Match Day Thread Southampton vs Crystal Palace Sat 28th Dec 3pm

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We all know that Palace, having an old school British manager, will play deep with two backs of four strung across the back then they lump it up to Benteke and Zaha who will either break on us or if no options they will throw themselves to the floor and get free kicks about 30m out so they can bring up the big guys from the back and lump it into the box.
Its that simple, just don't get overly excited and overstretch ourselves at the back by over committing to attack
Benteke is injured.
 
I wonder if Roy will be tempted to rotate a little after their win yesterday? I'm not greedy, just let Zaha have the day off so he can go shopping with his wife. That will do me......and keep James out of trouble.
 
Would take a point from this.
Stylistically this is the sort of team we really struggle against, and they will be more than happy to give us the ball and see what we can do with it while breaking with Zaha.

So let's give them the bloody thing back :D

It's clear that neither team will want the ball too much, so I predict that the team that is best at giving the ball away quickly will win ...

... and that's got to be us, surely! :rolleyes:

Same team, just a choice of which strikers to play
I like us with a pacey striker so I'd start with Obafemi and happy to either give Che another go alongside him with Ings on early 2nd half or Ings starting
Depends how mouch time he wants Ings to be on over this period. The fact we won and he was only on for 20 yesterday is :emoticon-0148-yes:
 
no need for sarcasm .
That wasnt sarcasm, i dont know what youre trying to say and was trying to explain myself. Palace is far better than its repuation, United far worse. I think players up their performance to take a big scalp so i would bet on us to give a better performance against United(or in this case, Chelsea) than Palace. I don't think that's insulting to Crystal Palace.
 
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I would much rather be playing Palace away than at home, to be honest. It's not a coincidence that we've struggled at home to them in recent years, but done well at their place. They are such an away team.

It is clear as day, this season and last, that we are better without the ball. The closer we get to 50% (or more) possession in match, the more likely we are to lose. Unfortunately though, Palace are the kings at not wanting the ball. Our strategy is largely their strategy too - only they have employed it for longer than us, and as such are generally better at it than us. But, arguably most of all, as the away side tomorrow it will easier for them to implement than us. There is no expectation on them, as the away side, to get on the front foot.

If we try and assert dominance on the game, as the home side, I would fear for us. If we try and replicate our strategy of sitting back and hitting them on the counter, I would fear for a horrendously dire game and quite possibly our first 0-0 in a very long time; a match where both sides are desperate to let the other side have the ball, and come out of their defensive third.

As a one-off match, I'm not against the latter option. I dire 0-0 is still a point gained - and it would only take a set piece to see us nick it 1-0. But I'm not sure if our fans would generally accept that. I could see it leading to a negative reaction, which it turn could see us changing our style to try and come out and play football.
 
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A win tomorrow would out a bit of daylight between us and the teams below with Brighton playing Bournemouth and Villa up against Watford. Someone will obviously be taking points from their relegation rivals. Norwich have a tricky match against Spurs. The Saints fans are overdue a performance where we tonk the opposition, I would like us to put the Palace hoodoo to bed.
 
A win tomorrow would out a bit of daylight between us and the teams below with Brighton playing Bournemouth and Villa up against Watford. Someone will obviously be taking points from their relegation rivals. Norwich have a tricky match against Spurs. The Saints fans are overdue a performance where we tonk the opposition, I would like us to put the Palace hoodoo to bed.

Pretty much nail on the head Ian :)
 
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We haven't won a last calender year game since 2010.
Palace haven't since 2011.

A draw it is then.

But while we're reversing history, we have won three times thus far this month, and the last time we won more than twice in December (a month that generally features 5+ matches), it was 2009...and our vanquished foes were Wycombe, Walsall, Tranmere and Exeter.