Tottenham vs. Crystal Palace match thread

[taylors lovechild]

Commentator: "A win perhaps made easier by Mateta's sending off on the 12th minute..."

That summed up the quality of the commentary.

With JP and 11 men, we had an outside chance of scrapping for something. Once he went off, the game was gone, and it's hard to really properly assess the performance, as the players all worked hard but had no outlet. Having said that, you can't ignore Wharton once again giving the ball away cheaply in dangerous positions and poor defending at set-pieces. I actually thought the defence did pretty well, considering, but our midfield and forwards repeatedly conceded possession too cheaply. And even with 10 men, you would hope we could do more than have one half-chance and no corners.

It didn't help that every 50/50 decision went Spurs' way, but we would expect nothing less from Oliver.

With JSL injured and JP suspended for the next 3 PL games, we're going to be relying on Nketiah.

F**k.

 

[bright&wright]

Everyone seems to think this squad is awful. I genuinely don’t think it’s that bad. There’s certainly a lot more depth to it now than we’ve had in previous years.

I’m unfortunately old enough to remember the 1990/91 season, when our back four consisted of John Humphrey, Andy Thorn, Eric Young and Richard Shaw, with Geoff Thomas and Andy Gray in midfield.

Everyone remembers Wright and Bright, but here’s the interesting thing. We scored just 50 league goals that season, conceded 41 and finished third in the First Division.

Why? Because we were an exceptionally well-drilled, organised outfit. Every player knew his job, understood the (simple) system and did what was expected of him.

Fast forward to Tony Pulis. Again, we weren’t blessed with an extraordinary squad, but we were organised, disciplined and bloody difficult to beat. The same with Roy.

That’s my fundamental problem with Sage. I actually think we’ve got a fairly decent squad, but I don’t think he’s capable of organising it. And increasingly, I think he’s been found out.

When opposition teams continually exploit the same weakness, particularly balls delivered to the back post, you do something about it. You change the marking, you adjust the defensive shape, you coach the players. That’s literally what a manager is paid to do.

Every opposition team seems to have worked out how to exploit us, yet somehow our own coaching staff haven’t worked out how to stop it.

And if the argument is that we’ve got a limited squad, then surely the manager’s job is to get the absolute maximum out of the players available, rather than persist with a system that clearly isn’t working.

Sean Dyche took Burnley to seventh in the Premier League with a squad that, man for man, I’d argue was considerably weaker than the one we’ve got now.

He did it through organisation, discipline and making the team greater than the sum of its parts.

That’s what good coaching looks like.

I don’t think our biggest problem is the quality of the players. I think it’s the inability of the manager to organise them into a functioning team.

Name a time in the last 10 years that we've had a worse defence than what we have now.

 

[lagoseagle]

The team kept there shape they was committed to stopping them . We had no outlet with 10 men . For me I was very proud of the players they never gave up , spuds have had two games against 10 , one the keeper scored for them . The team talk is going to be easy . Show the commitment and keep the shape the tide will turn , slap a couple for not looking for the first goal . Other than that the defence stayed strong . Sage to stay until players give up 🦅🦅🦅🦅🦅🦅🦅

A few weeks ago I would have said Sage should get more time. He should be livid and emotional tonight, but he continues to look like a passive robot. If he cannot instill at least some passion and desire in the team, when what does he offer. Clearly no defensive or offensive strategy. He seems like a decent bloke. But he isn’t delivering. Neither is the team frankly. But there needs to be a change in leadership immediately to try and salvage our league position. Parish has to act now.

 

[TomH_CPFC]

Commentator: "A win perhaps made easier by Mateta's sending off on the 12th minute..."

That summed up the quality of the commentary.

With JP and 11 men, we had an outside chance of scrapping for something. Once he went off, the game was gone, and it's hard to really properly assess the performance, as the players all worked hard but had no outlet. Having said that, you can't ignore Wharton once again giving the ball away cheaply in dangerous positions and poor defending at set-pieces. I actually thought the defence did pretty well, considering, but our midfield and forwards repeatedly conceded possession too cheaply. And even with 10 men, you would hope we could do more than have one half-chance and no corners.

It didn't help that every 50/50 decision went Spurs' way, but we would expect nothing less from Oliver.

With JSL injured and JP suspended for the next 3 PL games, we're going to be relying on Nketiah.

F**k.

Think I read that JSL is back in training. That's something.

 

[Frenchaigle]

Not at all. This team once fine tuned will get us into champions league. 2 re-enforcements in January. Spirited defence tonight. JP doesn’t get sent off, whole different ball game

Don't bogart that joint my friend pass it over to me .

 

[JHB]

A glance at the fixtures will reveal that 3 out of our next 5 PL games are against Liverpool, Chelsea and A.Villa. The 6th game is against Man Utd who are most likely have a new manager in situ.
Deeply concerning times.

This is something we shouldn’t overlook. We’ve actually had a run of very winnable games in our first 9 games of the season. We’ve played two good teams in Man City and Brighton. We conceded 9 goals in those two. Apart from that we’ve played teams we should be competing with and getting points from. Instead we are in the relegation zone. I dread to think what happens when Sage starts coming into a run of more challenging fixtures and frankly I hope we don’t find out because we desperately need a new manager

 

[TomH_CPFC]

A few weeks ago I would have said Sage should get more time. He should be livid and emotional tonight, but he continues to look like a passive robot. If he cannot instill at least some passion and desire in the team, when what does he offer. Clearly no defensive or offensive strategy. He seems like a decent bloke. But he isn’t delivering. Neither is the team frankly. But there needs to be a change in leadership immediately to try and salvage our league position. Parish has to act now.

Yeah, no point giving him more time to repeat the same mistakes. Too much at stake to keep him on just because he seems like a decent enough chap.

 

[lellbell]

Keep going with sage i don't blame him and I think he can turn it round,Wharton has been awful all season and cannot defend for toffee injuries and constant changing of the back 3 hasn't helped and sulking players is embarrassing nobody else could make this team any better definitely not dyche!sending off today which was bollocks ended the game and I think we done well to only lose 2 but the players look committed and I think we can turn this around

 

[TheBigToePunt]

What will Parish make of tonight?

I'm sure his chief interest was in assessing the effect of whatever Sage did to prepare the team. He will surely have been scouring the performance for signs of what to expect in the coming weeks, regardless of what result we got.

The red card made such an assessment all but impossible. We didn't get to see whether whatever Sage had set out to do was encouraging.

The first goal could lead to questions against the staff, but even then we don't know if the players followed instructions or not.

For me, Sage needed a result, or at least a performance tonight to keep the guillotine from falling. The fact that his chances of getting one were eroded by events beyond his control doesn't change the fact that he didn't get one.

It doesn't matter if someone else spilled your pint if you were drinking in the last chance saloon to begin with.

 

[ripleyeagle]

If that happens we are truly stuffed because JPM will now be out for three games and Sarr is done for the time being. We don’t have three games of Sage to waste. Missing Sarr and JPM aren’t the reason we have the worst defence in the division. When we concede at over 2 goals a game and are in the relegation zone I think we can easily judge Sage now.

If you had those two players you would be attacking more and probably not under so much constant pressure defending as we are this season.

 

[JHB]

Keep going with sage i don't blame him and I think he can turn it round,Wharton has been awful all season and cannot defend for toffee injuries and constant changing of the back 3 hasn't helped and sulking players is embarrassing nobody else could make this team any better definitely not dyche!sending off today which was bollocks ended the game and I think we done well to only lose 2 but the players look committed and I think we can turn this around

Out of interest what do you think Sage is good at that makes you think he can turn it around?

 

[Sansomite]

Don't bogart that joint my friend pass it over to me .

No joint I never inhaled is that strong....must be a crackhead

 

[park the bus]

This is the season we go down unfortunately. We had a good run.

Yep. I predicted this was the season we would struggle against relegation for all the reasons myself and others have commented upon. All the signs were there. As chairman Parish had months to assess the situation last season after Glasner said he was off. Literally 8 or more months to project manage, assess the needs of the squad, find a competent new manager, secure worthwhile transfers that added depth and quality. But he f***ed up on every front. s*** happens.
Looking forward, what can he do to find a solution to the many problems the side faces? Sack the manager. Yeah that's a given easy target to shift the blame for his own ineptitude. Sage will be glad to take his pay-off and return to management in France. Of the known managers who can fire fight in the situation we find ourselves in only Dyche springs to mind as available. So it's likely going to be him then.
Buy in the January window. Well it might work, but decent players will be at a premium and the record thus far under Hobbs is abysmal.
It was all so predictable.

 

[Nutmegyeti]

Keep going with sage i don't blame him and I think he can turn it round,Wharton has been awful all season and cannot defend for toffee injuries and constant changing of the back 3 hasn't helped and sulking players is embarrassing nobody else could make this team any better definitely not dyche!sending off today which was bollocks ended the game and I think we done well to only lose 2 but the players look committed and I think we can turn this around

If you can keep your head - while all those around you are losing theirs, then you probably haven’t understood the seriousness of the situation…..

 

[TheBigToePunt]

Everyone seems to think this squad is awful. I genuinely don’t think it’s that bad. There’s certainly a lot more depth to it now than we’ve had in previous years.

I’m unfortunately old enough to remember the 1990/91 season, when our back four consisted of John Humphrey, Andy Thorn, Eric Young and Richard Shaw, with Geoff Thomas and Andy Gray in midfield.

Everyone remembers Wright and Bright, but here’s the interesting thing. We scored just 50 league goals that season, conceded 41 and finished third in the First Division.

Why? Because we were an exceptionally well-drilled, organised outfit. Every player knew his job, understood the (simple) system and did what was expected of him.

Fast forward to Tony Pulis. Again, we weren’t blessed with an extraordinary squad, but we were organised, disciplined and bloody difficult to beat. The same with Roy.

That’s my fundamental problem with Sage. I actually think we’ve got a fairly decent squad, but I don’t think he’s capable of organising it. And increasingly, I think he’s been found out.

When opposition teams continually exploit the same weakness, particularly balls delivered to the back post, you do something about it. You change the marking, you adjust the defensive shape, you coach the players. That’s literally what a manager is paid to do.

Every opposition team seems to have worked out how to exploit us, yet somehow our own coaching staff haven’t worked out how to stop it.

And if the argument is that we’ve got a limited squad, then surely the manager’s job is to get the absolute maximum out of the players available, rather than persist with a system that clearly isn’t working.

Sean Dyche took Burnley to seventh in the Premier League with a squad that, man for man, I’d argue was considerably weaker than the one we’ve got now.

He did it through organisation, discipline and making the team greater than the sum of its parts.

That’s what good coaching looks like.

I don’t think our biggest problem is the quality of the players. I think it’s the inability of the manager to organise them into a functioning team.

If there is any such thing as a Palace DNA then this is it. I think we as a fanbase are a lot more accepting of functional, hard working football than some others.

 

[silvertop]

Name a time in the last 10 years that we've had a worse defence than what we have now.

Worse PERFORMING defence

 

[Nicholas91]

Everyone seems to think this squad is awful. I genuinely don’t think it’s that bad. There’s certainly a lot more depth to it now than we’ve had in previous years.

I’m unfortunately old enough to remember the 1990/91 season, when our back four consisted of John Humphrey, Andy Thorn, Eric Young and Richard Shaw, with Geoff Thomas and Andy Gray in midfield.

Everyone remembers Wright and Bright, but here’s the interesting thing. We scored just 50 league goals that season, conceded 41 and finished third in the First Division.

Why? Because we were an exceptionally well-drilled, organised outfit. Every player knew his job, understood the (simple) system and did what was expected of him.

Fast forward to Tony Pulis. Again, we weren’t blessed with an extraordinary squad, but we were organised, disciplined and bloody difficult to beat. The same with Roy.

That’s my fundamental problem with Sage. I actually think we’ve got a fairly decent squad, but I don’t think he’s capable of organising it. And increasingly, I think he’s been found out.

When opposition teams continually exploit the same weakness, particularly balls delivered to the back post, you do something about it. You change the marking, you adjust the defensive shape, you coach the players. That’s literally what a manager is paid to do.

Every opposition team seems to have worked out how to exploit us, yet somehow our own coaching staff haven’t worked out how to stop it.

And if the argument is that we’ve got a limited squad, then surely the manager’s job is to get the absolute maximum out of the players available, rather than persist with a system that clearly isn’t working.

Sean Dyche took Burnley to seventh in the Premier League with a squad that, man for man, I’d argue was considerably weaker than the one we’ve got now.

He did it through organisation, discipline and making the team greater than the sum of its parts.

That’s what good coaching looks like.

I don’t think our biggest problem is the quality of the players. I think it’s the inability of the manager to organise them into a functioning team.

100% agree.

I don’t think Sage is up for the job and out of his depth, massively.

I think TBTP said it earlier but regardless, nothing changes if nothing changes. We shall remain in the bottom three, unable to defend, looking a complete shambles until a new manager is brought in with the requisite experience and skill set to turn this group of players into a functioning unit.

There’s no signs of improvement, it’s the same thing every time. Sage hasn’t shown any signs of finding solutions let alone implementing them and our morale will continue to plummet alongside our performances and league position.

 

[silvertop]

Not as fecked off as I thought I would be.

2 - 0 could have been a lot worse.

Fair play backs to the wall and the 2nd goal was unlucky

 

[Casual]

The other 2 games are hull and Coventry, so a pretty average run of premier league games.

A glance at the fixtures will reveal that 3 out of our next 5 PL games are against Liverpool, Chelsea and A.Villa. The 6th game is against Man Utd who are most likely have a new manager in situ.
Deeply concerning times.

 

[Willo]

If you can keep your head - while all those around you are losing theirs, then you probably haven’t understood the seriousness of the situation…..

I for one am in agreement with those who are firmly of the opinion that our situation is serious.
High time for me to depart and imbibe a succession of tinctures.