Pape Is Not Crap
Okay, to begin with, Pape Souare’s first name is pronounced ‘pap‘ not ‘pap-eh‘ and therefore that is supposed to be a mildly funny and witty headline. Sadly I know you all just groaned at it and put your head in your hands.
Look, let us face it, we have all done that since the game against Arsenal where nothing just seemed to go our way so it is not like I am bringing about a new sense of pain on the emotions.
I am delighted that we have Souare in the Crystal Palace line up and I think that he is going to offer great strength at left back for us but we must be willing to give him time.
Of course there is no denying that I am probably won over more by that idea because of the reality that I do not trust Martin Kelly to be playing in left back, or in fact having the ball at all. I really do see the essential basics of a great player in Souare.
Souare has not played the perfect match either against Liverpool in the FA Cup or against Arsenal in the Premier League but I think that fans should not be too harsh on him and remember that he is new to English football.
As Alan Pardew alluded to earlier in the week after the Liverpool game, Souare does need to adapt from playing in the French Ligue One to the Premier League because they are very different in style and intensity and fans will do to remember that.
This is not the first time that Pardew has brought in a player from French football however, during his time at Newcastle he underwent the mission of training Mathieu Debuchy, something many people would say was successful.
As long as Souare is encouraged to focus on stamina exercises and to learn English to be able to interact with the rest of the squad he will improve very quickly.
Brede Hangeland himself admitted that he too struggled with English football initially until he learnt to deal with the pace and started to learn how to interact with the players.
Of course many people at Selhurst Park for the game against Arsenal will have since watched Match of the Day and various clips of the mistake that Souare made regarding the challenge on Danny Welbeck in the first half and realised that it was actually outside the box.
It was a bad place to foul somebody but he had actually timed it perfectly, sadly the referee and his assistant did not quite see it that way. Interestingly he made the same number of mistakes as Kelly tends to in this game but Souare has better excuses.
I imagine that on the training ground the whole team will get behind him, keep helping him to understand the Premier League, the way that the team works and also help him to know a little bit more about their upcoming opponents.
There is also the fact that Damien Delaney has not been on top form recently and I feel that having a player that is adapting to the Premier League right next to Delaney is not perhaps the best idea at the minute and that is something that Alan Pardew may want to consider.
As much as I love Damien I do feel that he is losing his magical touch and that it is perhaps time to put him on the substitutes bench, at least for a little while, especially with some of the games coming up we could do with some of the extra height that Hangeland gives us.
Let us hope that we can get on the road, have some successes and come back to Selhurst Park to face Queens Park Rangers with a solid team and absolutely smash the poor home form out of the window.
