It was a frustrating afternoon at Selhurst Park on Sunday when Liverpool came to town. Here are my observations from the game.
No friend of mine
Let’s get the refereeing out of the way first. I try not to criticise officials because I believe it can be used as an excuse for a poor performance, which I actually think was the case in the first half against Liverpool. But Kevin Friend made a sequence of increasingly bizarre decisions in the second half which culminated with the awarding of a penalty to the away side in the closing stages of the game. We don’t need to debate whether it was a penalty or not – there is zero chance Palace get that at Anfield – but Friend would do well to remember that if you need to spend that long looking at a particular incident then the likelihood is that there probably isn’t a clear and obvious error. Friend’s efforts in the second half highlighted the declining standard of officiating in the Premier League, something that has impacted more than just Palace this season. Perhaps VAR isn’t the problem after all, but rather the people tasked with overseeing it.
Slow start has Palace playing catch-up
For all the good that came later in the game Palace will be disappointed with how passively they started the match. They will have been even more frustrated to have allowed the best centre back in the league a free run at a corner inside the first ten minutes of the game. The home side looked entirely overwhelmed by and unprepared for Liverpool’s press, which once again exposed those players who aren’t entirely at ease with Patrick Vieira’s desire to play out from the back. Joel Ward and Tyrick Mitchell were regularly hurried into playing the ball up the line, where both Trent Alexander Arnold and Andy Robertson were snapping away at the heels of the wingers they were marking, pushing them back towards the Palace goal.
The visitors suffocated their hosts in the opening half an hour and it took Patrick Vieira most of the first 45 minutes to come up with an answer. Perhaps he’ll regret that his team persistently tried to pass through one of the most effective presses in European football, something that the crowd became increasingly impatient with as the opening half wore on. In any case, getting a result against Liverpool is difficult at the best of times, but even more so when you allow them to storm into a two-goal lead.
Allison saves the day for Liverpool
Most Palace fans would have expected a long afternoon when it became apparent that Liverpool were purring. But a couple of lapses late in the first half should have seen Palace heading into the break with at least one goal to show for their efforts, with Allison denying both Michael Olise and Jean Philippe Mateta. The home side came out for the second half with renewed hope and a slightly tweaked approach. Odsonne Edouard had now joined Mateta through the middle and there was an obvious plan to try and beat Liverpool’s offside trap with balls in behind.
Both Conor Gallagher and Edouard could have scored before the latter did pull one back, and from that point on it felt like a question of when rather than if Palace would find an equaliser. Against a different team and a different goalkeeper they probably would have found it, but a combination of not being ruthless enough and an inspired performance from the Brazilian meant they ultimately came away with nothing. There are some keepers who, when you see them live, look a class above, and unfortunately for Palace Allison is one of them.
Young players continue to step up
The absence of the likes of Wilfried Zaha, Cheikhou Kouyate and James McArthur has illustrated just how inexperienced the rest of this young Palace squad really is. Some of those youngsters looked slightly overawed by the occasion at Brighton last week and there was a danger that they might wilt in the face of a quality Liverpool side. Instead they showed why there is so much in this squad to be excited about. Michael Olise in particular turned Robertson inside out on more than one occasion and could have had a couple of goals of his own, while Joachim Andersen caused Liverpool all sorts of problems with his long passes. It would have been quite a moment if his left-footed shot in the second half had found the bottom corner. I for one was already halfway over the edge of the Upper Holmesdale.
Embracing the chaos
Supporting Palace at the moment feels like glorious chaos. The Liverpool game was the perfect example of the fact that this young team and its young manager can sometimes get it wrong but are constantly learning on the job. Unlike in previous years you never feel like this Palace team are out of the contest, irrespective of the score and irrespective of the opponent. There will be confused performances and frustrating moments as Vieira continues to implement his style and build a squad capable of doing the things he wants, but it’s a journey, a ride, and one that is exhilarating to be a part of.
