Very much agree - Yoshida was excellent tonight and zero brain farts. He cut out so many Palace attacks. All three central midfielders worked hard and were tenacious throughout and passed the ball around well save a few sloppy passes from Clasie towards the end. Like Dave said, Hesketh was not in the game from the start and struggled to get a foothold for much of it, but what was so impressive is that when he did get the ball in a bit of space he utilised it almost perfectly every time. His passing is superb and were it not for our continued struggles in front of goal he would have had a couple of assists to add to his well taken strike
Only just finished work and seen score. Can anyone summarise? on the surface looks fantastic- squad rotated, young players given chance, comfortable win against PL opposition. Well done Puel!
Reduce Palace to long-ball tactics and we always looked a threat on the break. Hesketh could have have had a hattrick of assists if we were clinical. Long needs to find the net.
Basically a midget midfield bamboozled the big Palace boys, Austin scored another penalty, after a handball and Long being tripped, not sure which offence the penalty was given for, we had a hat full of opportunities that were squandered, Palace never got into the game at all, they weren't allowed to. Hesketh had a very good game with some exquisite passes and capped by a superbly finished goal, Cuco excellent, Maya excellent, Targett very good, Clasie perpetual motion, Reed assured, Fonte a Captains performance, Long never stopped being a thorn in the Palace side, Austin could have done better finishing, but clever Penalty, JWP one of his better efforts, McCarthy mostly redundant, did what he had to do, good distribution, Subs. Redmond busy, Hojbjerg pass perfect, Tadic, no time to get involved. Palace? Well they must have had an off night, how else would we have beaten them?
Pretty even until Scott Dann went off with an injury, and his replacement Kelly[?] promptly gave away a penalty, from which Austin scored. That freed Saints up and we never lost control of the match from that point, whether defending or attacking. Palace huffed and puffed, but simply didn't have the ambition or guile to break down our rather well organised defensive unit. I thought we might suffer through lack of height in the defensive midfielders, but no. Jose and Maya were largely untroubled, with McCarthy facing Palace's first on-target shot on 82 minutes. Puncheon came on to do a Pirlo, but they had already looked beaten after Hesketh scored in the 2nd half. If you could put all into one sentence - Saints were quick and Palace were slow.
So Sunderland will be the 25th/26th of October.....fixture list piling up now: Sun 25th - West Ham (A) Thurs 29th - Be're Sheva (A) Sun 2/10 - Leicester (A) international break Sun 16/10 - Burnley (H) Thurs 20/10 - Inter (A) Sun 23/10 - Man City (A) 25or26/10 - Sunderland (H) Sun 30/10 - Chelsea (H) Thurs 3/11- Inter (H) Sun 6/11 - Hull (A) international break (?) Sat 19/11 Liverpool (H) Thurs 24/11 - Sparta (A) Sun 27/11 - Everton (H) league cup if we beat Sunderland Sat 3/12 - Palace (A) Thurs 8/12 - Be're Sheva (H) Sun 11/12 - Boro (A) That's a hell of a run, if we beat Sunderland then we won't actually have a midweek off until mid January as the busy December period starts after that Boro game
Wow, that's crazy, that is a lot of bloody games. Still think we needed to bring on board another striker, but lets see what we can do. A few points in the league so we can chuck ourselves into the cup matches, that;s my hope.
THAT'S why Puel is playing the diamond and rotating the squad, it is to guard against burnout to key players.
Just got back. Good performance. I thought Hesketh had real class every time he had the ball. Palace were woeful, really. We just need a natural finisher and we'll be golden. Reed and Hesketh are good enough to make it here, I am sure.
Probably been written here lots (I can't be arsed to read through the thread..), but that Hesketh kid looks pretty decent.
So pleased for Jake Hesketh ... must have had such a point to prove after the fat lying dutchman wrote him off last year.
We were definitely still playing the diamond, just finding our shape a little quicker without the ball I now think, which is essentially a 4-3-3.
Feel like it's a bit presumptuous to assume it was all down to Koeman that Hesketh didn't get in the team last year. This might well have been the timetable established for him, to have some consistent football for the 21s last season after a fairly serious injury to allow him to get back up to full speed and confidence to get back involved with the first team squad this year. And obviously it was Koeman who gave Hesketh his debut after all, even if it was amidst a minor injury crisis. Can definitely say he outright shunned some other players (rightly or wrongly), but perhaps first team football was not part of the clubs plan for Hesketh last year anyway.
He was only out for a couple of weeks, it was hardly a serious injury. Koeman publicly shunned Hesketh when asked about a new contract/amidst Man Utd interest, saying it wasn't his business.
Can I just say how much credit Claude Puel deserves for how he's handled the squad rotation and tactics for the last week? Superb, that man.
One of my favourite parts of the game has to be Wilfried-I-am-the-dogs-bollocks-and-too-good-for-you Zaha getting increasingly angry with getting stuck in Targett's pocket, which was rounded off by Matty nutmegging him.
