Sage in or out

[mtp1958]

Is that you Pierre?

Lol no it fact

 

[Teddy Eagle]

We also haven't had the ball much, nor are we showing any ability to hold onto the ball. We look unconvincing when we do have it, with the odd good moment. Usually leading to nothing. But, at the back, that's awful. The set pieces alone are unforgivable. Look at the long throws today. That is without our weakness behind the wing backs. Where the goal came from today. We're not good enough. We're not the sum of our parts. This could be a solid side. We don't really need to do this.

All true but Sage has also been without our main goalscorer in Sarr, Wharton has gone missing, Mateta hasn't played much and we don't seem to play the same defence for two games running.
Some of the referees have been very dodgy too.
That said our midfield is porous and the supposed wing backs aren't exactly game changers so why persist with them? Peak Munoz was a one-off and replacing him was always a long shot.

 

[sprites]

We also haven't had the ball much, nor are we showing any ability to hold onto the ball. We look unconvincing when we do have it, with the odd good moment. Usually leading to nothing. But, at the back, that's awful. The set pieces alone are unforgivable. Look at the long throws today. That is without our weakness behind the wing backs. Where the goal came from today. We're not good enough. We're not the sum of our parts. This could be a solid side. We don't really need to do this.

It's just not true. We had stacks of the ball today and threatened a lot...just couldn't find that final pass or bad decision making. Defensively, we were okay today. Conceded a breakaway goal and one other chance. I know it's popular to join the anti Sage brigade at the moment, but I'm not getting swept up in it.

 

[Faz]

I try hard to defend Sage but after tonight’s post match speech I think he’s lost himself not just the changing room

 

[TheBigToePunt]

I wanted to focus on this moment as I feel it just sums up our time under Sage so far.

This is in the second half, just before their player (in the centre of the picture) got put through on goal with half a pitch to run into, and put it wide. He might have been fractionally offside, as I recall.

Any team defending with a high line risks being exposed by a ball behind them, but it's the other things that are so striking.

The three Palace players on the right hand side of the picture are, from left to right, Richards, then Canvot, then Honest. That's two of our three centre backs side by side in the right back position, whilst Honest, who is the left sided centre back, is in the right sided centre back position.

Tell me when you've ever seen a top level team playing with three centre backs, end up in such a pickle?

What's happened is that Richards has aggressively followed an opponent high and wide, not only going across into Canvots zone, but going past him. Madness. Even if Canvot had the wisdom to drop back into Richards slot, he hasn't got the time.

One ball gets played past, and immediately it's absolute carnage. We've then got two centre backs sprinting back towards their own goal from miles away, causing the third to feel he has to come so far over that, behind him, three quarters of the width of the pitch is unguarded.

Mitchell, in the bottom left corner, is desperately sprinting back from high on the left to try and help. Good luck.

Nobody is back in position, set, with the game in front of them. Nobody is able to cover anyone else. There is no unit, just individuals, all at a big disadvantage in terms of start position. It's playground stuff.

A similar mess led to their goal, so we've been warned by this point. In fact, this is after half time, when they've had a chance to regroup!

We've seen it so often it sort of passes by in amongst all the other mad s***. It's unbelievable, though. Unheard of in top level football.

Surely the players must feel this is all wrong?