Agreed, feel like we have lost our ability to score on the counter and hurt people. Not direct enough sometimes so now teams just sit in a low block and counter us because they know we will go side to side all the way up the pitch in 50 passes. Slot will figure it out though.
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A loss is a loss, nothing can gloss over it.
But similarly a win is a win, what’s the difference between a 1st minute winner and last minute one?
Again I said it in another thread. I would love us to dominate every single team but this is the PL, it’s more competitive than you think.
So we lost but Slot will need to find a way forward or drag us over if that’s needed
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This result and performance has been coming.
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Yep, I hope like many this is our Forest moment but this time last year we were actually beating teams convincingly, and hardly conceding goals more importantly.
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Konate will be lucky to get another contract. His current form is dire and there’s no guarantee Real Madrid will sign him, especially if they watched the Palace game. It’s a pity we can’t replace him now, as far as I’m concerned.
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I said after twenty minutes in the match thread that he needed to be hooked , and he just got worse after that and then the booking should have been the final straw. I’d start Gomez ahead of him now.
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So would I, when Gomez is good he’s very good, but we all know he’ll pick up an injury eventually. Konate should definitely be benched though.
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I’ve just watched the highlights on MotD. It looks like Palace were quite unlucky in the first half. Second half we had plenty of chances and fluffed them.
It’s difficult to gauge the game from highlights, but it looks like that sharpness isn’t improving yet. I’m not sure whether that is because they don’t fully understand what is required of them or that they are being asked to play a system that isn’t suited to their personal abilities.
From what I saw, many players had individual moments of class, except for Salah who seemed to actively get in the way. However, they don’t seem to gel as a team yet.
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Tactically we looked quite weird in this game.
First half Wirtz was everywhere except on the left. Kerkez became very nervous and didn’t do anything in attack just passed back to VVD. We went straight down the center and got no change.
Second half we overloaded the left and switched it with long balls to the right yet the only team that got players over were Palace and the poor sod on the right got mobbed and it wasn’t Salah as he had moved central.
I’m not going to comment on individual players on here as most on here will go bananas. I’ll just say that one very important member of the team looked complacent and lazy much of the match.
When we got the equaliser we should have shut shop and accepted the point, we weren’t good enough on the day to expect more. Palace looked like they were taking the piss in the closing stages and scored the winner due to our naivety.
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Imagine this was a Liverpool fan…
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But they’ll get him for free and if it doesnt work out then they will sell him for 50mp a couple of years down the line.I think that is why they are looking to bring in free transfers.
Let’s hope that causes a reaction from our lads in our next games.
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I just dont think the new playerd are as good as the ones we let go - ekitike aside - what i wouldnt give to see Diaz out there yesterday.
Isak was so silly to strike. Shouldve trained and played for Toon then wouldve hit ground running. Hes as rusty as fuck and not fit. Preseason is so important.
Kerkez…not a patch on Andy. Looks so nervous. Does he have the bollocks to play for a big club?
Frimpong …poor at RB but better further up. Its quite worrying our best RB is a Midfielder.
Wirtz…no idea what his game is. Floats around doing nothing. Ok he has to get used to the league but weve seen nothing so far from him.
Other players…
McAllister…looks like Fabinho in his last season. Running through custurd with breeze blocks on his feet.
Bradley is nowhere good enough as well.
Konate is so poor needs dropping.
We were due a hiding. In a sick way i was hoping we got tonked as it might wake us up and get our head out of our arses.
We need to eake up and improve quickly.
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I understand the negativity this morning @Walshy07 …genuinely.
But there are surely some positives to take?
We are top of the league without the players gelling, wihout a cohesive mehod of playing for ninety minutes and with a couple of key players clearly not 100% fit.
I think Arsenal drop points today, and then we are at least four ahead of them, despite being on a bad run. A run that has seen us take 15 from 18 points, albeit in a sluggish manner.
I think Wirtz is a signing that will flourish mid season. He is a Slot signing and cannot be compared to Coutinho under Klopp. As Slot establishes his methods with his players, we will see Wirtz progress.
I’m not sure about Frimpong, not sure about Bradley just yet either. Szoboszlai has been our best RB, which isn’t good for the other two. Kerkez needs a run, he will be ok. Isak has the class and will be fine.
@jaffod commented on the play acting in training, the videos released by the club showing silly antics of senior players. I would stop all of that stuff for a while. No coffee dock videos, no Frimpong and Konate “comedy”…if this is a sponsorship requirement then videos of drills and a serious view of what we are about. The other stuff is fine when things are going in top gear. Otherwise it’s arrogant.
Palace will test other teams this season. I was pissed off with us losing a match we deserved to lose, which sounds silly. But in a match where you are battered and you have a point in your hand, to lose like yesterday is plain annoying. Like Newcastle away when Kellehers mistake cost us all three points.
I think we will be ok. I think harsh words and actions are required.
Salah is my favourite player. He was awful yesterday.
Konate needs to concentrate on the job in hand. Big few weeks ahead.
But I think we are better than what we saw yesterday.
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This. And I don’t think we can fluke 15 points out of 15 against some of the really good teams if we weren’t. Don’t think there is any denying we need to improve but we aren’t Man Utd level disastrous as well.
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Whoever Eddie is, he is not holding back with his comment..
"That may be the worst performance under this manager so far. Not simply bad in outcome, but rotten at its core. A display that lacked urgency, identity and the basic honour of representing a club at the summit of English football. There was no structure, no soul, and no sign that the players knew what they were meant to be doing.
The first half wasn’t chaotic or frantic or wild. It was slow, hesitant, lifeless. Crystal Palace didn’t surprise anyone; they just executed with clarity and desire. Liverpool walked straight into it. The midfield was porous, the defence timid, the right side a catastrophe of miscommunication and poor decisions.
Everywhere you looked, players were hiding or breaking down. Mac Allister looked lost in his own body. Konaté resembled a man who had misplaced his brain. The right-back position was a conveyor belt of calamity. Salah drifted in and out like a man staring through the window of his own career.
This team has escaped before through brilliance, luck, or sheer force of will. But nothing of that sort was present here; not in the body language, not in the movement, not in the choices made when the match turned in their favour. The equaliser flattered them. The collapse that followed was entirely deserved.
If this group wants to retain the title, then this cannot be allowed to pass. There is losing, and there is surrender. They handed over the points with a shrug.
They need to look at themselves in the mirror and ask, very plainly, what they think they are. Because on this evidence, neither the manager nor the players can answer that with a modicum of sincerity."
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Hard to argue with any of that.
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It isn’t particularly accurate, and it is exaggerated. The last thing they did was to surrender. That said, it’s time for players and manager to start hearing some harsh criticism. For too long, they’ve been getting away with sub-par performances.
Hopefully, this game and such articles, serve as a wake-up call.
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This is as negative as I am trying to be positive.
We are not Man Utd.
We are 15 points from 18 and we never surrendered yesterday.
Its a bad performance and this guy Eddie has been waiting to weigh in with his observations for weeks.
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Yes but we cant keep leaking goals, surrender 2 goal leads and hoping for a 96th minute of magic.