It will be if he plays how he played against Strasbourg I rarely knock players but he was not good that night Hoping was just he thought he was too good to be playing in that game - well I am not tbh but I am
a certain amount of nervousness about this one now. We are looking for that response from the team, not words but deeds to show they are at the level they need to be at. This palace side IMO is a mid tier decent team with good organisation, targetting about 50 points and 8th to 10th. They had an average result v arsenal last time out but could have done better on the night in question so they have every right to thinking they can apply a good plan and hit us strongly on the counter. If the shots go on target unlike the numerous breaks the messed up on the first week we could be in trouble. Really we need to see dominance, high work rate, lots of running and I would feel that another lazy perofrmance out of trent could be disastrous. either scare them to chase you back or chase back yourself as zaha will target this big time. It'll be challenging to over take brentford for 3rd given they thrashed the relegation fodder this weekend, but in this block of 4 our max is not 10 and we need to be thinking on delivering that.
IMO we will do the above. Keita will play advanced and central and the other two will try to be more of a 2. of course trent will decide thats no good and he will try play where keita is so salah will play RB and henderson RW. anything bar stay wide and pick out passes to nunez. Gomez to start and run away form zaha rather than engage him (unless of course hes right on the sideline facing away form goal and no danger, in which case he will push the guy over and give a free away) Robertson will play blind balls in to the centre of midfield when we win the ball back just to give palace a chance to intercept. None of this will matter cos kieta will last 23 mins before laying down on the park with a sweat related eye injury and we will bring elliott on.
Football fans are such fragile creatures. One iffy result and already the end of the world is nigh and we begin our slow descent into mid-table mediocrity.
New season, new world mate the team has to show what it is about. Its the old axiom, "yeah but what did you do for me lately?"
yep, and at the other end of the scale - a smash and grab for a point at the bridge in game 2 and you’re nailed on to challenge the title
Spurs have not even noted how long conte will be banned cos the **** got a yellow and a straight red. He shouldn't be let near a spurs game for 4 games.
I'm slightly nervous not because of Fulham but because of what I saw tail end of last season. Yes, I know we won a lot of games and only drew two... But anyone watching could see we clearly weren't playing our best for several months and every game was a bad first half. Until we can start putting in several good first halfs and several wins, I'll be a little nervous that people's expectations of just waltzing into top two this year are too optimistic.
I don't think anyone thinks we'll just waltz into the top two - at most it's a belief that we're good enough to earn that place. Personally, I accepted long ago that I'm no more than an observer, so for the most part I just wait to see what happens without making too many predictions. It's rare for me to have a strong opinion about what we should be doing to improve our chances. I reserve my opinions for what I've seen, rather than what I want to see. My only strong opinion atm, is that Trent should stick to being an attacking FB, and stop dallying with the midfield stuff. And even this is based on an evaluation of what I've seen so far.
yes we should be good enough but importantly YES we have to EARN IT. that's why i'm hoping to see the performance to say that we can match the intensity needed
Not an easy fixture given our poor performance against Fulham. We are going to struggle in midfield all season, the injuries make it worse. However, I think we are shifting the ball forward quicker with Nunez up front and Mane did tend to do a few turns before passing. Fingers crossed for tonight, we need to put in a performance
I think with 5 subs its baout getting 60 good mins from henderson aand 30 from elliott. I don't think its that bad but as the 2 games a week goes on the lack of options for the next 6/8 weeks may bite.