Welcome back to my fortnightly column here on TEB, after what has been a relatively quiet couple of weeks for us in comparison to previous years.
In fact, it has been a relatively quiet and simple start to the season compared to previous years too, with no last minute panic buys in the transfer window, no frustrating performances or results, and no impending doom on the horizon (touch wood!).
I am writing this off the back of our game against Manchester City, leaving us a little disappointed as we certainly deserved a point from the game which was cruelly taken from us in the dying seconds. City were a tough test for us, and to come away with defeat by just a single goal can still be considered a good result. Their dominance so far this year is obvious and looking like champions already.
The Eagles put up a fight. Some our play was fantastic once again with the wingers linking up well with the rest of the midfield and attacking players whilst our defence put their bodies on the line to prevent a powerful City side getting a goal. Another impressive performance down the left from Pape Souare, who I am beginning to adore, shows what an astute signing he was.
For the first time, I am not concerned in the slightest about potential relegation this season as it looks like we have solid foundations which we can build upon to remain a Premier League team for the foreseeable future.
You can probably tell that I feel good about that result last weekend. In truth, I feel good about any result against a top six side, and that is for only one reason. They spend huge amounts of money on foreign talent, whilst some excellent English players are only handed a small number of chances on the pitch. It is slowly but surely reducing England’s previous dominance in domestic and international football.
Palace are not completely excused from this, because if you look at our squad now compared with five years ago, there has been a large influx of overseas talent. That is because to survive in the Premier League, you need top players. Sadly, the reluctance to play and promote youth in larger clubs, including Palace, has meant that there are very few truly committing themselves to English football. There is a lot of English talent in the lower leagues, which is not given a chance in the Premier League which is a real shame. Something must be done to change that.
I am a strong advocate of creating a rule that Premier League teams must have at least ten English players named in their twenty-five man squads. At least five in a match day squad. Sure, the quality may take a brief dip as we go through a transition period, but the future of English football would be so much brighter as a result of its implementation.
We used to rely heavily on players from our academy. It is disappointing to see very few make it into the first team now, which we really must change. To attract the best British talent, we need to prove that our young players can get game time in our match day squad. I would love to see more of our academy graduates coming off the bench for the last fifteen or twenty minutes of a game to get much needed experience.
The Premier League must shoulder some of the responsibility for the reducing numbers of English players in the league and must, in turn, make a commitment to rectify the situation. Before we know it there is going to come a time where we have one of the best leagues in the world, but an international team floundering and not performing amongst the elite nations like we should.
I really do hope that Palace encourage academy players and graduates into the match day squad more regularly in the near future. Maybe one day, we can compare our academy to the likes of Southampton, who are responsible for developing a large number of top players in recent years.
On a slightly different note, I am very much looking forward to our match against Tottenham Hotspur this weekend. They have are a great team with fantastic infrastructure, however, on the pitch the quality we have got now is on a par with them. I am eager to see how we fare. We had a fantastic win over them last season that featured an outrageous piece of skill from Yannick Bolasie. The 360 turn and flick was masterful, so much so that to my knowledge, he is one of the only players to have used it in a game and is now a skill move on FIFA 16. Grreat credit to him.
While I do not enjoy doing predictions for the fear that I may jinx the result, I am on such a high from our performances recently that I am going to make an exception. We have the quality in our side to match, if not beat, Tottenham. At the moment, their attack (which is solely made up of Harry Kane and little else) is not exactly firing on all cylinders at the moment, and we should be looking to take advantage of that.
It would be great to see Connor Wickham to get a goal, if fit. Many fans have been extremely apprehensive when he arrived, including myself and I was quite critical of him in one of my previous TEB articles. Perhaps a little unfairly. So far, apart from his excellent positional play, he has not really carried a real goal threat. Maybe that is down to a lack of confidence.
My prediction is a 2-1 Palace win with Wickham and Bakary Sako getting the goals with a man of the match performance from Pape Souare. I love the guy and think he is a real creative talent when pushing forward from his full back position.
So pull on your red and blue, get out there on Saturday, and cheer on the mighty Eagles from wherever you are.
UP THE PALACE!
