In his press conference today the Gaffer was pretty upbeat about the transfers but put his usual down to earth marker in place, “I’m not Santa Clause - there are no presents. The players need to fight for their places.". He confirmed what we already knew on the selection front - Odoi is ruled out by suspension, Mawson and Ayite are injured. However, he the dropped a bombshell - Ream is also injured !! On Palace, Roy revisits the Cottage not only having just celebrated his Birthday but also having signed a contract extension. He had a fairly quiet transfer window; losing Cabaye and bringing in Kouyate of West Ham an Max Meyer on a free. The pinacle of the time though is he didn't lose Zaha. Pretty sure we know what to expect tactics wise. Roy's concentrated on making them solid and organised at the back, energetic in the middle and plenty of balls into the channels for their front three - Zaha, Benteke and Townsend - to run onto. The individual threat of Zaha doesn't need any explanation. For us. The loss of Ream is a huge blow. It's almost like the start of last year when we lost Cairney - I know he started the first game against Norwich but he clearly wasn't fit. No idea what Ream's problem is but hopefully it's nowhere near as bad as Cairney. The main question is who of the new boys Jokanovic will play? The team selections pre-seaon have been pretty patchwork and no real pattern has emerged. Few of the 'newbies' have had game time though and the Gaffer, in the past, has tended anyway to keep them on the training pitch for a week or two to get properly fit and used to their team mates. An exception is Joe Bryan who had a Champioship match with Bristol City last wekend. Don't think he'll start though. Going for something similar but not quite the same, as Surly in the other thread - and allowing for the enforced Ream change: ...................................Rico............. ...Christie...Chambers..Le Marchand..Sessegnon.. ..............................McDonald... ..............Cairney...................Seri..... .....Kamara.............Mitrovic......Schurlle.. Bryan to come off the bench and push Sessegnon forward if needs be.
I almost agree, but I think Bryan will start, meaning Sessegnon takes The Aboubanater's place in the forward line. I'm hoping Rico starts in goal, though that one could go either way between the two newbies. The only other maybe is Fosu-Mensah, though I think Christie will get e nod. Really looking forward to this one. Like Fulhaman, I'm making one of my all-too-rare trips to the Cottage (though I'm not travelling nearly as far to do so!)
Great you, and especially the boys, are getting to the first one Captain. Hope the 'lucky mascot' turns up trumps. Likewise very tempted with Bryan and even Fosu. Simply think Jokanovic won't want to completely change the back line. Really, really disappointed about Ream - with him may have got me definitely agreeing. Wasn't at all impressed by Le Marchand at CB in the friendly against Celta but the saving grace is that at least this time he'll be on his proper left side. So who knows.
Wonder if Jokanovic is tempted to play Mensah since he will know the Palace players like Zaha, but I guess that works both ways they'll know him. No note on why Bettinelli has been dropped. Has not been reported injured. If Jokanovic has fallen out with Bettinelli again I'll be a bit upset because for me Bettinelli was one of the reasons we went on our unbeaten run. Jokanovic can be stubborn to the detriment of the team, in players he likes to play and those he leaves out..
All the best to the boys on 606, wishing you all a great season back. Very excited about this game, the team have made a great start. Very positive. COYW
At the end of the day Palace's experience at this level told. And not just Roy doing a SuperBri and making us play towards the Hammy End in the first half. And what a good first half we had. After a nervy first 5 minutes we settled into our expected style with everyone playing their part - 67% possession. Hennesey had 2/3 terrific saves from Mitrovic and efforts from others were thwarted by great blocks. But .. we still weren't clinical enough. Second half was much the same until the Fabri flop killed the game. Up till then it full of "what ifs?" - we seemed to have a a stone wall penalty when Schurrle was brought down; if only our crosses had been better executed and Kamara's curler a fraction lower. Disappointing of course but more positives than negatives. Chambers looked solid, Seri tencious and full of quality (albeit another if only, some of his passes had more penetrating) and Bryan slotted in really well (hopefully his injury - an ankle initially brought about by a cynical tackle from behind - isn't too serious). Still ruing the lack of quality of our crosses though.
To right it was show time from one of the biggest Drama Queen Referee's in the Premier 'Mike Dean' Welcome back to the world of Premier Referee's acting for the TV audience.
Can't get the sound to work on my machine but safe to say even Robbie Savage agrees with you SuperBri.
Yes, plenty of positives. I thought Chambers was our best player on the day, and it looked to me as if he was taking responsibility for organising the rest of the defence. Ceri, Bryan and Le Marchand all looked good, as did Vietto, albeit without getting enough time to really show himself. I didn't think Schurrle and Christie ever looked on the same wavelength as each other, and personally I found Christie's decision-making really frustrating. On the day I was unimpressed with Fabri, though watching the highlights he was better than I thought at the time. I'd still rather see Rico next time though.
I thought we started brightly but didn’t build on the positive start. Very frustrating that we didn’t seem to want to attack and were content to hold the ball and go backwards or sideways too often. I even saw McDonald trying to get others forward with hand gestures. Rico must play next week. He is so much better than Fabri. Gave me palpitations when he came rushing out in the second half. My son said the word was Slav had assessed Fabri in training and come to the conclusion he wasn’t up to the Premiership. I’d say he was right. Loved Seri, though. Bandy as anything, mind, but very impressive debut.
