Crystal Palace v Southampton Match Thread

Yes, agreed with that. I think he's looked good on the ball, certainly.

 

I feel we may be missing out on Gardos, without a run in the team how is he going to get truly match fit and up to speed with the Prem.
Coming in every few weeks for a cup game must be difficult and he will look substandard on those one off occasions.
I am not saying he would be my first choice but would like to see him get a few games just incase we need him to step in at any time

 

I understand that Dark Lord and as Fran says its Catch 22 .... maybe palace is a good game to play him. At least Toby will be there on the cover.

 

Well, that is a very pretty picture but sometimes you have to trust what you are seeing not what the stats appear to show.

The fact is that against Everton we were a better attacking force than we have been in weeks. That set up didn't need Reed charging forward. He did what he was brought in to do and he did it very well. He is more mobile than Wanyama and I think that will be important. It was, as I have said before, a more 'joined up' performance than we have seen recently. That may have been more to do with Ward-Prowse or Davis, I don't know but Reed's ability to scamper about the pitch certainly played its part.

If you'd said we need Wanyama for his ariel ability against a team that are good in the air, then I could have accepted that, but not for the reasons you give

That said, should we get ahead I wouldn't object to Wanyama coming on to bolster the defence.

 

Going to this one. My first Boxing Day match in ages. It's a dump, but will be a cracking atmosphere.

 

Jason Puncheon: "Southampton are a big club, with great facilities and a great fanbase. I have a great connection with them!"

 

Fair enough, I definitely see where you're coming from bu I guess we'll have to agree to disagree.

One of my favourite things about football is how two people can view the same thing so differently!

 

Jason Puncheon, he sh*ts when he wants!

 

Thats one of my least favourite things

Only joking.

 

What's the odds that gets sung on Friday?

 

I am torn between playing a 3-5-2 so that we cause their defence more problems and try and push Bolasie and Puncheon back (they may not track back and leave their fullbacks exposed, Bolasie especially). However, it may be better to have a stronger presence in midfield against Jedinak, McCarthy etc. Maybe a hybrid with Wanyama the third centre back who can sit or slot into the back three? I think offense against Palace is our best defence.

 

I think we saw all we needed to see in Florin Gardos against Arsenal in the League Cup. He's capable of an immense performance alongside Jose, and given a run in the team I suspect he wouldn't let us down once he'd settled. He's not a Saints version of Lovren in a Liverpool shirt. Besides, he's taken the dodgy mantle off Maya Yoshida, who has come on leaps and bounds. Somebody has to be the worst of the 4 CBs. Florin just happens to be the worst of a very good bunch indeed, at present.

 

The bookies only have us as slight favourites for this match, so no one is quite sure.

 

Good debate on the formation. I'm hoping for the lineup in the OP. I think it's just about the more likely Koeman will go with it again than 4-2-3-1. Reverting back to 4-2-3-1 means making more changes to a winning side and going back to the system we were looking out of sorts with. I might be wrong. He might bring Schneiderlin, Wanyama and maybe Tadic in. But I think most managers would stick with the system that's just got them a 3-0 win after no win in six games.

 

The issue of carrying on with Harry was raised with Koeman today...he was asked if it was difficult to drop him after his debut. Koeman came over as neutral (though of course he has praised him before) and said it was good to have options.

 

In a way Reed passing it sideways or backwards does start an attack, as he brings the FBs into play shown by the graph. His job is not to try and beat 7 players through the middle, he wins the ball and then passes the ball (only 3 misplaced passes) to the more forward thinking player

 

Mm factory chimney smoke.

 

I usually go on the opposition forums to see what they are saying. Waste of time in this case. Nothing about game at all on the forums...just endless moaning about ticket prices.

 

View attachment 34472
Just loved this Era ,Southampton team: Eric Martin, Bob McCarthy, Denis Hollywood, Jim Steele, John McGrath, Jimmy Gabriel, Bobby Stokes (Terry Paine), Mick Channon, Ron Davies, Gerry O’Brien, Brian O’Neil
1970/71 season against Palace

 

In an ideal world, I'd have Morgan in for Reed as our only change. However we're not in an ideal, because Fonte is not available.

I'll therefore leave it to Ron's judgement as to whether we bring Gardos in for Fonte and stick with the same formation as vs Everton, or bring Tadic in for Fonte and revert back to our usual formation. I've hardly seen anything of Gardos to comment on him, whilst I also don't know how Tadic has been looking in training. If he's got his spark back, then leaving him out would be a massive call.

Either way, Vic stays on the bench. Making one change to a CM that played vs Everton is fine, but making two doesn't necessarily send out a great message to those who performed so well - especially given that Vic, by all accounts, was pretty shocking vs Burnley and Sheff Utd. No player has a divine right to play and all that.

Palace game is way more important than the Chelsea game, so no resting with Chelsea game in mind please.