Crystal Palace vs. Sunderland match thread

[ex hibitionist]

just watched the Uche interview, got a really good feeling about him, it's early days but if it turns out to be true you heard it here first - we were looking for an Eze replacement but I think we may have found our Zaha replacement.😛

 

[Hannes]

I think OG sees Esse as a big time Charlie who needs to learn humility and how to listen, that's the vibe I get from Anfield last year and the odd comment.

I can't imagine that he would drop him from the team forever just because he didn't follow his instructions in one game. This is a million-dollar business, not a children's party where someone is never invited again because they offended someone once. I still believe that Esse will get his chances soon, because the thin squad will be overstretched quite pretty soon with the additional games, injuries, suspensions etc.

 

[grumpymort]

Agree with that. Glasner doesn't rate the current bench.
Doucoure, Wharton and Sarr would all start. Hughes and Lerma/Devenny is nowhere near good enough at this level and all but five Premiership teams would have rolled us over today.

Hughes has been a solid player for 2 seasons now and it has been proven him and wharton are the best pair in middle.

Not sure what games you are watching.

Doucoure has not been seen for a long time and is not the same player.

Today was very poor and its nothing to do with manager it's the players.

 

[ex hibitionist]

I can't imagine that he would drop him from the team forever just because he didn't follow his instructions in one game. This is a million-dollar business, not a children's party where someone is never invited again because they offended someone once. I still believe that Esse will get his chances soon, because the thin squad will be overstretched quite pretty soon with the additional games, injuries, suspensions etc.

that's not what I wrote or suggested - but it does appear OG has doubts about his temperament/attitude and that's why he's not getting his chance right now.

 

[OneStevePerrin]

Unlike most promoted teams over recent seasons Sunderland look like a team not going down. We certainly missed Sarr and Wharton today but still should have been good enough to win with the chosen team. Thought Lerma and Mateta had poor games which didn’t help. There keeper had a great games as well. Referee was poor which summed him up when stopping play when a Sunderland player had cramp - Grrrr! Shout out for Kamada and Richard’s who for me were our best performers today. Take the draw and onto Millwall Tuesday night 🙂

 

[doombear]

Back from the game and whilst it was disappointing that we didn't get the win, we were never really in trouble despite some nice passing moves from Sunderland. As has been said:

• their keeper POTM
• Yeremy showed enough to suggest he'll be very good once he's fully adjusted to our system and the PL.
• Uche looked lively in his little cameo
• Kamada played well but Mateta wasn't at his best.
• I thought Devenny did OK when he came on for Lerma. We spent most of that final 25 minutes in control of the game and Devenny did try to play the ball forward.
• The less said about the ref, the better.

As for Esse, I think it is a question of trust - I don't think Glasner trusts him to play in the system, a system which requires every player to do their part and not suddenly go off on an ego trip.

 

[Living In Hope]

Just back from the game. The result and performance were quite disappointing, but not worse than that, and understandable in the context. Firstly we did enough to win, even though we lacked creativity. But if you consider that last season our key players for attacking creativity and threat were Eze, Sarr, Wharton and Mateta, it is unsurprising that we did not find it easy to carve out clear opportunities. In my view Pino showed a lot of promise, but it's early days to expect him to fully compensate for those who are missing. He is incredibly quick-thinking both in picking the right pass immediately or by a trick which takes him away from an opponent. On the down-side he looks quite lightweight for the EPL, and a few of his passes were poorly executed, but still very promising. Uche looked lively and made an impact in his brief appearance. As usual we were extremely solid in defence, with some great blocks, and Richards was king of the air. I thought Kamada had quite a good game. Lerma's passing was the stuff of nightmares, and next to him Hughes looked fine in the first half but I thought he was quite poor in the 2nd. JP was terrible today, just unable to hold the ball at all. So we were missing a couple of really key players, and are waiting for our new signings to bed in. No need for major criticism, but it was not a performance which will live long in the memory.

 

[Team of the (20)80s]

Unlike most promoted teams over recent seasons Sunderland look like a team not going down. We certainly missed Sarr and Wharton today but still should have been good enough to win with the chosen team. Thought Lerma and Mateta had poor games which didn’t help. There keeper had a great games as well. Referee was poor which summed him up when stopping play when a Sunderland player had cramp - Grrrr! Shout out for Kamada and Richard’s who for me were our best performers today. Take the draw and onto Millwall Tuesday night 🙂

Agree on all counts.

I think the difficulty Mateta is having is that his success has come playing alongside a combination of Zaha, Olise, Eze or Sarr - he has been a consistent threat but rarely the sole or evenly primary threat.

He was feeding off scraps but I think his form will improve as Yeremy and Uche come into their own (and/or Sarr or Wharton return).

I also think Kamada has been increasingly influential, but not yet quite been a match winner. I can see it happening soon though, denied by some great keeping today.

 

[MancunianEagle]

That is why Glasner will never manage at a top club, no plan B, great for Palace for we will only play 6/8 games at home to the lesser teams, and we will struggle in the Conference league, and against Millwall, but we will take more points off the top 6/7 than anyone

My sentiments exactly. He has no idea how to break down a low block. The Fredrikstad game was a taster of what will happen in Europe where we will 100% get crushed if we play a transitional team with a little bit of quality

 

[Team of the (20)80s]

My sentiments exactly. He has no idea how to break down a low block. The Fredrikstad game was a taster of what will happen in Europe where we will 100% get crushed if we play a transitional team with a little bit of quality

I don’t think we’ll get crushed, because I rate our defence very highly, but I don’t think we’ll roll teams over either.

I just hope it is enough to qualify for the latter stages.

 

[Phil’s Barber]

That’s a penalty on Uche in the dying minutes!

Didn’t realise it at the time but just watched it on MOTD.

Anywhere else on the pitch that’s a foul and a yellow card for a late studs up challenge.

(You know all day long that would be given as a penalty against us!)

 

[Stirlingsays]

It's another game we should have won.

However, their keeper deserved his man of the match.

Our new signings have also been promising.

 

[pssguy]

We didn't really get at them until the second half when their keeper kept out two good efforts from Kamada and the instinctive JPM effort
Lerma had a particularly poor game. He should really just be a backup central defender from now on. Hopefully, 2 of Kamada, Hughes and Wharton will always be available with 2 of Pino , Uche and Sarr to play further up the park
Devenney was pretty invisible but I wish he had taken the corner(s) when he came on. Glasner can't have watched the NI games
JPM looked even more exhausted than usual. Can Uche play up front, for at least 45 minutes, against Millwall?

 

[Badger11]

We didn't really get at them until the second half when their keeper kept out two good efforts from Kamada and the instinctive JPM effort
Lerma had a particularly poor game. He should really just be a backup central defender from now on. Hopefully, 2 of Kamada, Hughes and Wharton will always be available with 2 of Pino , Uche and Sarr to play further up the park
Devenney was pretty invisible but I wish he had taken the corner(s) when he came on. Glasner can't have watched the NI games
JPM looked even more exhausted than usual. Can Uche play up front, for at least 45 minutes, against Millwall?

Uche was quite a handful when he came on. I thought when we signed him he would be backup to JPM like you say however it appears that he and OG believe he is a no 10. Still I would like to see him as a no 9 against Millwall I think his physical presence would cause them problem and give JPM a rest.

 

[PatrickA]

Watching the game live it looked a patchy attacking performance, but nonetheless Pino could have had 3 goals, Mateta 2, Kamada 2 and Uche 1.
The Pino miss in the first half wasn't as easy as I first thought.
Their goalkeeper did very well leaving no angle or space for Pino.
He had to take it first time and just didn't quite get it right.
Tuesday should be interesting with Glasner indicating there will be a few changes.
I could see Uche and perhaps Sosa starting with minutes for the young centre back and Clyne depending upon how the game is going.

 

[Palacesince64]

The summaries above from those who were at the game echo what I thought listening to the commentary and watching the highlights. We paid them too much respect first half but were much improved second half. In another day we would have scored one of those chances. The 2 new signings did pretty well and given that Sarr and Wharton were missing it feels like our squad depth has improved and that we have more options tactically.
In terms of breaking down teams that come to defend having a player like Pino who finds space between the lines is great but you need someone like Wharton who can see a killer pass quicker than most. In his absence it might have been worth trying a plan B with Esse taking on a tired full back. The risk is that he leaves our full back exposed and given Munoz was on a yellow for most of the game perhaps that risk wasn’t worth taking unless he replaced Munoz with Clyne.
JP is better suited to our counterattacking game than looking for space in a packed box. Pity Nketiah is injured as it would have suited him better. In similar circumstances once Pino is fully fit bringing on Uche for Mateta and playing without a nine might help unlock defences. Lots of options for us to try going forward.
In terms of our DMs, Lerma isn’t good enough to play alongside Hughes. When Wharton is fit our DM pairing picks itself with Devenny as backup for either Hughes or Wharton and Lerma as fourth pick.
Overall I feel good about the squad this season. If the back five stay fit we will have a lot of clean sheets and we’ve enough in midfield and upfront to score goals against most sides.