Our weekly feature continues with Paul Price bringing us his views on Palace from the events of the last seven days …
Anfield was always going to be a very tough place to go to with Liverpool having a great squad, the England captain driving the midfield and arguably the most deadly striking partnership in the Premiership. Add to this our injury woes at the back, the ‘SAS‘ were surely going to have a field day against our ex-Championship quality defence.
Having been completely over-run by Swansea and then beaten by Southampton by two clear goals with the Palace shots on target tally in these games resembling that of a blind man on a rifle range, the signs were not looking good. Many people feared and some expected a scorel line on the same scale as the drubbing we received at Anfield back in 1989. It was definitely noticeable that there were a lot more people anticipating a repeat of that result rather than the FA Cup Semi-Final result later that same season.
Despite this, the main fear was not of defeat or even a big defeat. It was more about our team not performing and potentially replicating a few of the behaviours that have crept into games recently around the perceived lack of spirit, communication and direction.
With less than twenty minutes gone, Palace were two down with goals from Suárez and Sturridge. Based on this, maybe it was going to be a similar drubbing again or even worse. But this did not tell the true story. Palace were actually doing okay at times and were not completely overrun. We even had the audacity to have a few attacks and shots ourselves during the half. Palace looked absolutely dead and buried based on the score line when Moxey was adjudged to have tugged back Sterling as he burst into the box nearing half time. Palace once again on the wrong end of a harsh decision. With the dubious penalty well converted by Gerrard, Palace went in at half time three goals down. Many wondered if this would destroy our spirit for the second half but (queue uplifting music) a fresher looking Palace side re-emerged with Jerome being substituted for Campaña and Kébé replaced by the baby faced assassin Dwight Gayle.
The second half for Palace was much improved from the first and many Palace fans were thrilled to see Bolasie take to the field replacing Chamakh.
This was another lift to the team and fans with all three substitutions making a very positive impact. It is believed that the young composed Spanish shoulders of Campaña are the key to getting Palace playing better and more assured this season based on this and previous performances. Bolasie showed some of what we all witnessed last year and Gayle showed excellent movement and vision with the lofty forward rewarded with a headed goal. Hopefully this goal will be the catalyst for young Dwight in boosting his confidence for the season ahead.
One thing for sure is that it must be a dream come true to have been a carpenter three years ago and then to score at Anfield in the Premiership this weekend.
So, what have we learnt this week?
- Campaña must start without a shadow of a doubt for his creative element and composure on the ball.
- Jedi and O’Keefe are definite starters along with Bolasie and one other wide man – so two wingers!
- Moxey and Ward are only the definites in the back four that’s plagued with injury and holes in the centre particularly. If we play a 4-5-1 formation then Gayle must start for his movement and pace alone. The jury is still out, in my opinion, on Chamakh.
- We looked much better when we pressed higher up the pitch rather than letting the opposition impose themselves on us as we have done in previous weeks. We are just not good enough to soak up the pressure in our half and break as our main game plan. The defence tends to panic and lack composure at times which has pretty much resulted in most of the open play goals scored against us this season and the Ashley Young penalty.
- Based on the above, perhaps the best form of defence for Palace is to attack with Jedi holding and covering in front of the back four.
- As per last week’s article, Jerome and Chamakh is not the partnership for me and if Holloway insists on playing two up front then I would probably go for more of a little and large set-up with Jerome or Chamakh with Gayle
- The second half performance for Palace at Anfield is one that we can take a lot of heart from as we go into the International break. Winning the second half and playing much better will hopefully set us in the right direction before the Fulham game
- We need to take our chances. Liverpool had thirteen shots on goal and Palace had eleven. Of these attempts, Liverpool hit the target seven times and Palace hit the target just twice. Enough said on that subject as the numbers speak for themselves.
In other news, ‘Limon’ Marange has left the club under mutual consent. It is expected that his contract was finally terminated and he has returned to France. Sacre Rouge et Bleu!
Chamakh believes that it is acceptable to go down in the box and dive as he “would have got the penalty if he was playing for Arsenal”. Apparently he got the hairdryer treatment from Holloway (pity that it wasn’t the clippers treatment to get rid of that stupid mullet!) but escaped a fine.
I still think that he dived, should have shot and should have got fined too but, that is only my opinion.
The moaners and the Holloway brigade have been out again in force over the weekend which is a real shame. We are just seven games down and a very mixed bag of opponents coming up. The performance at Liverpool in the second half was much, much better than that of previous weeks, there are a few of the guys coming back from injuries and the best formations are slowly coming together so let’s see where we actually are and assess the situation on after the Cardiff game or perhaps even at Christmas after the Newcastle game. By this time, things will surely have fallen into place and we will have played a few of the teams in our own mini-league towards the foot of the Premiership.
