Ill discipline and injuries. Second goal straight after the first. Again. Again. Pissed off at that. Really pissed off. I would have been annoyed with the draw but to lose is gut wrenching. Should be used to it, it's palace, they've done this to me for what feels like every season since I first went in 91/92. Exceptions being when we spoilt their promotion party, the boothroyd season and any year we've been in different divisions. Still no easier to take. Saturday is now must win.
So much to be annoyed about there, think we can forget about pushing on for the top 7. Firstly, that was a clear red card for Van Aanholt - you haven't been able to tackle like that since before the World Cup in 1994. But then, what a terrible mistake from Cleverley to slice the ball up in the air under no pressure at all. Fair play he tried to redeem himself and was knackered because he'd run himself into the ground but a very costly error from him. Carrillo doesn't really do much. He looks mildly threatening in 20 minute spells but nothing ever seems to come of it and he is definitely not someone you want next to you in the trenches. Our injuries and suspensions are leaving us threadbare now. Which leads us to our strikers. That was one of the worst performances I can remember from one of our centre forwards since we've been promoted. Deeney offered absolutely nothing. Ok, we accept that he's not going to run into the channels but continuously standing there and watching their centre backs head balls away whilst he offers no challenge is criminal. There was one occasion where we'd struggled to get out and Janmaat launched it high in the air to the halfway line and Deeney made no effort to challenge for it even though it was only a few yards away, allowing their player to bring it down and them to launch another attack. Gray came on, was completely hopeless and I don't think he kept the ball once. There is no way that Okaka wouldn't have offered more than both of them tonight. Whatever the problem with Okaka, Silva's stubbornness in freezing him out is now costing us points. Thought Doucoure and Cleverley were good but they are going to struggle to keep the levels of energy up over the next three to four weeks, even if Cleverley's now got a one game rest. So guess it's Capoue or Watson to come in. Chalobah and Hughes' injuries are really starting to cost us now. Hard to be upbeat really. We're not getting the rub of the green, we have massive injury and suspension problems, players are looking tired and we have loads of games coming up in quick succession.
Need a striker. We are basically playing with 10 men. Deeney was woeful and then a Gray comes on. I have never seen someone with such a bad first touch. We are relying on a bit of brilliance from Doucoure or Richarlison - cannot keep happening. We will not play a worse team this season
How about continue to attack? We are supposed to be an attacking team, so why play at the thing we're acknowledged to be be bad at - defending.
Oh no - my colours are mixed up, here is better graph - rejoice people we've never gone down with this many points... Still feels galling
Not one ******* braincell between the 11 players on the pitch today. Tactics are okay (other than the ******* Deeney hoofball) but the players can't tackle properly, can't pass five yards and can't finish their ******* dinner. Cleverley only player who can hold their head up after that. Put on a yellow by Janmaat's (who was ******* atrocious) constant giving away of the ball and then makes a stupid mistake. Seems the annual Christmas rot has begun.
It was obvious something had to be done on about 50 minutes, we'd given up control of the middle of the pitch, we weren't winning 2nd balls, Deeney was standing around... Imo we should have gone to a back 4, played Gray up top on his own, packed the middle of the pitch, played Mourinho anti football and killed the game Silva is not the star coach everyone thinks he is, he's a bit of a one trick pony
I don't want Marco Silva to talk about "moments", as much as I love this team and the best football I have seen since the EFL days, it is not acceptable how we have lacked "cojones" since the Arsenal game. Could've at least won 9 more points since. What is painful, aside from Burnley, we have always been the better side. I don't know what to say but at least we are not spoilers, we are entertainers..GT made us that way
Well that was horrible. Sorry for the inevitable repeats of points likely already made. We had to put that game to bed tonight. It had late equaliser written all over it the longer it went on. That we actually ended up losing was something special even for us. With the fun of the early season late winners and equalisers I had forgotten just how crushing these games can be. Everton was soul destroying. Tonight felt inevitable but still painful. The main issues haven't changed in what seems like ages. We need a better striker. (Also, surely we have to start Gray and bring on Deeney, not the other way round. At least Deeney has an impact; Gray really hasn't every time he's come on. To clarify: they are both really not very good but if either's going to cause an impact it's Deeney.) We are still really, really ill-disciplined. And that has been the case pretty much since the Pozzo takeover. We shouldn't be bringing on half injured players, surely. Kiko is very important for us, and he could be out for another few weeks for that. We need to strengthen at the back, because we have no great defenders. If we're going to progress, this is so important. Prodl is quite good. As is Britos but his lapses all too often cost us goals. Kabasele and Mariappa are doing surprisingly well, which in itself tells you that they aren't exactly great defenders. Once it's not surprising that they are competent a lot of the time, it's a different story. Also, what was that van Aanholt tackle all about? Really bad one, and came from nowhere. Very surprised he didn't get a red for it, especially with Zeegelar's tame challenge from the weekend fresh in my head.
Real hyperbole of the negative variety about our performance on here. It wasn't that bad, they barely had a chance for 86 minutes until we went down to 10 men. Game management was poor at the end. The fact that Cleverley's miskick on the edge of their area left us so exposed to a counter attack (causing him to foul) was a symptom of that. We should have had about 6 players behind him, not going all out for another goal at that time. But then most teams would be "hanging on" to a 1-0 lead away, when down to 10 men in the last few minutes and then Gomes let us down when he was needed, when he usually saves us. But the truth is, it is like we are playing with 10 men most of the game with Deeney being so totally ineffective. That just can't continue, we cannot keep relying on our wingers, our midfield and our full-backs to keep getting the goals and supplying the goal threat. We needed a second goal, yet apart from the Deeney blatant miss (and he found it hilarious), we offered so little else up front. He is surrounded by decent creative players, yet he cannot find any space for them. It is criminal that he continues to pick up his mega wages, week after week, nothing less. He does nothing apart from being good at penalties. He should be a sub, and only bring him on to take a penalty, then sub him off again. Oh well, 3 points with a makeshift team on Saturday, will be a treat.
Forgetting about the result and the performance, you really need to praise the space created by Gray tonight. He adds so much when we bring him on and we look a far more dangerous side. Those channels never saw it coming.
We will have virtually no (decent) fit players for winnable games. I can just about take losing 3-2 to everton from 2-0 up but not losing 2-1 to that bunch of ****s Am going to bed
Someone should show Silva the results since Deeney has replaced Gray up front. I'm not saying Gray himself is the answer to adding lots of goals but we were playing better and creating more chances when he was in the side earlier in the season. Can't put my finger on why but the stats don't lie.
Richarlison looks knackered and needs a rest We need Chalobah back Some say Deeney, some say Gray, I say neither are good enough What the hell is going on with our discipline Most of them are soft as f@£k...our injury list! Please let’s not have a second half season collapse
Just seen the second goal, we continuously fail to pick up midfielders from cut backs, one of the back three have to step out, it's the most common ball there is from the byline. Why am I even bothering, I had convinced myself we'd finish 7th and we've managed to chuck away about 10 points and done ourselves in. I need to detox from this, I never get annoyed anymore, but the combination of hope and how we've thrown away points has finished me off, I can't do it
9th in the Premier League. Carry on like this and we can forget about Europe. What on earth has happened to my club?
The State of our conditioning and recovery periods has been a joke for 2 seasons now. It is obvious the medical team has deep deep inadequacies. I am amazed the Pozzos haven’t tried to remedy this. It is abnormal.
I'm following the Mercury's liveblog of the post game conferences, and Hodgson really is the most reasonable/fair bloke in football. Much as I wanted him to lose with every fibre of my being tonight, perhaps he will avoid going down the Moyes route via the achievement of keeping those eagle ***** up.
I feel bad about feeling bad when I read things like this, but I believe in this team so much, and the manager, that this could be a rare chance to qualify for Europe, and we've had Chelsea, and then Everton, Burnley, and now Palace. We've lost the most points from winning positions in the league. Why us, why did I have to become hopeful. So ****.
Back on planet Earth, Holebas and Gray can **** off. I’d rather start with 9 men. Deeney wasn’t much better - that open goal miss was awful, and I’d even expect Gray to get the ball closer to the goal than that, with easy shot. So amateurish to let that game slip. Palace were awful. Cleverley didn’t need to take the player out, but Janmaat did. Basic idiocy and awful choices which has cost us again. What a sucker punch that one was, to lose to that shower of ****. Silva needs to sort us out, because any time the opposition attack we look incredibly fragile. Richarlison is now injured because he wasn’t rested when everybody thought he needed to be. We have no attacking threat. I literally cannot wait for the transfer window and Chalobah to return, as I don’t expect us to pick up a single point until then.
Richarlison is about to get his rest. He pulled his groin by the looks of it. We didn't take him off for tactical reasons. Looks like Watson, Capoue and Success are about to get unexpected chances. Hmmmm.
Most red cards in the Prem as well. 7 reds, so once again we're top of the disciplinary table. We don't seem to have that fight and mental toughness. We're throwing away too many games where we've been in control. That has to be down to mental toughness. You just don't see other teams do this as often as we do. 9 games is not a blip anymore. We've lost 6 of them.
I agree that in the main we all go way OTT when we lose and vica versa when we win. How we played is irrelevant in my opinion though. To lose from a winning position in the 89th minute to the bottom team is quite frankly unacceptable, regardless of whatever extenuating circumstances there may or may not be. If it’s not worthy of some major negativity I’m not sure what is.
Astonished you think that. To fly in at that speed in a tackle from behind, plant your studs into a standing leg and get none of the ball is a red card all day long. Had a quick look at the Palace forum and every single poster to comment on it says it was a red.
Why an earth do we have to dive into tackles in our opponents half? It really is ludicrous to have two players sent off for it in the space f a few days, Tom will be a miss but he got what he deserved as the tackle was just plain stupid and reckless. Deeney has to be gone either in January or the summer I really can't see how we can justify paying him 100k a week, we need a striker in January as we are currently a decent side playing with two championship level forwards. Richarlison looked knackered probably needs a rest.
Just remember: We're little old Watford, surviving in the Premier League, and just a few years ago we'd all have given our right arms to be losing games in this manner in this division. There. Doesn't that make you feel better?
