I’m less worried than I normally would be about the early fixture here. Palace will have played three times themselves in a week and I’m thinking they’re not going to be as used to it as we are.
If Trent can keep that show pony Zaha quiet , then I don’t see that much to fear.
Don’t they have someone half-decent on the other wing now though ? (I can’t think of his name.)
There are pro’s and cons to this one.
As peterroberts says these aren’t used to playing 3 games in 6 days. Most of their players are 30+. Benteke, who gives us problems from time to time, is banned, they will have no fans and they have Roy Hodgson as their manager.
Our problems are obvious - travelling, fatigue and injuries. Jk has a chance to mix it up a bit here. Keita, Ox and Matip are all available and he may be tempted to play either Williams or Phillips. If Phillips can’t get a start here then I’m not sure he ever will as he’s been pretty good in the 2 games he’s played. I suspect Matip and Keita will be the 2 changes from Wednesday and the rest will be asked to go again before we have an 8 day break.
Before the Spurs game I felt if we came out of these 2 fixtures 3 points off the top I’d be happy given the games to come and the fact we should have bodies back in the next week or two, however, beating Spurs means we are going to be at least level on points at the top by Boxing Day and that’s a brilliant position for us to be in. For that reason I’d be happy with a point tomorrow although there’s no reason at all why we shouldn’t take all 3.
Oh, and if Gini plays, can we have the good version please?
Fucking hell. Here we go again. Nice routine win please. Two up in twenty minutes, everyone shake hands and both teams have a nice jog around for an hour.
As if…back to the well, boys, but there’s a week off after this.
Worried about putting too much on Curtis’ young body at this stage. Might be smart man management to keep him back for this, and unleash him for Naby on the hour.
Wow, I forgot all about young Curtis when considering the options.
But after Sunday we have 9 days off other teams only have 7 some 6.
let me think about that a minute
Fuck, what have a done??
I’m sure a later kick off would have been preferred by the players but I can’t wait for this tomorrow to start the Christmas hols with a bang.
I wouldn’t start Keita even if he is fit, Jones has earned his place as a starter.
haven’t had a 4:30am kickoff in some time. gotta set that coffeee pot for EARLY
Smash them they’re Crystal 
As for calling Woy a petulant cunt 
I wouldn’t say he’s petulant.
3 points no injuries and Sadio scores.
Klopp would probably bite your hand off for 1 day of rest now instead of 1 day of extra rest after Saturday.
In that order or all of them!!!
That’s obviously in reverse order as Sadio will be off after 60 minutes to do some Christmas shopping.
Big Div will fill in the final 30 scoring a Worldie after sauntering around the pitch for 29 minutes blowing kisses to Nuno.
So what would you do?
It all depends when your opponent last played. 6 or 7 days is more than enough rest between matches. I think Walshy is alluding to the fact we always seem to be the early game after we’ve played midweek.
This game isn’t too bad because Palace have had the same schedule this week but I reckon 95% of the time we are the team at a disadvantage. This is the crux of the argument Jurgen keeps putting forward.
Some teams will play twice in 3 days over Christmas and that’s ok if those playing each other have had the same rest but when we play Newcastle and Southampton we’ll have had a day less rest than both of them. Plus the travelling. It’s a slightly better schedule for us this year but we’re still at a disadvantage.
It’s a fair point as we’re down to bare bones at the moment. Realistically, we don’t have many options to rotate the starting XI. I would bring Keïta in from the start for Gini, even if we can’t expect him to last 90 minutes. If Gini goes down with an injury of any sort of duration, we’re in all sorts of trouble depth-wise until Thiago and Milner are back. Henderson shouldn’t be carrying as much accumulated fatigue, same Jones.
Unfortunately there’s nothing that can be done to give Robbo a break with both Tsimikas and Milner out. As painful as it is, I would bring in Minamino for a forward. Matip should hopefully back as well. We might want to consider what Trent is able to handle coming back from injury (perhaps Neco coming in).
If we start the same 10 players for the third game in a row I really worry that we’re tempting fate.
Edit:
suspect like most here we’ll go pretty strong to get job done.
perhaps keita or minamino starting for jones though.
matip likely back in. especially as i do wonder if the other change might be neco coming in as trent is still just back from injury and its a quick turnaround. the scouse lads making a hell of a breakglass bench
I suppose the only advantage of having Moss as referee, is that he might be fat enough to block off our passing lanes, but he isn’t fit enough to get into the positions to do so in the way that Taylor did the other night.
Thwash them,they’re cwap.
I’m with @Prolix, I fear there will be new injuries if we go full strength. On the other hand we must go full strength.
If there are new injuries I’m not sure wether these injuries will heal within 8 days.
I will pray especially for Robbo.
depends on the game, sometimes I’ll get up, most times I’ll watch it when my kid wakes me up at 6-7am