Tottenham vs. Crystal Palace match thread

Den1923 said:
Sorry but the squad is really awful, the statistics show it since the 7/12/25, we have lost 17 EPL games and have conceded 58 goals the worst of any current EPL Club. So the problems were around long before Sage arrived. Bringing in a new Manager can't make silk purse out of a sow's ear, the current squad depth and strength, if there is any, is down to Parish who has consistently failed to manage succession planning but instead he assets strips without any plan or strategy of how to replace our good players. His whole strategy is to rely on last minute ''Bargins'' which are either inexperienced loan players, players who are out of favour with their home club or players who are out of contract, because they are either sick or injury prone and no one else wants them. This pre-season was a good example, Sage arrived early after OG left, he did not have a proper pre-season as all the key players were away at the world cup and those he did have were never 1st team quality anyway and were either sold on or loaned out later in the window. Parish then tried unsuccessfully to fill the gaps in the squad in the last few hours of the window (as he usually does). I'm afraid the responsibility and any blame for where we are is down to the man at the top.
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Den1923 you are right. Poor squad additions. Khalili and Mingueza I like. Our Defence has not been bolstered, poor old Canvot is trying to be the senior defender. We have more holes in our defence than a "swiss cheese". As for the strikers, Sarr is fed up, Mateta 'couldn't care less', Strand Larsen tries hard but if he is worth £45m I am worth £30m and Nketiah was good at Arsenal because he got so many chances.....Poor Manager, Poor Defence, Poor Strikers, Poor recruitment
 
mtp1958 said:
Understand what your saying but if players cant adjust to situations whats the point of them claiming there professional footballers. They are in the position to see best not 50yrds away , there's being drilled to hold position and being told how to adjust . If your right then football isnt worth watching if players need to be told what to do on 50k + . You you are training people like that no wonder defence is never in sync. And sage has only been in charge since July with very little practice time with the squad . Defenders look for dangers around that hasn't changed
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You’re coming round 😜 … just spoke to a mate, who was a professional footballer and he hated zonal marking, because no one took responsibility other than their bit of space. In his words” players were unmarked and caused issues” went onto say no one took responsibility… sounds familiar
I never played or coached zonal marking and I am definitely not a fan of this rigid tactic. Hence be my rant
 
I do find the Parish comments amusing or bemusing I should say!

It’s still very early in the season but if Parish has made some mistakes, I’d happily acknowledge his humanity and trust in him to find solutions. My acknowledgment of him as human is logical and my faith in him as Chairman of our club is unwavering.

I don’t have any hatred or even dislike for Sage but I hold very little faith in him to ‘come good’.

Big ol’ sigh from me but still some hope for the future, it’s all too familiar by now, even the sh!t times.

*The opinions expressed in this post may change dramatically during or immediately after Palace matches.
 
EagleEddie said:
You’re coming round 😜 … just spoke to a mate, who was a professional footballer and he hated zonal marking, because no one took responsibility other than their bit of space. In his words” players were unmarked and caused issues” went onto say no one took responsibility… sounds familiar
I never played or coached zonal marking and I am definitely not a fan of this rigid tactic. Hence be my rant
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It's not a rant - it's just common sense. Zonal marking just hands the initiative to the attacking team who can overload some areas as well as creating mismatches in height. It must be a nightmare to play because defenders are more interested in where their teammates are rather than actually marking someone.
 
MarkA333 said:
I understand football, have been a season ticket fan for 52 years. And I am smarter than Parish. We are going down this season unless drastic action is taken now.
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Wow. You have had a season ticket for 52 years makes you qualified to run a football club. How do you know you’re smarter? Plenty of smart people can’t run a bath
 
Nicholas91 said:
I do find the Parish comments amusing or bemusing I should say!

It’s still very early in the season but if Parish has made some mistakes, I’d happily acknowledge his humanity and trust in him to find solutions. My acknowledgment of him as human is logical and my faith in him as Chairman of our club is unwavering.

I don’t have any hatred or even dislike for Sage but I hold very little faith in him to ‘come good’.

Big ol’ sigh from me but still some hope for the future, it’s all too familiar by now, even the sh!t times.

*The opinions expressed in this post may change dramatically during or immediately after Palace matches.
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Agree. From my perspective the one criticism I have of SP is the stadium upgrade, felt like he hesitated and costs keep going up
 
Jim_Cannon said:
Agree. From my perspective the one criticism I have of SP is the stadium upgrade, felt like he hesitated and costs keep going up
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You cannot be overly critical of SP when you look at the overall state of the club finances, however he has missed opportunity after opportunity to buy the right players here and there to progress the club and failed to do it. Losing Dougie was massive as Hobbs appears useless and our defensive acquisitions since Guehi, Lacroix and Munoz have left leave a lot to be desired along with some rather questionable attacking additions.

As you rightly say prevarication over starting the stand has cost the club multi millions due to increased costs.

It’s a difficult one for me as he obviously loves the club, but there are things that he could have done or should be doing a lot better.
 
Teddy Eagle said:
It's not a rant - it's just common sense. Zonal marking just hands the initiative to the attacking team who can overload some areas as well as creating mismatches in height. It must be a nightmare to play because defenders are more interested in where their teammates are rather than actually marking someone.
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I have been concerned at our set piece defending for a number of years, but under Glasner and now Sage it is becoming a joke and such an easy way for teams to target us. Last season when we were conceding you could see our 3 CBs all taking specific positions and almost no one picked up the opposition's taller players regardless of where they stood.

This season despite us now supposedly have a set piece coach we seem unable to defend our back post. I mentioned after the Tete header against Fulham that it is such an easy tactic against us - just put a couple of players at our back post and almost certainly one will have a free header. Not only is it the same almost every week but there is no in match adjustments.

On Saturday, not only was it the same, but Gray didn't actually have to move - he just stood in a position and waited for the ball to arrive. Yes we were down to 10, but as the attacking team 'lose' a player as one must take the kick and almost always one is kept back we had enough cover, if we chose to use it.

I don't dislike Sage and feel he has inherited a difficult situation, but the set piece fiasco this season and the lack of adaptability is making me question if he has the ability to turn things around.

In terms of zonal marking i'm not a great fan, however, Martin Keown always said the well drilled Arsenal side always did a bit of both. I suspect that's the answer.
 
palace99 said:
I have been concerned at our set piece defending for a number of years, but under Glasner and now Sage it is becoming a joke and such an easy way for teams to target us. Last season when we were conceding you could see our 3 CBs all taking specific positions and almost no one picked up the opposition's taller players regardless of where they stood.

This season despite us now supposedly have a set piece coach we seem unable to defend our back post. I mentioned after the Tete header against Fulham that it is such an easy tactic against us - just put a couple of players at our back post and almost certainly one will have a free header. Not only is it the same almost every week but there is no in match adjustments.

On Saturday, not only was it the same, but Gray didn't actually have to move - he just stood in a position and waited for the ball to arrive. Yes we were down to 10, but as the attacking team 'lose' a player as one must take the kick and almost always one is kept back we had enough cover, if we chose to use it.

I don't dislike Sage and feel he has inherited a difficult situation, but the set piece fiasco this season and the lack of adaptability is making me question if he has the ability to turn things around.

In terms of zonal marking i'm not a great fan, however, Martin Keown always said the well drilled Arsenal side always did a bit of both. I suspect that's the answer.
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That's probably a good compromise. If the opposition have a 6'4" player in the area why not put the player best suited to marking him on the job? It seems daft to just leave it to whoever happens to be standing there - or in our case not standing there.
The Arsenal defence was so well drilled they didn't suffer from Dixon and Winterburn not being particularly tall but we don't have a Keown, Adams or Campbell available.
 
Teddy Eagle said:
It's not a rant - it's just common sense. Zonal marking just hands the initiative to the attacking team who can overload some areas as well as creating mismatches in height. It must be a nightmare to play because defenders are more interested in where their teammates are rather than actually marking someone.
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Our zonal set-up, which i also hated as an amateur player, consists of 4 at the near post and none at the back. Spurs were most unfair to be the latest team to notice this and compounded the situation by using Tonali to consistantly block Mitchell. Most unwelcome!!
 
palace99 said:
I have been concerned at our set piece defending for a number of years, but under Glasner and now Sage it is becoming a joke and such an easy way for teams to target us. Last season when we were conceding you could see our 3 CBs all taking specific positions and almost no one picked up the opposition's taller players regardless of where they stood.

This season despite us now supposedly have a set piece coach we seem unable to defend our back post. I mentioned after the Tete header against Fulham that it is such an easy tactic against us - just put a couple of players at our back post and almost certainly one will have a free header. Not only is it the same almost every week but there is no in match adjustments.

On Saturday, not only was it the same, but Gray didn't actually have to move - he just stood in a position and waited for the ball to arrive. Yes we were down to 10, but as the attacking team 'lose' a player as one must take the kick and almost always one is kept back we had enough cover, if we chose to use it.

I don't dislike Sage and feel he has inherited a difficult situation, but the set piece fiasco this season and the lack of adaptability is making me question if he has the ability to turn things around.

In terms of zonal marking i'm not a great fan, however, Martin Keown always said the well drilled Arsenal side always did a bit of both. I suspect that's the answer.
Click to expand...

There's a lot in that, Della Santa is our named set-piece coach but I don't see how effective he can be if they stick to zonal marking. Yes, some areas have to be marked but you just can't leave outliers at the back post unmarked. Spuds wasn't the first time.
 
Much has been mentioned about our defensive woes but Hoffenheim have been far from 'Watertight' conceding 16 goals in 8 Bundesliga matches.
Furthermore I am informed that they have displayed frailties defending set-pieces and crosses.
 
Eaglecoops said:
You cannot be overly critical of SP when you look at the overall state of the club finances, however he has missed opportunity after opportunity to buy the right players here and there to progress the club and failed to do it. Losing Dougie was massive as Hobbs appears useless and our defensive acquisitions since Guehi, Lacroix and Munoz have left leave a lot to be desired along with some rather questionable attacking additions.

As you rightly say prevarication over starting the stand has cost the club multi millions due to increased costs.

It’s a difficult one for me as he obviously loves the club, but there are things that he could have done or should be doing a lot better.
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That is of course very true, but at what cost to the club’s future success?. It is quiet clear that Parish has made very poor decisions with ins and outs and the management of players contracts. These mistakes may well result in us being relegated this year. Parish has had his time but his level of competence was passed sometime ago. At the end of the day he was responsible for appointing Sage and probably that was all the options he had because of his past antecedence with good Managers. The club’s finances will quickly deteriorate in the lower league!
 
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