PALACE V CHELSEA MATCH THREAD

[park the bus]

I think it's a mentality thing. Under Hodgson, it was a case of making sure we keep things tight resulting in our allowing the opposition to have the ball and dictate the play. How much of that mentality is still there subconsciously?

Glasner basically touched on it yesterday when he spoke about our fear and passivity in the first 30 minutes. We saw it too against that Sussex lot in the opening 15 minutes or so.

Yes this is a possibility. I note that Chelsea sliced through our non-existent midfield with ease in the first half and if it wasn't for the terrible finishing of Jackson in particular another Arsenalesque scoreline was on the cards. Granted Glasner tactically fixed the gaps in the second half, but it could have been all over by then. We really must start much sharper.

 

[park the bus]

Maybe we are using the Balboa Theroy by soaking up all the pressure in the early rounds and in doing so, wearing our opponents down as the contest goes on, thus enabling us to take control during the most crucial stages.

I didn't realise how serious this theory was until I read the book and discovered just how much of the Internet is dedicated to using this tactic no matter what we do in life.

This isn't a logical approach simply because many other teams have greater squad depth than us. You know currently that when Eze or Doucoure are subbed off then Kamada is sure to come on...

 

[NMPalace]

Yes this is a possibility. I note that Chelsea sliced through our non-existent midfield with ease in the first half and if it wasn't for the terrible finishing of Jackson in particular another Arsenalesque scoreline was on the cards. Granted Glasner tactically fixed the gaps in the second half, but it could have been all over by then. We really must start much sharper.

Agreed, a great point but the game should have been over by half time.

With 3 CBs and only 2 CM i have noticed that the No10 can sit in the gap between the two and play with freedom. This is why i don't like 3 CBs. As most teams play 1 upfront with a attacking midfielder at No 10 e.g. Palmer yesterday, none of the 3 CBs feel comfortable pushing forward and the 2 CMs can't really sit as they are playing against 3.

Smith Rowe for Fulham also seemed to have a free reign a few months ago playing in the same position.

I know the formation was tweaked at HT bit it was pretty obvious Palmer would be a key player so very surprised we didn't have a plan to mark him. Not for the first time this season.

 

[DenTyler]

If Guehi goes I wonder if Mitchell could replace him on the left of the back three

That is a good shout. Might need to work on his heading but he’s quick and strong in a tackle.

 

[Honey Gee]

That is a good shout. Might need to work on his heading but he’s quick and strong in a tackle.

With the news now confirmed that there was in fact no extra one year option for the club to execute, M Guéhi can essentially sign a pre-contract for another club outside the EPL in less than a year.

Worse still, if UEFA get their way at the European Supreme Court at the hearing in Brussels in April, he could sign a PCA with Liverpool Newcastle et-al in less than six months as the existing rule will be abolished, allowing a player to sign a PCA as soon as he enters the final year of his contract, which would be 07/01/25 in the case of M Guéhi.

 

[Living In Hope]

A bit late but this is the first chance I have had to write something after returning from yesterday's game. A few observations. Firstly Glasner needs to sort out the negative way we start home games. It wasn't just the first 30 minutes yesterday, but it feels like every home fixture. I've been to 3 matches this season and we have gone behind in all of them before equalising - we also gave away a lead to Southampton and looked over-awed by Man Utd (!!) in the first half. Maybe there is a deliberate tactic of taking a good look at the opposition before taking any risks, but when we are trailing so often at home, it's not working.

Secondly I think people are under-estimating the impact of losing Guehi. He is a class act, and with 3 centre-backs, workman-like central midfielders, and one of our wing-backs pretty short of attacking flair, the importance of his ability on the ball should not be ignored.

Apart from Guehi, others who performed well yesterday were Munoz (MoM for me), Sarr, Lerma and Lacroix. Mitchell was good defensively. No-one played badly, but Ebs had a very poor game by the standards he is capable of. Not sure whether this is a confidence issue, or his position doesn't quite suit him, or he's not fully fit, but his display was full of loose passes, turning and playing backwards instead of driving forwards, and defensive lapses. Of course he also got an assist, and showed beautiful control and almost brilliantly lobbed the Chelsea keeper in the first half, so everything is relative.

Overall though an excellent point against a team whose resources are light years ahead of ours. We need more creative, forward-thinking options in the January window, as well as an alternative at left wing-back.

 

[Nicholas91]

A bit late but this is the first chance I have had to write something after returning from yesterday's game. A few observations. Firstly Glasner needs to sort out the negative way we start home games. It wasn't just the first 30 minutes yesterday, but it feels like every home fixture. I've been to 3 matches this season and we have gone behind in all of them before equalising - we also gave away a lead to Southampton and looked over-awed by Man Utd (!!) in the first half. Maybe there is a deliberate tactic of taking a good look at the opposition before taking any risks, but when we are trailing so often at home, it's not working.

Secondly I think people are under-estimating the impact of losing Guehi. He is a class act, and with 3 centre-backs, workman-like central midfielders, and one of our wing-backs pretty short of attacking flair, the importance of his ability on the ball should not be ignored.

Apart from Guehi, others who performed well yesterday were Munoz (MoM for me), Sarr, Lerma and Lacroix. Mitchell was good defensively. No-one played badly, but Ebs had a very poor game by the standards he is capable of. Not sure whether this is a confidence issue, or his position doesn't quite suit him, or he's not fully fit, but his display was full of loose passes, turning and playing backwards instead of driving forwards, and defensive lapses. Of course he also got an assist, and showed beautiful control and almost brilliantly lobbed the Chelsea keeper in the first half, so everything is relative.

Overall though an excellent point against a team whose resources are light years ahead of ours. We need more creative, forward-thinking options in the January window, as well as an alternative at left wing-back.

Agree with overall commentary but the bit in bold stands out to me and I agree.

Just as a musing from me, I think Ebz is unfortunately one of those players whose style of play makes him look world class when it works and a donkey when it doesn’t.

Drifting past players effortlessly, top drawer set-pieces, wonderful bits of skill and stunning goals when on form vs losing the ball in dangerous positions, wasting set-pieces, looking ridiculous rather than playing simply/effectively and missing goalscoring opportunities when not working well.

I think it’s a confidence/form/downright luck thing. There’s been more than one game this season where I thought he’d been useless but then in a moment he produces the difference.

Just a thought…

 

[palace chick]

Lucky to get that point after the way we started yesterday. For the whole of the first half we allowed Chelsea to overrun our middle two in midfield. Chelsea wasted a number of chances as our set up was wrong. Palmer had so much space. Why didn’t we know beforehand and set our midfield up accordingly from the first minute? Thank goodness it was only 0:1 at HT. Moving Sarr back was the answer by OG but then we lost he’s forward play. Just perhaps if we had started with Devenny as the third midfielder and either Sarr or Eze with Matteta we may not of had yesterday’s first half run around by Chelsea. Appreciate that’s easy to say now but I really don’t think two in the midfield works with 3 forward players in front of them. Those 3 at the front don’t get the service as proven by our defenders being relied on to score for us. Saying that we have picked up points lately and I would have taken a draw before the match yesterday. I just feel this formation doesn’t help our front 3 with the middle 2 often overrun?

 

[Living In Hope]

Agree with overall commentary but the bit in bold stands out to me and I agree.

Just as a musing from me, I think Ebz is unfortunately one of those players whose style of play makes him look world class when it works and a donkey when it doesn’t.

Drifting past players effortlessly, top drawer set-pieces, wonderful bits of skill and stunning goals when on form vs losing the ball in dangerous positions, wasting set-pieces, looking ridiculous rather than playing simply/effectively and missing goalscoring opportunities when not working well.

I think it’s a confidence/form/downright luck thing. There’s been more than one game this season where I thought he’d been useless but then in a moment he produces the difference.

Just a thought…

I think there's a lot of truth in that, but I did think that yesterday a lot of the disappointing stuff was different from most other times. Yesterday the misplaced passes were not generally ambitious ones, and I became really frustrated by how often he turned and played the ball backwards when normally he would have found a forward pass or tried a dribble.

 

[Daddyorc]

From watching the match and highlights a things.

We stunk up the place first 30. We're very fortunate to only be 1 goal down.

The goal was a few errors, but the biggest one was from Lacroix. He tracked Palmer into the penalty area then left him alone to go closer to Sancho, who already had 2 defenders on him. Why?

Munoz was on fire the 2nd half of the match. Set up Saar, who had a beautiful pass to Eze. Ditto Eze to Mateta.

Saar is a handful for defenders. Very direct and speedy. Developing a great relationship with Munoz.

I actually thought Kamada played well. A few missed passes, but much better than expected.

Chelsea are such an unlikeable team. I don't mind their coach, and Palmer is alright, but the rest are just awful. Neto acted like he was shot every time someone touched him. So glad we could pile onto their misery.

 

[ex hibitionist]

Agree with overall commentary but the bit in bold stands out to me and I agree.

Just as a musing from me, I think Ebz is unfortunately one of those players whose style of play makes him look world class when it works and a donkey when it doesn’t.

Drifting past players effortlessly, top drawer set-pieces, wonderful bits of skill and stunning goals when on form vs losing the ball in dangerous positions, wasting set-pieces, looking ridiculous rather than playing simply/effectively and missing goalscoring opportunities when not working well.

I think it’s a confidence/form/downright luck thing. There’s been more than one game this season where I thought he’d been useless but then in a moment he produces the difference.

Just a thought…

to take a bake-off metaphor, my opinion of Eze, which I have held for quite some time, is that while Hughes is all sponge and no icing, and Olise, Wharton, Mateta, Sarr and Guehi are the full cake, Eze is all icing and no sponge. He can decorate a game but he doesn't really influence it - although a brilliant bit of skill or an amazing goal can turn a game, I still adhere to my cake prognosis where Eze is concerned.

 

[viveasheagle]

Interesting observations about the slow starts and Ebs. I feel he is not fully up to speed at the moment coming off an injury. Also reminds me that last year he often drifted across to the right to link up with Olise but this is not happening this season. On the Munoz front he regularly pops up in the opposition 6 yard box and he will get us more goals as the season goes on. The other plus side of the Christmas schedule is we have maintained a fairly healthy squad and with Hughes and Chalobah to come back in, and hopefully Wharton as well, the competition for places is going to be there as well as good bench options. I think we can look forward to at the very least a positive start to the new year.

 

[NEILLO]

Slow starting in games was also an issue under Roy. Obviously the coaching staff don't set the team up to do that so it points to a mentality thing. It's something that OG is aware of so let's see how he deals with it.

The central midfield was always going to be an issue against Chelsea. Doucoure is still off the pace as he returns from his injuries. Without Wharton and Hughes the other alternative is the still raw Devenny or Kamada. Given the resources at their disposal, I don't think Chelsea took full advantage of that situation, and that seems to have been a problem for them lately.

A far more positive approach in the second half, enabled by the tactical tweeks by Glasner, should have yielded reward well before Mateta equalised. Unfortunately Eze missed the sort of chance he used to gobble up - a real shame as I hoped his goal against Southampton would have increased his confidence. Well done to him for setting up Mateta though as a more confident Eze might have tried to score himself from a tighter angle.

Overall that was a good point, well earned. After years of undeserved or unlucky losses against them, very happy that Chelsea didn't bear us this season.

 

[Willo]

Slow starting in games was also an issue under Roy. Obviously the coaching staff don't set the team up to do that so it points to a mentality thing. It's something that OG is aware of so let's see how he deals with it.

The central midfield was always going to be an issue against Chelsea. Doucoure is still off the pace as he returns from his injuries. Without Wharton and Hughes the other alternative is the still raw Devenny or Kamada. Given the resources at their disposal, I don't think Chelsea took full advantage of that situation, and that seems to have been a problem for them lately.

A far more positive approach in the second half, enabled by the tactical tweeks by Glasner, should have yielded reward well before Mateta equalised. Unfortunately Eze missed the sort of chance he used to gobble up - a real shame as I hoped his goal against Southampton would have increased his confidence. Well done to him for setting up Mateta though as a more confident Eze might have tried to score himself from a tighter angle.

Overall that was a good point, well earned. After years of undeserved or unlucky losses against them, very happy that Chelsea didn't bear us this season.

The central midfield area is where we need to bolster our ranks in the current 'Window'.

Doucoure is still off the pace, the return of the influential Wharton unknown, Devenny is inexperienced at this elevated level, Kamada has not 'Hit the ground running'. Hughes of course has been a vital cog in the Glasner 'Machine' but when he suffers and injury or indeed is suspended, the options at this juncture can be found wanting ! I accept there is also Lerma but he is 31 later this year.

We yearn for the return of Wharton but even when he is declared fit to play it could take him a few games to return to his former self.

 

[PatrickA]

With regard to the slow and passive starts, I don't believe this is through Glasner's instructions.
I was sitting not far from him on Saturday and Glasner was animated waving his arms for the players to push up and put more pressure on Chelsea.
When players elected to pass backwards when a forward pass was on, Glasner turned to the bench to express his exasperation.

It was noticeable that as the game progressed we played more directly , bypassing midfield with Henderson taking long punts up to Mateta and Sarr.

We have to accept that the passing through the lines of last season is not possible in the absence of Wharton and Olise , the lack of form of Eze and the rustiness of Doucoure.

We are playing to our current strengths which is based more on physicality and speed.
I think this demonstrates a certain pragmatism on the part of Glasner as to how he can best achieve results.

 

[park the bus]

to take a bake-off metaphor, my opinion of Eze, which I have held for quite some time, is that while Hughes is all sponge and no icing, and Olise, Wharton, Mateta, Sarr and Guehi are the full cake, Eze is all icing and no sponge. He can decorate a game but he doesn't really influence it - although a brilliant bit of skill or an amazing goal can turn a game, I still adhere to my cake prognosis where Eze is concerned.

To make a good cake one needs the best ingredients in the correct proportions, and baked at the correct temperature for the requisite amount of time. I prefer cakes without icing.

 

[Willo]

To make a good cake one needs the best ingredients in the correct proportions, and baked at the correct temperature for the requisite amount of time. I prefer cakes without icing.

As some culinary expert once said to me over a pint or two "You can have all the ingredients but it does not mean the souffle will rise".

 

[Nicholas91]

to take a bake-off metaphor, my opinion of Eze, which I have held for quite some time, is that while Hughes is all sponge and no icing, and Olise, Wharton, Mateta, Sarr and Guehi are the full cake, Eze is all icing and no sponge. He can decorate a game but he doesn't really influence it - although a brilliant bit of skill or an amazing goal can turn a game, I still adhere to my cake prognosis where Eze is concerned.

An excellent metaphor which I will now adopt for use in any future context that demands it.

 

[JHB]

to take a bake-off metaphor, my opinion of Eze, which I have held for quite some time, is that while Hughes is all sponge and no icing, and Olise, Wharton, Mateta, Sarr and Guehi are the full cake, Eze is all icing and no sponge. He can decorate a game but he doesn't really influence it - although a brilliant bit of skill or an amazing goal can turn a game, I still adhere to my cake prognosis where Eze is concerned.

Produces some great show stoppers but often found wanting in the technical

 

[Palacesince64]

As some culinary expert once said to me over a pint or two "You can have all the ingredients but it does not mean the souffle will rise".

I think that might have been a metaphor for something else Willo.