Back from the game - Palace

[genome]

No idea where to put this, but did anyone else see Steve Parish's Ferrari in the car park?

[Lower West]

What has BM done to Norwood? Since he moved him to allow Hector in he has look awful. Sort it out Brian as to constantly keep subbing him is not the answer.

The change of position has showed Norwood's limitations up very clearly. Lacks any pace and has zero ability to go past players. Frank assessment is that he doesn't fit the style of play.

[Bristol Paul]

Watched from the TV, definately a penalty, Cooper grabbed at him and if it had been the other way we'd have all said it was a penalty. Was quite soft though, and worse thing is that he wouldn't have got to the ball anyway in my opinion. Cooper overall has been great this season, but is rash around the box. Penalty given away last week v Fulham, penalty this week, not good.

Overall, Palace easily deserved the win. Yes we were holding them, but we hardly attacked and they had countless opportunities, although not too many clear cut. Ratings, for what they are worth:

Al Habsi - 9, thought he was excellent
Gunter - 6, ok but lacks composure
Obita - 4, touch and passing ability really poor. Can't see him ever playing above Championship level
Cooper - 6, apart from penalty thought he was pretty good
McShane - 8, everywhere, class player
Hector - 7, solid and composed.
Norwood - 4, dogshit, gone completely off the ball and deserves dropping
Ola - 7, good, but didnt get the ball enough
HRK - 3, was he on the pitch?
Cox - 7, thought he did well considering how difficult a role he was asked to play
Quinn - 6, good at times but not in the game enough for me

I don't know what it is with this team, good on paper as individuals but hit and miss as a team. My view is that it needs more "journeymen", unspectacular players but solid is this division, some Premier experience. People like Leigetwood, Murray, who are consistent and enable the "flair" players to do their stuff.

[genome]

HRK - 3, was he on the pitch?

Yes, he was involved numerous times

[IceIceGylfi]

Obita's short passing was dreadful.

Who was it that pinged that inch perfect ball to Vydra? Quinn? That was a thing of beauty.

Na, Norwood.

Probably the only good thing he did all evening..

[Dr_Hfuhruhurr]

^^^ Crikey Ian, you saw Hector and Norwood's performances very differently from me

Hector lacked composure all game. But he's clearly turned into a quality player and he wasnt actually that bad last night.

Norwood, however... Used to think he was the weakest link formation wise, but he's beginning to look the weakest player as well now (when Denniss isnt on the pitch). Norwood is the type of player who plays better against the weaker teams, which suggests he's limited. Brian must swop him for Williams soon, surely. Maybe Norwood impresses in training.

For a game against good opposition and where we had absolutely no forwards, I thought it was a pretty decent game of football. I mean the limitations are there to be seen, but there were some decent performances. Liked Cooper, despite the red card. And although Ola is now quite clearly showboating, he's an awful lot more fun that some of our other players. Didnt think anybody really played particularly badly to merit attention.

Less said about the penalty, the better.

[Snowball136]

Obita's short passing was dreadful.

Who was it that pinged that inch perfect ball to Vydra? Quinn? That was a thing of beauty.

Na, Norwood.

Probably the only good thing he did all evening..

Apart from 2 or 3 goal-line clearances?

[Huckleberry Hound]

That was too tense to be enjoyable.

Norwood - a couple of outstanding passes (one referenced above) aside, his distribution & set pieces were poor.

Hector - even worse. Never seemed to get to grips with the pace of the game. Deserved his booking for underhitting a pass then pulling their guy back.

Al-Habsi - superb. Deserved to earn us a replay.

Ref - beady-eyed c0ckwomble.

[Huckleberry Hound]

And the "fans" who left when it was still 0-0, why even bother turning up?

[Winston Smith]

I didn't think Hector was as bad as some are making out on here. I do prefer midfield Hector to Defender Hector.

Zaha looked quick and tricky but considering he failed time and again when up against Obita, who I think is our weakest link, I think it shows he is all style over substance. He is the football equivalent of them modern day x factor warblers who think they need to show their full vocal range on every single note rather than just delivering.

[pea]

Al Habsi was great and the two goals where horrible for him, glad he got the MoM recognition

Obita and Gunter were excellent, I had flashbacks of the 4-2 vs Palace in 2009/10 when their wingers had a field day but they held their own and made some key blocks in the box. Cooper was unlucky, slightly silly decision for the penalty, shouldn't have even given the ref a chance to question it but nevertheless it wasn't one.

Hector was woeful, made terrible decisions, couldn't control the ball properly half the time and repeatedly giving the ball away in his position is suicidal. Not reflective of his recent performances, and Norwood wasn't much better in that sense. With Williams back I could see one of them dropped.

Cox played the role well, John slipped up at key moments and HRK was just ok. Vydra looked great when he got on but didn't get the support, would've liked to see Piazon. Attack a bit toothless overall, disappointing as that defence looked there for the taking.

Don't understand any of the bookings we picked up, Gunters was a joke. Ref has a lot to answer for, but both teams were making cynical fouls about 30 yards out time and time again which doesn't help.

[Ian Royal]

I think some people are forgetting the context. That was a strong Palace line up with oodles of pace and skill up front, which is our nemesis.


Yes they carved through us a lot, but Al-Habsi only had to make 3-4 particularly good saves and at least one was from a fk.

We had very few attacking options with Vydra just back from injury and Kermie cup tied. We had to play defensively to contain them and Palace knew they could defend in numbers and rely on their pace.

Going 2 up would have been suicide.

We were sloppy in possession, but I thought we put amazing work in defensively. Obita, Gunter and John were just as guilty of wasting possession and turning over to Palace as Hector and Norwood. But Palace put the squeeze on us.

The manner of the defeat is a bit galling, but there was plenty of fight there. Show that against teams in our own division and we should win plenty.

Great to see our only good goalscorer back fit too.

[Portsmouth Royal]

Watched on TV.

Thought first half we did ok with Palace shading it, but as the game went on it felt like there would be only one winner (Goalkeeper heroics notwithstanding).

Aside from Al Habsi thought Gunter had a very good game, as did McShane and Quinn. Cox played the lone forward role well also.

Norwood struggled a bit. Kind of felt when we brought Vydra on that perhaps then would have been the time to try pressing higher up the pitch and change the threat we presented to Palace. Perhaps by bringing on Vydra for Norwood. Could understand why we didn't though.

Soft pen, but a pen nonetheless. Cooper gave the ref an excuse unfortunately.

Re Norwood. I think we are trying to fit a square peg in a round hole at the moment. He wants to sit in the role we have given to Hector. Tackling and rotating possession. He isn't going to drive forward or beat his man, its not his game. If he wasn't a limited player he wouldn't be playing for us after all. I would rather see Williams or when fit Tshibola in his place at the moment. Even try Evans there, he has said himself he sees himself as a box to box midfielder. I really like Norwood as a player but you can only have one of he and Hector in the same midfield for me.

[jd82]

I'm gonna watch the first 10 again to check I wasn't imagining it, but I counted Hector giving the ball away the first 8 times he touched it. Including one where it was a simple 25 yard square pass to Gunter and he contrived to boot it out of play 10 yards in front of him. He did grow into the game a bit, but as someone else said kept letting the ball run across his body and getting pickpocket in dangerous areas. I'm actually still open mouthed at Ian's 9/10

Norwood looks utterly lost playing where he is, and apart from a couple of moments of brilliance was pretty shocking last night. He is a player who needs the pitch in front of him, and playing him further up is a massive waste of his ability.

Of the others McShane was pretty solid and had a good running battle with the very armsy Adebayor. AAH made 3/4 very good saves.
John is clearly not a 90 minute player at the moment.

[jd82]

I'm gonna watch the first 10 again to check I wasn't imagining it, but I counted Hector giving the ball away the first 8 times he touched it. Including one where it was a simple 25 yard square pass to Gunter and he contrived to boot it out of play 10 yards in front of him. He did grow into the game a bit, but as someone else said kept letting the ball run across his body and getting pickpocket in dangerous areas. I'm actually still open mouthed at Ian's 9/10

Norwood looks utterly lost playing where he is, and apart from a couple of moments of brilliance was pretty shocking last night. He is a player who needs the pitch in front of him, and playing him further up is a massive waste of his ability.

Of the others McShane was pretty solid and had a good running battle with the very armsy Adebayor. AAH made 3/4 very good saves.
John is clearly not a 90 minute player at the moment.

Forgot to mention Cox, who despite being isolated for large spells actually lead the line very well. If HrK had gambled on him winning headers once or twice (which he did consistently) we might be having different discussions this morning.

[Lower West]

I'm gonna watch the first 10 again to check I wasn't imagining it, but I counted Hector giving the ball away the first 8 times he touched it. Including one where it was a simple 25 yard square pass to Gunter and he contrived to boot it out of play 10 yards in front of him. He did grow into the game a bit, but as someone else said kept letting the ball run across his body and getting pickpocket in dangerous areas. I'm actually still open mouthed at Ian's 9/10

The teams passing was woeful for the first 20 minutes. Hector stood out as his initial touches including the header that skimmed off the back of his head seemed to set the tone.

[Ian Royal]

If it helps, I basically wrote off our possession as irrelevant for rating midfield

Also lolly at all the idiots complaining Cox was on instead of (recently injured) Vydra, lightweight Rakels and most notably the featherweight not even a striker Piazon.

[bcubed]

Still angry

Great fighting performance loads of heart loads of goal line blocks , including at least two by Norwood for those of you who are keen to criticise. That is a very good Premier league team with pace and skill aplenty and we held them. If only we had an evenhanded ref!

We were robbed by that twat of a ref
Not just the penalty (haven't seen it again yet) but throughout the game he favoured Palace. He gave us nothing. Blatant pushes in the back were OK for Palace, slight nudges penalised for us. And what's with patting a player on the back when he's subbed?! How was Zaha not sent off?! He was literally running around attacking people. And what did Gunter do in that incident to get booked? The tackle on HRK (he actually played ok for those watching on TV who missed him) just outside the box was a clear yellow but not given. I could go on..

I expect I will calm down as the day progresses

[Winston Smith]

I imagine pretty much everyone was WTFing all over the place when they got to the ground and found Cox was upfront. But he did quite well.

[jd82]

And apparently wrote off being out of position, letting opposition midfielders run past you straight at the back four etc etc.

And why the duck was Hector (on a yellow) getting all handsy with Zaha and others down in the east stand corner after the incident with Gunts/Zaha.

I'm normally quite the fan of both Hector and Norwood, but they obviously don't work well together.