Haven't seen the game yet but I'm eating my words about Soucek today. Fair play to him and JLO for his subs and strategy. Off and running, fck off Moyes, COYFI's
You arent really eating any words, he still offers nothing in the middle and does what he normally does and just sits in the box hoping for the ball to drop to him.
@jamieellison3988 good performance? He failed to get on the end of a lot of balls into the box. Did nothing defensively but got lucky that the ball fell to him in a decent position.
If Antonio misses that chance Fulk missed, fans would batter him. Shiney new things and all that. Thats my last defense of the likes of Souceck and Antonio. The manager knows what he's doing. Same old, same old. If Antonio scored and Souceck didnt, it would be him on the end of criticism this week. Lop understands the qualities that all these players bring and thats enough for me.
Haha no one was …funny old game , kilman and Mavrapanos were solid and the team work was great and the result was the icing on the cake , top quality come on from the bench still have sommerville to come on trending in the right direction
That part when all the subs started warming up together, Nick. About 5 or 6 of them. Great signs. Behaving like a big club. Seen big sides do that against us in the past and thought fuck me, and felt inferior. Amazing that we can do that now. Proud of everyone involved if I'm honest. Genuineley. From the board, to Steidten, to the gaffer, to the players, to the fans. Everybody.
Il be honest, I completely get the frustrations with Soucek starting, but the outrage at last weeks performance and IN PARTICULAR Souceks performance were over the top. It was one game in! Lopetegui is a pragmatic coach, and like it or not, soucek will be playing a lot this season because of what he offers in the box. Coufal is the player who needs to be kept far far away from the team sheet.
Thats all well and good, but we're still not playing a left winger who plays left wing, and soucek is pushing forward in the position that Kudus should be
Giving Alvarez more credit for today's game than Souceck is just agenda based IMHO. Souceck was doing 2 jobs out there today. Supported the initial press and then dropped back in to do the job of a CMfer. Scored. Didnt stop running. Provided a route when build up wasn't as smooth. Lead the team. Made clever fouls which was important because of how much the game meant to the group and the manager. Alvarez come in and filled a hole. I love Alvarez as a player and cant wait to get him back to full fitness but come on, Souceck was excellent. Just call it as you see it. Not tryna start a row, just saying it how I see it. 15 odd players won as that game today. Credit to all the players and the manager.
Not that I want to set myself up for a roasting but we did get a little bit of luck today with that game of pinball in the box and the ball falling kindly at souceks feet but my main point is that we are up and running for the season ahead 👍
@andrewkendall7814 There's a world of difference between being positive and fortunate but having my opinions or comments taken out of context and turned into clickbait I'm perfectly used to that 😊
I wasn’t either Nick. The moment I saw Soucek and Coufal and Antonio I was pretty much fed up before it started. When Soucek scored I was happy and pissed off at the same time 😂 Good from the defence today though
Great ball from Kilman to Bowen for second goal. AWB is class - he has to start! Soucek reminds me of the season when he was Hammer of the Year. He's a great battering ram. We can get even better. COYI.
Areola/AWB Todibo Kilman Emerson/Alvarez Rodriguez/Paqueta/Kudus Fulkrug Bowen …is a nice association football team or as they say in France 🇫🇷 un equipe de fut plus fort
One thing Ive come to learn today, and I hold my hands up, I was guilty of this, games aint won on paper. We can all jot our 11's down as much as we like but we don't see them in training, arent responsible for managing the group, etc etc. etc. If football management was a easy as jotting down an 11, we'd all be PL managers. Lop got it right today. 15 odd players won us that game.
Still raging that Soucek started. Other than throwing himself into the box to try and get on the end of something he offers nothing. Yes he scored but Kudus would score and create more in that same position. Play Kudus in that role just behind the striker and start Summerville and we will be SCARY!
Paqueta did the right thing at that free kick. not only because he was right about the ball being in play but also because he ran down the clock a little.
Coufal and Antonio are spent! Dump em both. Can’t stand them. AWB - good player, along with Kilman. Credit to Soucek! Not my flavour, but sometimes you have to go with the flow
Antonio was alternating between latency or too sloppy on the attack. Sluggish, and too many situations he squandered for comfort. Coufal is just not able to keep up. The crossbar was showing more effort than those two. Nothing wrong with smashing a goal, but land the thing and be smart. We don't get that from Antonio anymore, he's like a platinum Zouma in terms of performance these days.
Spot on yet again. Amazing when you play a fullback with pace. When was the last time we had a fullback with pace ?. Btw the ref did see the touch! If he didn’t Paq would of got booked
We have to trust JLo in how he introduces the players, I agree with you about the starting lineup but he must be gauging it on the training pitch. I’m happy as Larry now.
Bournemouth lineup and positioning will be interesting, Jimmy should start , and be nice to see Mo in the middle, Loppy seeing things differently than many of us so far though
Got to say, the footage during the game where the advertising screens collapsed onto the young kid, surely there is a real issue with the set up around the pitch at Selhurst Park. Dangerous and without the intervention of some of our players, there could have been a serious injury today.
Good result..all apart from Fluffkrug who came on and yet again did bugger all !! Oops, sorry he had 2 chances ...1st where his lack of pace meant the palace defenders caught up with him instantly and the chance was gone ...and right at the end a fantastic pass from Bowen put him virtually clean thru....and he totally fluffed his lines and put it wide!!!! What a steal this clinical striker was at only 27 million !!!
Totally agree about the starting line up but at least it’s so much more entertaining to watch Coufal has to go Bissaka was superb Souceck was awful besides his goal and was playing in front of Pac So why not play Kudus in that role and get Summerville in I know he scores but he is a massive weak link Great result gotta have faith in the manager that he will bed in the new players as he feels ready
Soucek won't start eh, lol. He's gonna start every week as he has goals in him, which Alvarez doesn't. It looks clear that Loppy likes Tom. At least it's a win
I love Souceck, I love Alvarez. I love Rodriguez (already). We need to stop playing players off against each other. All 3 contributed to 3 points today. all 15, 16 (however many) did actually.
Just before Soucek scored i was raging at him for being rash in the tackle and getting booked! Antonio looks a bit bitter as i think he knows his days as No 1 are numbered...which is odd, as he said a couple of years back that he wants "competition" .... well, hes now got that and he's sulking and looking crap rather rising to the challenge
I normally agree with most things you say nick but saying pac man had a good game? He wasn’t good he hasn’t been good for some time now, we know his potential but he’s way off the pace at the moment. Great show mate it’s always good to agree to disagree COYI!! ⚒️⚒️
Need the new boys to get up to fitness if we want to embed the changes. Once Fullkrug gets up to speed, we then won't need Soucek to play the faux striker role covering for Antonio. We can actually leave Soucek out at that point.
Like a lot of fans at various clubs, who are known for counter attacking football and want a more front foot possession base our expectations are wishful thinking. Look at Spurs they’ve still got a way to go God blessem. At Forest at least if we finish 13th we’ll stick it to professional pundits.
Palace should've been 3 up at half time. Super Tomas Soucek... for the lifesaving and the finish. Bowen on the right all say long. Kudus , centre forward, Chry on the left HAS to be the way forward. AWB to start in future. Dinos , other than his giveaway and recovery, was classy. Kilman is looking staunch.
With city next week , at least loppy won’t have the mindset that the game is already lost ( I will never forgive Moyes for the Liverpool carabauo cup last season who gave up that game as soon as the grade was made) loppy won’t do that , this team won’t do that , and that’s all we can ask, so let’s go out there Saturday and play the West Ham way COYI
Bring all the new signings on against man city or we will be in trouble city wont miss chances like palace did so need to bring them all on or else things could go pear shaped good luck hammers well done today
Im with you on Soucek Nick but the facts are he will start next game because of the goal. And he is going to keep starting until he is literally playing shite football that even jlo can see. So might aswell just get on board with it. Instead of doing your nut in everytime
