years - seeing as he had on recently stepped in to save them from administration- the majority went “oh Ok”.

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We're up there challenging for Europe despite our home form, but I get your point.

 

(If our home form was as good as our away form we'd actually be challenging for a Champions League spot!)

 

But do we really want Europe, was that not the start of our demise, buying in a squad of average players on inflated wages....I stand to be corrected. That said, the primary function of any team, is to be the best you can, I'd settle for top six.

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But do we really want Europe, was that not the start of our demise, buying in a squad of average players on inflated wages....I stand to be corrected. That said, the primary function of any team, is to be the best you can, I'd settle for top six.

 

No. The start of our demise was the obese Paris Hilton ousting Cortese and letting her incompetent minion Les run the show.

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But do we really want Europe, was that not the start of our demise, buying in a squad of average players on inflated wages....I stand to be corrected. That said, the primary function of any team, is to be the best you can, I'd settle for top six.

 

I'm not sure we did that when we qualified for Europe, really. We bought in a couple of fillers like Martina but I don't think we bloated the squad, we just replaced the big players badly and for some reason we marginalised Fonte.

 

Puel had to make do with KD in goal, Stephens and Yoshida at the back because we didn't replace VVD, cheapo Charlie up front because we didn't replace Pelle etc.

 

As everyone knows, we wasted loads of money on signings that contributed naff all (Hoedt, Carillo, Elyonnousi, Lemina etc.). It wasn't a volume problem, just poor selection.

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We had the whole side stand for that game - the locals were up in arms about our generous allocation - Steve Parish their chairman was a poster on their version of SaintsWeb and he pointed out something along the lines of by giving us such a huge allocation we pretty much financed their academy for the next couple of years - seeing as he had on recently stepped in to save them from administration- the majority went “oh Ok”.

 

You're right, their chairman did post on there, I remember that from when we went there in the Championship on a Bank Holiday Monday. We'd quickly sold out the 6,000 or so tickets and he wanted to give us another 3,000 to entirely fill the stand but the Met wouldn't allow them and made them leave the seats empty. But I think many of their fans were happy to see us get them as their ground was only ever half-full back then so could see the benefits of the extra revenue.

 

Don't know if this link will work, at best you'll read only 3 pages before it locks you out without signing up for membership

 

https://www.cpfc.org/forums/showthread.php?t=231857&page=13

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I'm sure they said during Comms that we have only lost at palace once in 10 prem meetings.

Twice, we lost in consecutive years, 1-0 and 3-0. The 3-0 was the Forster air kick game, the first PL defeat there was a Yohan Cabaye goal from distance.

 

Palace are the team we have the most PL away wins against, with 6. Selhurst is obviously our favourite away ground, having also won there 5 times when Wimbledon were playing home games there.

 

We only have two grounds where we have a 100% record in the PL era: Bradford City (2 from 2) and Reading (1 from 1).

 

We have 5 grounds where we have lost every PL visit: Barnsley (1), Birmingham (3), Oldham (2), Portsmouth (2) and Swindon (1)

 

Plus a load of others where we've not won in the PL era: Arsenal (21 :lol: ), Burnley (5), Charlton (6), Derby (6), Wigan (1)

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