Palace 0-1 Spurs: Thoughts on individual performances

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Well was that a painful to watch 90 minutes or what, with only Harry boy rising above the manure to secure the three points.

Rather than give individual player scores I'll try to group the players by the type of part they played in the game.

Had Nothing to do:
Lloris

Did Okay:
Aurier - just, Sanchez, Dier, Davies, Wanyama, Dembele

Did Better Than Okay:
Kane, as he won us the points

Did Not Do Okay:
Dele, Lamela, Eriksen

So let's examine the performances of the bottom three here. Dele was lightweight in the extreme. A few decent passes do not make a performance. Bench him next Saturday please Poch. As for Lamela what position was he playing. I thought he started supporting the left side, then either parked himself on the right or lunged into tackles he couldn't win. Also sub next week. Eriksen - wtf was he doing - did he have his boots on the wrong feet. Diabolical performance.

This was a dire Palace team - I couldn't believe how bad they were, inviting us on at every opportunity. Everything we did in the first half lacked pace and direction. Why did neither Son or Lucas start. Why not play Son in front of Davies from the beginning? Poch please note.

Against Huddersfield I'd consider both Sonny and Lucas, wide left and wide right, to move the opposition wide. Did anybody sit there screaming at the set to make a change early in the second half, or was it only me?

So H, despite not firing very well, saved the day. Sometimes you play poorly against poor sides and get away with it. Today was one of those days. I would have struggled to watch Manure v. Chelski, but not now. A draw please lads.

COYS.

 

Careful there Bazza mate the forum police may come for you!

Agreed and Pretty much everything I thought about the game above and I'm glad you highlighted the Alli Eriksen Lamela issue, this paceless 3some are a hybrid of the famous Chadli Eriksen Lamela combination and is just as stagnant and ineffective as the original.

We know it doesn't work, everyone that's ever endured more than 1 game watching it knows it doesn't work.
Couple that with the lack of any pace from the full backs (or any brain when it comes to Aurier) and it makes for a completely dull spectacle.

If our style was a film it would be the Slow and the Ponderous as opposed to the Fast and Furious and have way more sequences.

23/67 % possession in our favour - 4 shots on target, Palace managed 3 shots on target which just shows how ineffective our build up play actually is.

HK to the rescue Again we would be bang average without this legendary super hero! Carrying Spurs and Poch as per usual. About the only highlight of this cleverly 'rested' team.

We do not have much room for error left as the end of season nears so although I'm glad we got the win the performance stank, again Im questioning Pochs set up and lack of in game management.

Special mention has to go to our Rebel without a clue Serge Aurier who with a goal gaping today threw his leg/foot at the ball in a striking motion yet managed to trap and backheel the ball. Another decision to play this clown ahead of Trippier for important fixtures is beyond me.

If this team is real about their claims of wanting Trophies/Success they need to step up and get their act together.

 

Agree with everything you said.
We need more pace and creativity in the middle. We also need to stretch the wings as we get too narrow in a crowded middle.

Last 2 seasons we had pacy wing halfs. Now Walker is gone and Aurier is still learning to do throw ins. Rose is Injured and distracted and Trippier /Davies is not in same class.

We need Sessegnon, and then a Timo Werner kind of guy who can run off Kane as he holds it up, or run into gaps when he pulls the centre backs out of position. And someone like Pulisic to create.

Ironically, with all due respect to Alderwiereld, he being one of the best, defence is not too bad.

 

bad day at the office must find away to get round those sides that do not really want to come out to play but ha-ho 3 points for the spurs job done onward and upwards C,O.Y.S

 

Got to agree Bazza, a double substitution (Sonny & Lucas) along with Poch and a few swear words were on my lips early in the second half.
Agree with Felon. Aurier was playing as a right winger - not bothering to come back and defend and spent most of his time putting in crosses to the first defender. Why not then play a winger instead, or Trippier who is better by miles?
Why put MS on the bench and leave Winks out? Are you totally insane Poch?
We have absolutely no room for error - we have to win the remaining eight games against non-top-six sides. That means MS nowhere near the stadium and Aurier assisting the opposition on the bench.

 

A typically frustrating watch under the circumstances but 3 points in the end was vital .. Same questions pop up all the time in these scenarios , and they carry merit i.m.o ... Do we really need a Wanyama or a Dier beside Dembele in these games etc etc .. If you're going to use your fullbacks as out + out wingers why not play someone with more quality then a fullback etc etc .. It can be frustratingly mindboggling viewing for us supporters ..

Why is Sonny the only fella to get dropped after a few dodge performance's , there's one or two others out there who consistently offer damn all i.m.o and start every game .. I'd be pi55ed if I was Son ..

We need to find our mo-jo a bit more especially up front and help Harry out a wee bit , we've got some great results lately in some tough fixtures and in all honesty I.m.o we haven't hit the heights up top or at the back that we have in the past .. We've done well to hang in there all things considered , now hopefully with the squad finally looking healthy again and with the injured lads regaining full fitness , hopefully we can step it up and finish this season the right way .. There's a hell of a lot to play for ... C.O.Y.S ....

 

Here some answers to Bazza's rhetorical questions.
1) Why not to play Son to begin with? Same for Moura. Answer: We have much more important tie to play in just 3 days. FA Cup must be Spurs' after ManCity exit and semi- as well as final being in fact a home games. Spurs will have the strongest lineup on Wednesday, therefore. Palace got second best from Poch.
2) Did Eriksen have his boots on the wrong feet? Answer: Eriksen needs room for his movements in order to get the ball for his distribution.. CP is coached by the best English coach that knows that. Eriksen was heavily guarded from the beginning till the end that mage him ineffective i.e. running w/o ball. Two defenders were closing on him in rare instances when he got the ball

Palace fought for their lives in PL admirably. Spurs had good chances nevertheless, but were unlucky. Finally, after all fruitless attempts we scored from dead ball. That is what good teams do when they do not have best players on the pitch or when those they have are not at their best. We are 4th now. What's not to like?

 

Morning Spurporter, I just thought Eriksen had a mare, regardless of the close attention. His touch was s***e all the way through.

 

Do you reckon we'll go with a full strength side from the start on Wednesday - I didn't think that's what we'd do. Personally I'd make the starting 11 from last time prove they can do better.....lol

 

It's gonna be a very tight finish for 4th having looked at the remaining fixtures I see Arsenal finishing around the 68-70 point mark Chelsea finishing around 72-74 points so we have to collect at minimum 19 points from our last 10 games which include City & Chelsea and 1 or 2 banana skins.

We can't dick about with formations that lack pace and width Vs inferior opposition, who are set up to pack the middle out.
It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see or work this out yet it's done Time and Time again by us.

I thought the whole point of throwing such a disjointed team together for Rochdale was so we had a full strength for Palace game.

Lamela needs to stop being shoe horned into the side he is the epitome of flattering to decieve and if he's coupled up with Alli/Eriksen all our forward movement dies instantly.

Son & Moura are gonna be crucial to unlocking stubborn defences, and Poch needs to sort this 2 holding mids thing out at least until we break the deadlock.
How much time we spend playing snail pace passing in safe areas all holding hands on the half way line and making out we are Dominating just plays into these lesser teams hands.

 

I've always felt that averaging 2 points a game, which gets us to 76 overall, would get us that CL spot. We've always been behind the curve, albeit only by a point now, so a win on Saturday gets us on the money for the first time this term. That still leaves us some work to do, averaging a win and a draw every two games. Let's hope we don't rue the day we dropped home points to Burnley, Swansea and West Brom....painful or what!!

 

I would say it's going to be a tight finish for second place - probably goal difference.
If Woolwich fail to beat Man City on Thursday they secure a well-earned sixth place.
Chelsea and Man U each have three top-six games to play including away to Man City. We have two top-six games left, as do Liverpool, but they have to play both CL-spot rivals, Man U and Chelsea.
We should be beating sides outside of the top six quite easily in the latter part of the season and the eight games should be yielding 24 points leading to 79 point total (not including games against City and Chelsea).
Whichever team now drops points against non top-six sides is seriously damaging their chances of CL football next season.

 

My half-full-crystal ball shaped glass doesn't mention tall dark strangers, but it tells me we'll drop points to bucket sides. And re the Lamela situation - it's all been said before and 'til he starts to play well I ain't mentioning him again.

 

Tough game to watch all around. I question Aurier's selection over Trips, hopefully Poch will be saving him for Juve and big Prem matches.. Aurier is a nightmare waiting to happen.

Dele's diving and soft approach in the box is starting to cost him. It's upsetting seeing him giving up on scoring chances in the attempt to flop. He really needs to cut it out of his game. Poch has got to address this issue.

Eriksen was off his game, I'd actually have liked to see Eriksen given a rest and have Lamela operate our offense. I don't believe both should be played together. Son should have been given a start, he offers us something completely different and that helped when he came on.

 

" I thought the whole point of throwing such a disjointed team together for Rochdale was so we had a full strength for Palace game. "

Although in hindsight the performance wasn't up to scratch surly that team should have been plenty strong enough to see off Rochdale .. I was happy enough when I saw it anyway ..

 

Cannot disagree, Bazza.

 

Cup games are supposed to be fought hard by low tier clubs. So they did.
Poch does not have a second set of XI Guardiola does. So he has trouble figuring what his not very best can do and how to make a team out of them. Prior to Poch Spurs had managers who often could not figure out a team out of their best players. Consider that being the progress we made.

You are correct, Felon82. That was the plan. WAFC changed that plan after Taylor sent Delph off.

 

Poch has had time and money to spend if the 2nd string isn't good enough then questions need to be raised as to why?

Nkodou Jannsen Sissoko Llorente Aurier to name but a few not good enough

 

My fear is that Sissoko will be playing this evening - he is not good enough to get in the Rochdale starting XI.
His inclusion is like having two ropes, of five sections each, and connecting them with a frayed piece of string - the other ten players also get blamed when the string breaks. We have lost six games this season and drawn with two third-tier teams - MS has started four of the defeats and both draws.
What is Poch's obsession with Sissoko and Aurier? Aurier might just pass as back-up to Trippier but Sissoko is an embarrassment.

 

Well Johnny - he's playing, along with Pamela & Llorente. J*sus.