Palace Throw Away Hard Work And Grab Draw From Jaws Of Victory

This one was tough to take and while the circumstances of losing a well earned lead were different to the weekend at City, this really should have ended in all three points and Patrick Vieira will hold his hands up for playing his part.

TIME/ DATE/ VENUE

7.30pm – 30^th August 2022 – Selhurst Park, Holmesdale Road, London SE25 6PU

RESULT

Crystal Palace 1-1 Brentford

PLAYER RATINGS

UNUSED SUBSTITUTES – 21 Sam JOHNSTONE, 23 Malcolm EBIOWEI, 26 Chris RICHARDS, 55 Killian PHILLIPS, 78 Kaden RODNEY

OPPOSITION LINE-UP

UNSED SUBSTITUTES – 22 Thomas STRAKOSHA, 29 Mads Bech SORENSEN, 30 Mads ROERSLEV, 33 Finley STEVENS

BOB’S POINT OF VIEW

Bob White was a coach at Palace under the tenure of Steve Coppell and Alan Smith and will be sharing his point of view each week in our review article.

“Vieira certainly selected an attacking starting line up which had on paper the potential to ask serious questions of Brentford’s defence. In reality, the first half was a cagey one where each team cancelled the other out through the organisation by Brentford and too many misplaced passes and crosses in the final third by Palace.

 The second half was a livelier affair and when Zaha scored with an excellent strike it appeared that we would stay on the front foot to secure all three points. However, the reverse happened. We sat deeper and deeper giving impetus to an opposition who previously hadn’t seriously troubled us. It was in my opinion compounded by substituting Eze, Schlupp and Olise within a few minute spell, changing formation to a back five, which together basically blunted our attacking and creative options for the remainder of the game. The inevitable outcome happened with Brentford scoring late on from a cross which was poorly defended. We were then left clinging on for a point whilst leaving fans feeling it was two points dropped.

Sometimes managers and players together do have to take responsibility for not winning a game which was there for the taking after scoring the critical first goal. Tactically and substitutions wise lessons will hopefully be learnt by both. Zaha intimated similar in his post match interview.

My man of the match goes to Doucoure. He hardly put a foot wrong. A class act for sure. Looking forward, with the end of the summer transfer window rapidly approaching, it’s clear we need at least two and ideally three incomings. Another midfielder and forward is a must to give us the required squad depth and tactical options.”

TEB VERDICT

It took the Eagles some time to work out what was a tidy Brentford side as the visitors started the game well, but Palace came alive in the second half when kicking towards the Holmesdale. A brilliant goal from Wilfried Zaha set the hosts on their way but they did not capitalise and tactical changes set the tone for the remainder of the game and Palace were all of a sudden on the back foot.

Whether the players take an element of the blame for not applying the new tactics to see out the match or whether Patrick Vieira takes it on the chin for making changes which saw Palace revert to a back five is unclear but there are lessons to be learnt once again after conceding late on. Having said that Palace found themselves under the cosh in the latter stages and could well have lost the game, appearing all at sea defensively.

It was a bitter pill to swallow after witnessing the manner in which Palace had taken the lead, with one of the best goals scored at Selhurst. Zaha was rightly critical in his post match interview which will not have gone down too well, but everything he said was spot on. Palace should have gone on and held out for all three points.

POST GAME QUOTES

PATRICK VIEIRA – “Frustration. It wasn’t pretty from our side. I don’t think we played well enough to create chances but we managed to score that goal and we needed to defend after that and we didn’t do it well enough. We nearly lost the game at the end. I’m happy with a point because they maybe deserved it a bit more than us today.” 

THOMAS FRANK – “I’d prefer to stand here and not talk about us coming from behind and just take it from the lead and go home with three points but I need to praise the boys’ character.

The mentality is not easy. We’re not City or Liverpool or Chelsea, we are Brentford and that mentality deep, deep within the players is really good.

Unbelievable magic from Zaha. That is a world-class goal from him. We know he can produce that moment. One moment where we dropped off slightly. But after that, we went for it. We equalised and had two huge chances when we could have taken three points.”

MATCH STATISTICS

POSITION IN THE TABLE

UPCOMING FIXTURES

03/09/22 Newcastle United (a) – Premier League (3pm)

11/09/22 Manchester United (h) – Premier League (4.30pm)

17/09/22 Brighton (a) – Premier League (3pm)