Match Day Thread Swansea City v. Crystal Palace

Swansea City vs. Crystal Palace

Saturday 6 February 2016
15:00 at The Liberty Stadium

Following Tuesday night's away match at The Hawthorns, the Swans welcome Crystal Palace to The Liberty Stadium when Swans' fans will (hopefully) have the opportunity of seeing new striker Alberto Paloschi make his home debut.

However, it will not be Alberto's first match at The Liberty - he has played there previously when representing Italy Under 21s against Wales. Alberto scored Italy's only goal in a match that was won 2-1 by the home side. Let's hope for another home victory - with Alberto's name also on the scoresheet!

Talking of strikers, Palace's Conor Wickham has received a 3-match ban meaning he will miss his side's FA Cup fourth-round tie against Stoke on Saturday 30 January, the Premier League game against Bournemouth and either the match at Swansea (or the FA Cup replay against Stoke, if one is required).

Palace have recently signed Emmanuel Adebayor to supplement their striking opportunities - let's hope they don't get many opportunities at the Liberty!

Last season's corresponding fixture ended in a 1-1 draw, with Bony scoring his 18th PL goal in calendar year 2014, but that was cancelled out by a Jedinak penalty after a foul committed by Jonjo Shelvey on Marouane Chamakh.

Given the combination of Francesco Guidolin's first time in charge of a home match, and Alberto's home debut, I'm going for a 2-1 home victory

 

2-0 victory and a winning run of 4 from 4

 

Bit premature (but not in the way you're thinking) to call this one until I've seen the performance and line up against West Brom but definitely optimistic again - after so long. And it's a great feeling!

 

Re: Palace vs Stoke FA Cup game , whether there is a replay on Saturday or not it's a win win for us .If we play Palace on Sat Wickham is out .If our game gets bumped it gives massive time for Guido to work on team tactics and Paloschi extra time to get up to speed .
Gayle may play a part in this game , not sure if it will be a home or away game for him though .
Palace 1 -0 over Stoke in the FACup , no Wickham on Saturday against us .

 

Crystal Palace will come to the Liberty having list their last 5 PL matches, and having won 1 in the last 8.

Swansea have won 2, drawn 1 and lost 2 of their last 5 PL matches.

 

We'll win this.
Paloschi to start.
Got to get a grip of Bolasie if he plays.

4-6 points required from the next 2 home games.

 

No room on the bench for Paloschi the rest of the way imo , he is what we've been missing since the end of August

 

Yes, it's a game we should be looking to win if you take a glance at the form book. However I have more than a few concerns.

We did well last night because of an enforced change that brought Paloschi on. The Manager then tried to shut up shop at one nil which was complete folly. Neither of these facts fills me with confidence to be honest because it looks as if he's an overly cautious type of coach - very Italian. There's a place for that but I believe in our position we have to be brave at times and positively go out to bury teams. But he is still learning about the Prem and maybe he'll change tack at home.

Linked to that I'm also very concerned about the Manager's reluctance to use Montero, and particularly Barrow who was showing great promise. I really hope we see more of them and my fears are unfounded.

However there are positives. Paloschi looks a superb acquisition and we seem to be much more positive going forward - at least with him on the pitch.

As for the game, Adebayor is always a problem when he plays against us and Williams & Co will have to be at their best to handle him if he plays. But I'm going 2-0. Hope I'm right.

 

Not overly concerned by last night.
Away from home against a bunch of dirty, physical, cynical bastards....good point I reckon.
Just gutted it wasn't all 3 as that would have been perfect....we were seconds away from perfect!

Paloschi was on the bench because he'd been here under a week and hadn't played a minute with his new team mates.
He is nailed on to start the next game I reckon.
I fancy him to score at least one.

I too reckon we'll score 2 at home....if this plays out, whether it will be enough to get us the 3 points depends on how we cope with them.
Forgot about Adebayor, he is a motherfucker when he plays against us!
He will boss us in the air if he starts.
It's all about cutting the supply I reckon....starving them of possession (I want to see it up near 60% possession to us, that should be the target at home) and when we do need to defend keeping a grip of their pacy, tricky, wingers....Zaha, Bolasie and Puncheon.
Bolasie in particular scares the **** out of me.
If we are up their arse and crowding them off it there should be less opportunities for Adebayor and the likes of Cabaye arriving late in the box.

Wonder if we'll see Gayle get on? He can cause trouble too.


Overall I am still feeling confident, more so! Now Paloschi has confirmed that he can fit in here.

 

If we go 2-nil up I reckon we should start a new chant;

"Ah, ha, ha, ha, stayin' alive, stayin' alive.
Ah, ha, ha, ha, stayin' alive."

 

@Kifflom!

I did warn you that we can expect Sousa style tactics to start with, and it's to be expected the way we have leaked goals this season, Italian football is all about defence and counter attack, you will see Franco experiment with the players, obviously to get the best out of the formation, as in Naughton's inspired RB switch last night, I'm more than happy to see this cautious approach this season, it will build confidence and keep us up..........

 

Yes I can just hear the fans reaching those falsetto notes, Terror.

 

I can see Palace getting one so 2-1

 

Would be hilarious I reckon

 

3 points from the next 2 games is a must , anything more is gravy .
7 points from our last 3 games looks very promising , considering 2 were away games and we haven't started our new striker in a game yet . Trying to get ahead of teams like Bournemouth and West Brom and trying to keep ahead of Newcastle are a want for me .....keeping our nose ahead of Norwich and Sunderland is a need .
Very confident we can get at least a few past the Palace guard .2-0 clean sheet win .
Palace has massive injury and suspension problems for this game .Puncheon , McArthur and Bolasie are all out injured .Wickham is out suspended and Cabaye is fighting fitness to get back.
Lesley and Gayle are also iffy .Pardew says Abybyour(sorry for spelling ) won't start either

 

Me too, I'm going with a 2-1 also Glam, games in the Prem are so tight................

 

there is only one result that will be a positive and that is a home win, Draw or lose are both negatives...

 

When we were at our best a few seasons ago, "The Swansea Way" we defended, passed the ball, kept possession, pressed hard and then tried to hit teams on the break. As far as I can see and we have yet to have a home game under him, Franco is trying to do the same. When having a slender lead like last night I have mixed views about protecting it or going for it. On the whole I would opt for the former and I suspect most managers would too. The problem last night was that West Brom had a lot of tall players and were always likely to get something in a goalmouth scramble In these situations we need to defend in the area between the halfway line and penalty area to cut of supplies. This is what Franco will probably work on in training and may play a three at the back for this reason with midfielders and wing backs defending this middle area.

 

Agree, though we did defend the area between the halfway line and box pretty good on times last night, but it is difficult to do with route one long ball..

 

Lets stop all this nonsense talking about the Swansea way, We have not played the Swansea way since Brendan was here. Lets play the winning way as that is what wins us games.....To make the manager play a certain way and stick to it is doing us no favours at all.