The consensus on the message boards is that Schwartu was excellent. Strange to be happy with a four zero defeat. Saw a post that said it the keepers played on the opposite teams we would have won. Fast asleep so cannot comment, but a damming statement if possibly true.
I don't know what Rick expected from Crnac. He was up against probably the best current English CB in Guehi, and Dean Henderson, one of the top English keepers, in goal, and with only Hernandez and Forsyth in the front line with him. Does Rick think Sargent would have done much better? I thought personally that it was a bit unfair to put him in that position without a bit more in the way of support. I was expecting Oscar to start, and Sainz as well.
Dean Henderson might have made a difference; I'm not convinced that Gunn would have. From the dodgy stream I had, I didn't think any of the Palace goals could be laid directly at Long's door.
I was surprised that we paid £8.5m for a player TransferMarkt value at £2m and I was hoping to see encouraging signs in his play over the last two games. Unfortunately there haven't been many. Let's hope this is due to adjustment to the leagues here and improvement will come, but his pressing seemed to be half-hearted and his movement limited. He did manage one shot last night but it was blocked. Schwartau, on the other hand, looked lively and effective when he came on. I'm hoping to see more from both of them in future games, as it's early days.
I think Knapper in his original comments on Crnac was very clear to manage our expectations, the guy is an investment not an expected immediate return. In a way, I think it’s surprising Thorup decided to throw him in the deep end so early - suggests actually that he has already surpassed their expectations in training. It was a tough match and I don’t think he was dreadful, personally - just struggled. The best training! Don’t get me wrong, I agree with your assessment of his performance. But I just don’t think expectations from the club were ever that his up-front cost investment would be realised immediately. So we should probably take their word for it, for now.
He wasnt directly responsible for the goals but I believe Gunn or a better keeper could have done more with them - The overhead kick goal aside. The first one he seemed to sell himself too easily - that may be harsh, 3rd one is chest height and at him, and the fourth (although) potentially took a deflection from an offside player, wasn’t particularly well struck and could have been reached had he gone with his feet instead of his hands
He had at least 2 shots on target that I can recall RER, one in each half. It’s not on him to create the chances though, he didn’t make any poor decisions from what I saw. Hold up play probably isn’t as good as Sargents
According to WhoScored, Crnac had the same number of shots as Mateta (3), the same number on target as Mateta (2), and Crnac's third shot was blocked as against Mateta's which was off target. Of course, Mateta scored with both his shots on target, whereas Crnac did not.
You must often be surprised at how much is reported as having been paid then Rick. Transfermarkt have Idah at £3.5m; Celtic have paid three times that. The fee we have paid to secure Crnac, which may or may not be £8.5m, reflects the situation in which we found ourselves when we withdrew from the Yildirim deal. We got a player we'd been scouting, and reportedly second only to Yildirim on our list of targets for replacing Idah. SVH he isn't.
This got me trying to remember another life member of the NCFC Physio Club. Not sure it's your man, as this players injuries were generally knee-related but it finally came to me last night letting the dog out for a pee at 3am. Matt Jarvis.
Crnac himself said that a big factor weighing with him and his family and advisors in agreeing to sign for us, was that Knapper and Thorup came to them with a development plan already mapped out for him. It was made clear to them where BK and JHT thought he was at, where he could get to, and how they envisaged getting him there. I think this is how BK and JHT have gone about all our recruitment this summer, from Cordoba to Schwartau. They are all viewed as investments, but --- as Thorup has said in several interviews -- with enough to offer in the here and now to turn us into a competitive team at the top end of the Championship.
I’m sure it was Louis Thompson that HMQC was thinking of, but Matt Jarvis spent most of his time alongside Thompson on the injury table
Yes I think this is a key point with this summers signings, they are all young and exciting, but we also can’t expect them to hit the ground running, we may see flashes of ability but these are projects for the next year or 2 or 3. They will do good things but they will likely make a lot of mistakes along the way. We can’t expect them to step in and dominate from game 1
SuffolkCanary named the player I was trying to think of: Louis Thompson. Louis had back-to-back torn achilles injuries. In his first game back after those, he hit the ground and separated his shoulder. He wasn't even on the pitch 90 seconds. More like 30 seconds. I liked Jarvis, although he spent so much time injured. He used to put beautiful crosses into the center of the opposition's box. Unfortunately, there was never a yellow shirt anywhere near.
