"Crystal Palace v Swansea (13:30 BST) These are the games that Crystal Palace have to win if they are going to stay up, especially when you bear in mind that Swansea have had a tough week - playing Liverpool on Monday and travelling to Valencia in the Europa League on Thursday. Swansea have not got a massive squad either, although I have to say that in the last half-hour of their 2-2 draw with Liverpool I thought they were very good. Palace will be ready for them - I can imagine their manager Ian Holloway saying to his players 'look, this lot will be dead on their feet here - let's have a real go'. I think Palace will beat them too. Prediction: 2-1" That is what Mark Lawrenson thinks, he should have waited until tonight before making his prediction because he'd have seen that we rested Williams and Routledge, gave Davies and Shelvey a substitute appearance, Britton was banned so had the pleasure of putting his feet up, had the welcome chance to bring Michu off early to conserve his energy, added to the selection headache by allowing Bony and Poz another game to build up match fitness... I cannot speak for later in the season but due to Valencia effectively allowing our players to make the ball do all the work I'd say this Europa League fixture may have a muted effect. Yes Europa League can be a drain, but not after that match because there will be five changes we can realistically expect. Palace will not make the same mistake as good old Mark who always goes against the Swans, they'll know this team has just hit some really scary form.
I would like to play Pozuelo because whoever he play, he is allways extremly aggressive and direct. So is Shelvey. He never play 90 %. So i actually think we will be better against the "smaller" teams this year.
I agree, they never want to stop so that added with Michu who runs like a beast the work rate will be high. But we MUST watch out for Jonny Williams, he can split open even the best defences and hopefully he is still unavailable.
Rangel and Davies pretty much only played half a game also. Out of my probable starting 11, only Vorm, Chico and Bony played the 90 minutes tonight
I watched the Palace v Sunderland match and Palace played some good football, beating Sunderland 3-1. It will be a far tougher match than Valencia (Never thought I would hear myself say that) and I would be happy with an away Premiership point. 2-2
After witnessing the last few games we have bossed teams who are traditionally much better than us. The Swans are coming into their own as a squad. It will be men against boys against Palace if the last few games are anything to go by.
I like the way Palace play and believe they have a good chance of staying up, but. . We are hittomg form now, things are clicking. In the second half against Liverpool and last night we moved through the gears and are now playing fluid football. A good win for us I think.
Agree with Terrorwit. This is the season we are in - two games most weeks the further we go in cup competitions. These are the games that we must win, games against the weaker opposition, since our starting XI will rotate through the squad and it's rarely going to be full strength / ideal XI that is starting. Injuries and suspensions will compound our problems over time. The way we are starting to play now and the depth in our squad, we should be going into Palace and leaving with 3 points. Nothing is easy or to be taken for granted - but this must be our mission this Sunday.
Our problem is going to come in dealing with high energy teams that historically have given us problems. The trouble is, every team we face will now play with energy because that is the common sense thing to do. Most managers know they can't out-football us, so they will resort to physicality. I don't necessarily mean dirty play but I expect us to be pressed by hard-working/running teams seeking to expose, what they will perceive, our tired legs. Michael Laudrup has a real juggling act in front of him in terms of team selection and I can see us adding players in the next window as injuries and suspensions take their toll. It was noticeable against Valencia that we took our foot off the gas when the game was safe (even before then), strolling through the game expending minimum effort and just passing it simply between ourselves. A glaring example was Dyer and the full backs continually refusing to exploit huge gaps down the flanks by bursting into them at speed. Instead, the players checked back and held the ball up in order to retain possession, rather than busting a gut to set up another scoring opportunity, which might have led to lost possession and having to deal with a counter attack. Had we played at 100% tempo, I firmly believe we might have doubled our score. As it was, we had done more than enough in a great display and it made sense to conserve energy. The players now have to alter their mind set. Valencia couldn't get near us (even with 11) but you can bet that Palace, even now fighting for survival, will and we will have to deal with "in your face" challenges all through the game. However, we should now have the confidence, and we definitely have the class, to deal with this and get a result. But it all depends on our players making sure that their approach and attitude will be a whole lot different from last night's stroll.
We might well see a few changes for Sunday to freshen up the team. Tremmel for Vorm. Ash for Chioc. Amat hasn't played much and give Chico a rest. Leon for Canas Shelvey for De Guzman Routledge for Michu. Poz playing in Michu's position.
I don't mind changes so long as we keep some big hitters/game changers on the bench. If we can manage (won't be easy by any means) to get a handy lead, I wouldn't mind seeing a cameo from Alvaro. Fresh players should include Ash, Leon, Ben, Jonjo, Routs - and Vorm didn't break sweat. Come to that, I think the travel took more out of the players than the game itself.
I don't necessarily agree Palace will be in our face. They are a good footballing side who are quick on the counter attack.
