If pigs had wings would Ryan air go out of business. 
Except he wouldnât get away with it. We have players well capable of doing such things, but more often than not get the card anyway. Only Milner seems to have acquired any form of knack for avoiding the card, but even he hasnât escaped it lately.
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there were two CB on the pitch for that goal, the other one was holding the same line as Phillips. Not sure why Nat is getting the shtick here. If anything, it shows they were both caught out by a good ball and a very pacy striker whilst playing a high line and too many players committed forwardâŚ
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We got lucky on a second one later again VVD was off the pace.
Weirdly looks how he was before he got into his stride last season. Same goes for TAA which makes more sense if thatâs how he plays early season.
the shortened preseason doesnât help. we may have crammed in too many games which caused a few injuries - Man city have started much better and they had an extra 2 weeks off iirc⌠in regards to playing friendlies.
Maybe weâll get the benefit of this later on in the season.
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If Phillips was in line with Van Dijk then Zaha would have been offsideâŚ
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Anyway, we should have won. Once we start winning games everything will be fine, Man City will drop points and no one else is relevant.
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this is where the problem really lies. really easy to hang Nat out to dry here but being isolated 1-1 with Zaha is a challenge for anyone.
Trent is caught too far up field (again) and Eze playing LM behind him draw Fab out of position. no way Milner is getting across to cover the two CM for palace who are now able to break with Zaha. Fab really should have marshalled Eze towards the sideline and NOT let him cut inside.
Iâm sure that Nat sees this and realizes heâs fucked. Tries to play the trip and is 2/10th of a second too late. Heâs really hung out to dry here. Not even Virg who is already tracking back and is on Natâs side of center already can close him down.
if Trent isnât so advanced, this counter is null.
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If Trent isnât so advanced then he wouldnât be doing his job for the team. Heâs our main attacking outlet and he was our primary weapon for the majority of this game. Mad that his role still has to be explained.
You are absolutely right that Fabinho should have stopped this. I wasnât breaking down the whole goal, only the part of the goal related to Phillips. Fabinho has been a big problem for a long time now.
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Havenât read all the comments (FYI) but with Phillips i do feel eze?? could have released the ball earlier had phillips been inline with VVD. even a second earlier and zaha is away. was the perfect opportunity for palace - the one they probably dreamt of prior to the game.
I know you arenât lambasting philips for it ⌠i am just trying to se the goal from if it was salah and diaz in the same situation. Itâs good play by palace unfortunately for us.
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and this is how teams set up against us. low block, clear the ball out to the channels and hit on the counter.
When you have 75% possession as we did at the time, this is how you get scored on. By advancing too many bodies up the pitch.
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whilst i understand the logic of this thought process, i really dont think its a factor.
this is first team premier league football.
if Darwin needs his big brothers to come in and sort out an arguement for him then thats a red flag in itself.
is Milner expected to have a âquiet wordâ with every centre half that niggles at Darwin?
nah.
had the exact same thing this season in the old mans league i play in, where our centre half was complaining when he got sent off for all game niggle with thier centre forward that no one stepped in during the battleâŚi meanâŚits not primary schoolâŚ
which is why konate and his pace helps us out so much! we just didnât take our chances because if we did ⌠weâd be annoyed at how we conceded but understanding like you say that it is a consequence of how we play the game
Konate, Matip and Gomez all pacyâŚAnyways, moving onâŚ
I completely disagree for reasons I explained in several post but that is fine, no problem.
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I disagree. Itâs about the vastly experienced players in the team, helping the young members of the squad. What if it had been Carvalho who Anderson decided to pick on, would you expect Henderson and Milner to âturn the other cheekâ?
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To me it looks like the team is still hungover from coming so close to the quadruple last season. I know itâs a new season but the players are human and still disappointed about how last season ended
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Pep mentioned it in his book. Itâs 3 diamond 3 (without the striker). Itâs a last 20 minute thing I believe. He said they would put Robbo and Trent in a back three with Virgil though
Looking at TAAâs positioning for the last 20 minutes, I would have put Carvalho on for him and left Elliot on.
Elliot was playing a lot better than Trent.
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