I think that’s 2 wins out of 12 in normal time since the ‘new’ Wembley opened. An abysmal record.
We played well for 25 minutes but then reverted to the absolute fucking shite we’ve served up since for the past 6 months apart from the home game v PSG and the 2nd half against Everton.
Despite all the money spent pre-season the squad is weaker than it was last season and the bench still heavy with players Slot clearly doesn’t trust.
2 big signings are needed this week, CB and striker. Salah and Van Dijk need to start performing or those big contracts are going to start looking like a very fucking big mistake.
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I would get Fofana as an understudy for Mo. There’s no reason why Salah should play 90 mins game after game either. Stick your all into 60-70, and let’s get a bit of rest into his legs while letting the understudy show what he can do.
Isak and Guehi in addition to the above, and we are in business. Then it’s fine tuning, finding the balance, and getting the defensive unit to become rock solid.
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This game doesn’t matter much, and I 'm not reading anything into our performance.
Decent hit outs from the newbies, looking forward to seeing them as the season starts.
No wucking furries at all!
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Been a while since I heard that…
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I honestly cannot recall but he looked sharper and more decisive than generally in the past.
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Signing Isak and another defender won’t magically fix the sloppiness at the back. That’s on the coaching stuff and the players. Some of the chances we conceded, were comical and a lot of them were self-inflicted.
This needs to be addressed asap, otherwise we’ll find ourselves trailing in the league before we know it.
Also, Slot neutering the team by playing an ill-conceived 4-2-2-2 rather than bringing Chiesa on is really getting on my nerves. It’s not the first time he’s done it and quite frankly it’s off-putting. If he is absolutely determined not to use him, we need another wide forward. There’s no point in Chiesa being part of the team just to make up the numbers.
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Or Rio, for all the “we don’t want to block his pathway” etc. can’t see why he couldn’t have 10-15 mins instead of a likely departing Elliott. But yes, that’s why we need a wide forward on top of Isak + CB.
Not very surprised about the game, they are a good team and changed basically nothing from last season, we need a bit of time to gel and there’s still work to do on the market.
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Game of 2 halves.
First half saw some promise even if the left side of our defence was catastrophic all day.
Second half we were dominated by a very average looking team. Very disappointing!
Too many long balls particularly to Salah who looked slow and heavy. To much flipping the ball in the air (worked a bit in the first half but it’s not good technical football).
When we kept the ball on the ground we looked like we could pass it through a brick wall just a few first touches let us down.
Second balls were a problem Palace looked like they had an extra player in midfield in the duels and won the ball in these situations far too much. Defensively we get the players back however don’t pick anyone up. Positioning is atrocious as is reading the game. Only Jones was present however couldn’t even slow his man down let alone tackle him.
We need to learn to pass out from the back and keep possession. We transition very quickly when we get it right but getting it right isn’t often enough.
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I can understand his reluctance to use Ngumoha. He is very young, it was a match with pressure and Slot has gone out of his way to emphasize that Ngumoha needs time to grow into his body. Of course, none of this means that he couldn’t give him 15 minutes in this instance and I suspect that most of the aforementioned are excuses for Slot not really trusting and promoting the youth. Nevertheless, they are valid reasons.
He has zero excuses for Chiesa though.
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In the midst of the Post Mortem, has anyone considered that this just meant a lot more to them than us?
For us it’s little more than a friendly. A run around, fitness exercise, and an aim that nobody gets injured.
Palace have waited their whole existence to appear in a charity shield game and they might wait fifty years to be in another.
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Fair comment, and in the second half that really looked to be the case.
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Hopefully this is not true.
For me they were a team that has been together for a year or two and us a team that is still in the shaping.
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It was the perfect result for those not been able to get upset so far over the transfer window. Something to get there moans into.
-Biggest mistake was leaving Salah on. Should have subbed him for Elliot early 2nd half.
-Definitely need more depth at CB and at CF.
-On the positive side, all our new signings look the business…
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Instead of being ultra critical of our players in a preseason game, I am instead going to give CP some credit.
I thought they looked quite threatening. Some of their forwards are quite tricky. Maybe not always silky smooth, but enough to be difficult for our defenders. They rode on the wave of their fabulous crowd as well.
My thoughts on our game:
- I’m loving how we are linking up through the middle and to our forwards. Some of the one touch passes and being able to move it from the back to their goal in 3 touches was sublime.
- I’m not at all worried about Salah. I remember being critical about how inefficient he was with his constant turnovers in the early parts of last season, so this isn’t abnormal. I’m not saying I think he’ll be anywhere near as prolific as last season, because we really will be moving through different channels with the improved quality across the team. I feel he’ll peak at his usual point mid season and contribute what we expect from him
- our new players looked far sharper with the ball than our 24/25 players. Gakpo, Salah, Szobo often too slow to move the ball on. That will certainly improve as we get into the season.
Overall, I am not displeased about losing a preseason friendly. The concern when finishing the preseason in so-so form is if its an early sign of something deeper: for all the talk of injuries in 20/21, we lacked hunger with the PL monkey off our back. That will be in every fan’s mind if we don’t start strong in a week’s time when the real football starts.
I am confident we will start very strong.
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20/21 we were 7 points clear aftet beating Palace 7 nil.
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Its so odd as weve had a good window but are still painfully short up front and defence as we have let so many leave plus the unforeseen with Jota.
We leak goals and its not very hard to score against us.
We have a tough start and the defence needs to be a lot better - Arsenal will just walk through us if we play like that.
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