Crystal Palace vs Kups match thread

PatrickA said:
I think this is fair and perhaps I've been overly critical of him.
It's about expectations, and I thought we had acquired a player who would be able to beat players, show a burst of pace and either cross the ball or cut inside and shoot.
I've seen little evidence of any of these things and hence my disappointment.
Perhaps he's a different type of player to my expectations.
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Don't know if he played much cage football but he has the traits of trying to impress with tricks and flicks in conditions which don't really prepare players for "real" football. Let's hope he can adapt.
 
Last nights failure to proceed automatically to the next round showed how much we need a bigger squad. Games come thick and fast for successful clubs and there’s no way we can compete with the Man City’s of this world on a regular basis. Even outside our first 11 we aren’t strong enough as showed by Esse, Devenny and Sosa last night. And what with some of our regulars being under par at the moment plus injuries it’s hard to see us progressing in all these competitions without a number of new incoming top players?
 
Last night was a wake up call to our owners. If we are planning to pursue four cups per season then we will need to enlarge our first team squad considerably. Not only were we noticeably light weight last night, but there was obviously little sign of understanding between our players. There was the odd flash of future hope from a few of our youngsters, but overall it was uninspiring. As a club we need to be making clearer decisions on how we move forward.
Glasner is clearly delivering far more than anyone could have imagined. We need to assess how we deal with our phenomenal progress moving forwards so we do not overload ourselves and fall back with a crash. My view is we either step up in the transfer market in January with a minimum of three more players, or sit down as a club and decide what competitions we focus on. Last night showed we can't possibly pursue them all as things stand.
 
Willo said:
'Penny for the thoughts' of Oliver Glasner apropos Esse's performance last night.
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When Dougie delivered Esse, we were optimistically trying to find a replacement for Olise. This season Essee's few appearances have shown just how unrealistic a task that was. Olise has gone on at Bayern to rank amongst the top players in the world. It was clearly unrealistic to consider finding another comparable player to fill Olise's boots where he left off (or even began) at Palace. Sadly Esse so far is falling woefully short of showing anything that compares to Olise when he arrived and I will be very surprised if that changes much on recent performances.
 
dreamwaverider said:
When Dougie delivered Esse, we were optimistically trying to find a replacement for Olise. This season Essee's few appearances have shown just how unrealistic a task that was. Olise has gone on at Bayern to rank amongst the top players in the world. It was clearly unrealistic to consider finding another comparable player to fill Olise's boots where he left off (or even began) at Palace. Sadly Esse so far is falling woefully short of showing anything that compares to Olise when he arrived and I will be very surprised if that changes much on recent performances.
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We all hope Esse proves to be an inspired purchase, that really would be manna from heaven, but as they say in Scotland "A hae ma doots".
Perhaps gloom will give way to sunshine.
 
Spoke to a friend of mine from Munich last night who watched our game! He thought Devenny was our best junior on show by some way. I have to admit, I was not on that page as I felt it was one of Devenny's less inspiring performances for us. Mind you it was so hard to judge as we were simply never going to be a well organised team last night with so many new faces on the pitch. Drake Thomas gave plenty of signs that he could progress to a higher level and considering he is only sixteen he did exceptionally well especially in the latter stages despite suffering from cramp.
 
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Lanzo-Ad said:
Esse was very poor, his big chance to impress, failed, i would also say although Sosa didn't have a good game, he is all left foot, so RWB not a sensible selection.
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The option for Glasner was to move the left-footed Benamar to right-wing back on his debut and play in front of another debutant George King or play the more experienced Sosa on the right where he has filled-in before.
 
Willo said:
The option for Glasner was to move the left-footed Benamar to right-wing back on his debut and play in front of another debutant George King or play the more experienced Sosa on the right where he has filled-in before.
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Or Danny Imray 😊
 
My tuppence's worth;
I thought it Was a really good performance in the first half from the majority of the players. We looked like the only team in the game, and they'd be only one winner. I think that showed our inexperience in the 2nd half, we came out looking like it would be an easy game but KUpS came out with real intent, and took their chances before we got back up to speed.

Some notable mentions:
Uche's turns were on Fire. looked like he could he could turn out of his own shadow into space. looked indecisive when we all wanted him to shoot.

Esse was one I thought improved if anything in the second half, and showed glimpses, with little passes, through balls and tricks that created chances for Uche. but in the main he was ineffective and gave the ball away a lot (sometimes in dangerous areas). We wanted the player that dribbled and attacked whilst at millwall, didn't see any of that tonight.

Drakes-Thomas looks a great prospect, and at 16, I hope we haven't simply put him in the shop window!
 
McAhuna said:
I thought Benamar looked great in the first half, possibly our best player.
All players faded in the 2nd half, but Benamar's form dropped so badly it made you question what was in his half-time tea.
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I reckon he’s just not used to the pace at top level, but I agree, I thought he looked great first half, was tenacious and showed some nice skills too.

He could do with learning every day from Mitchell who he will see has turned himself from academy prospect into a top pro. Mitchell’s cross for the Devenny goal was sublime and as a natural left back he should be in the England team and more particularly considered whenever England are up against a side with a tricky right winger. In fact the harder the challenge England face the more they could do with a defender like Tyrick. Just my opinion and I am a tad biased I hasten to add!
 
Strasbourg topped the table and were unbeaten. Could have been so different when we lost 2-1 to them, we played well in the first half and then began our customary second half fade. A point there and at least one in the disgraceful loss to Larnaca and we wouldn't have had to suffer the added headache of the play-offs.

However last night's performance gave a lot of encouragement and also concerns that we really do need at least two more players next month - three if Parish gets an offer for Guehi - who would leave probably
over Glasner's dead body (and a guaranteed departure himself in the summer)

One can only hope the ghost of Dougie Freedman will guide our new procurer ....
 
Eaglecoops said:
I reckon he’s just not used to the pace at top level, but I agree, I thought he looked great first half, was tenacious and showed some nice skills too.

He could do with learning every day from Mitchell who he will see has turned himself from academy prospect into a top pro. Mitchell’s cross for the Devenny goal was sublime and as a natural left back he should be in the England team and more particularly considered whenever England are up against a side with a tricky right winger. In fact the harder the challenge England face the more they could do with a defender like Tyrick. Just my opinion and I am a tad biased I hasten to add!
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Good points on how Benemar can really learn and be inspired by Mitchell for the progression. I think we all saw potential there.
On that note is there a chance of Mitchell going to the World Cup especially now Nico O'Reilly seems to have found form in the same position. It would be great to see T back in the England fold.
 
Willo said:
Before we signed Esse, I enquired of a long-time knowledgeable Millwall supporter as to where he was deployed at the club.
His response was behind the single striker, anywhere across the pitch, normally coming in off the right.
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Three words that don't belong in a sentence together here....
 
Lanzo-Ad said:
Esse was very poor, his big chance to impress, failed, i would also say although Sosa didn't have a good game, he is all left foot, so RWB not a sensible selection.
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I think he's being overly criticised for the performance. Obviously it wasn't the greatest performance however when he had the ball centrally it was the only time their defensive unit got pulled out of place and he was able to play some nice through balls leading to good chances. No one else on the pitch managed to do this.

His pressing game has improved but his positioning and decision making still has a way to go. I feel he's one of our only players who has the potential to make something out of nothing ala Zaha, Olise, Eze.

Plus he's still only 20 years old FFS he has plenty of time to improve. Ebz first half of last season was pretty poor for a player with his experience and talent but look how that ended!

Agree about Sosa though he hasn't impressed me much, but he was bought as a cheap back up I guess, and that's exactly how he's playing.
 
Sosa is like a fish out of water on the right hand side, even if he's supposed to have played there before.
He can be effective as an attacking left back/wing back , although it has to be said this has not been evident at Palace in the limited game time he has had.
I'm hoping he improves and can demonstrate his ability to cross from the left hand side.
 
CrazyBadger said:
Drakes-Thomas looks a great prospect, and at 16, I hope we haven't simply put him in the shop window!
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Yes, that's my concern as well. He turns 17 and can sign a professional contract next off-season. The big clubs will be circling. At least Benamar just signed one
 
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