Palace Post Match

[Bert]

I really don't understand why we didn't play 4-4-2. With both teams set out as 4-5-1, it was always going to be a draw, and more so, a goalless one with very little entertainment. Where i thought we were the better team, a draw was a fair result in a scrappy game as no team deserved to win. We went the closest, with Mattock and Gradel nearly scoring with fierce shots, not to forget Big Steve's shocking miss. (If Fryatt had've missed that, the police would've been called)

Also, I had some goon in front of me, trying to start songs every other minute, which were either shit, or didn't take off.

[Babylon]

Porter, Porter, Porter, Blah, Blah, Blah....give it a rest.

[mmarkie]

Was there any any atmosphere today? I can't remember anything more than minimal reaction. It sounded as if the whole crowd had drifted off to a light sleep and only kind rattled their programmes on the rare occasions when something threatened to happen.

You crack me up!...NOT!

[lifted*fox]

Well despite people moaning about that being a boring match, I quite enjoyed it.

I thought that considering we were playing a Championship side in form, doing well, we stood up to them just fine.

People bitching about the fact we played a 4-5-1 and were cautious, are the same people who would have cried if we'd have playing a 3-4-3 and lost 3-0.

I don't even think we were that cautious?

We easily gave just as good as we got, and most of their shots were well wide anyway.

Howard SHOULD have buried his chance, but he didn't...

Despite that, he worked bloody hard today (and has been working hard all season) so, I can happily let it go.

I'm not happy about having to go away at Palace now to try and continue in the cup.

It's an extra match, which means extra possibility of injury & fatigue when we're trying to get promoted.

But hey... that's football.

Stop whinging.

We drew with a Championship side who are doing well.

I prefer seeing us beat League One teams week in, week out, but at least we've proven this game, that we can equal a team 17 (or whatever) places above us.

Opinions on players;

Dickov isn't going to do anything more for Leicester imo.

Gradel still isn't doing too well, although the one decent run at the goal & shot wasn't far off. Lad still has a long way to go.

Davies didn't make it into this game as much as i'd have liked.

Dyer was a bit quiet as of late.

Howard did well, won pretty much all in the air but Palace sussed that out, glad people are off Howard's back now.

Tunchev had a lot of solid headers, still a rock, but they troubled him here and there. Cleared ball off the line.

Gilbert worked his socks off.

Hobbs was good in defence, but his distribution was a bit wanky today.

Can't think of anything else.

Crowd was fairly lively for 15,000.

Atmosphere at the Walkers is STILL a lot better at the moment, which makes for a more enjoyable 90 minutes.

Wo0p.

[Thracian]

There is nothing wrong with Pearson using another striker however, who would you suggest? because none of them are scoring apart from Fryatt, the only other player who seems to be popping up with goals is Andy King, which is why I believe he played five in midfield, to give King that bit of extra freedom to get forward.

Maybe Pearson saw King as a better goal threat than say dj campbell, who has acheived little this season, Dickov who has been injured and the inexperienced Ashley Chambers. King has scored more than the three of them put together and is our second highest goalscorer.

I suppose you would suggest playing Porter in that role though, seeing as its worked so succesfully in the past three seasons.

And to say that any 0-0 scoreline is a bad result is ridiculous, i take it you would be dissapointed with a 0-0 draw at Arsenal.

I'm not delighted with the result but at the same time it's a decent resul and could have been far worse.

I would rarely be happy with 0-0 in any game. Occasionally there are marvellous 0-0's but generally I detest 0-0 seeing as the whole idea of football is to score goals and win matches. You cannot win 0-0.

But, in case it's escaped your notice we weren't playing at The Emirates, we were playing at home and "nil" at home doesn't impress me one bit.

I had no objection to our initial approach if that was how Pearson thought we could win. Indeed I was interested to see how 4-5-1 worked because I cannot remember it ever seriously sounding like 4-3-3.

But it was obvious very early on that Dyer was making little impact and why persevere with something that is misfiring until sometime in the second half when there are alternatives?.

You don't have to convince me of the scoring ability of King. I was mentioning it on here before he was ever seen in the first team. But Dyer is a one-style winger. He goes at people, tries to get past them on the outside and has an eye for goal.

Porter is a passer. He retains possession and probes defences. He can change wings or move inside, just like Gradel in his differnt way. And given Dyer's indifference today, and the fact he could probably do with a rest, why would you not involve someone with theability to retain possession and to play clever, accurate passes against good defenders.

As for our alternative strikers when are they or have they ever been fit?

I'm sick of hearing about them to be honest.

[Joe.]

Match Report & Ratings

[dandannieldanok]

As for our alternative strikers when are they or have they ever been fit?

I'm sick of hearing about them to be honest.

We're sick of hearing about Porter.

[BedsFox]

I went.

We played 4-2-3-1 going forward, with Davies just in behind Howard and Gradel and Dyer on the flanks, King and Berner sitting in behind

this then became 4-5-1 when we didn't have the ball

I was surprised how negative Palace were for 70 minutes, but they stopped us well enough. Noticeably less room to play for our midfielders, but equally a bit disappointed we didn't go for it a bit more with a second striker on from the start.

Dyer is off form, combined with being a marked man. Gone are the August/September days when he had room to run and freedom to create.

If we'd nicked it 1-0 if Howard had socred when clean through we'd be saying it was tactically astute, as it is the replay's a bit of a pain and its a slightly hollow feeling for me at least.

[Thracian]

Porter, Porter, Porter, Blah, Blah, Blah....give it a rest.

If Porter or King had been playing like Dyer lately you'd be (one of) the loudest calling for a change.

[AoWW]

Ooh, look.... Thracian's on the wind-up again. Let's all dance to his tune while he pulls the strings.

[maddog]

what a fooking load of shit.

Shit tactics by Pearson, we have won 8 home games in a row yet we didn't even play 4-4 fooking 2 from the start.

Palace were shit, they posed less threat than Hereford did last week, it just shows how awful we did last season to get relegated from that awful division the Championship with shit like Palace in 8th place.

IMO we would have definately won it had we played 4-4-2 from the off.

Steve Howard played really well, yet missed the only chance of the game, the worst match i have seen at the Walkers all season.

Freezing cold, stadium half empty, 0 sound and atmosphere in the A and L stand where i sat, shit game, and an awful result, Palace were clearly there for the taking today.

Wup tee fooking doo, a replay at Palace in mid-week, which we will now lose.

Pearson has done a fantastic job here so far, but sorry Nige you played it wrong today.

Definately should have thrown the dice bringing on DJ or Chambers near the end too.

[Thracian]

Match Report & Ratings

Reads pretty well that.

[Thracian]

Ooh, look.... Thracian's on the wind-up again. Let's all dance to his tune while he pulls the strings.

I just presumed you do enough string pulling in the classroom.

[Sods]

Good draw. Unlucky not to nick it.

Nice to see Gradel given another chance, as well as being played out on the left.

Lets go to London have a laugh and win.

[Koke]

I agree with Sir Alex Ferguson. Pearson maybe thought King was more of a goal threat than any of our forwards combined.

4-5-1 with five attacking minded players is not a bad thing. Davies played just behind Howard and Gradel & Dyer on each side. It was more of a 4-2-3-1 which turned into a 4-5-1 when we didn't have the ball.

[reynard]

Just shows how poor our our attacking options are in terms of the depth of quality within the squad.

We may have enough to get out of the league we are in but the fringe players simply are not good enough to take this club much further than that.

As for Porter; from what I have heard the guy is lucky to still be at the club and be paid. Thracian please stop going on and on about him. The truth is he is no better than Dyer, Adams or Gradel and it is all about attitude off the pitch and in training which will get him selected No manager would willingly not choose players he thought were better than those he selected unless they are injured or there is some other reason.

[Tevez]

Fantastic.

[Babylon]

If Porter or King had been playing like Dyer lately you'd be (one of) the loudest calling for a change.

I really love, how you are always telling me what I would say and how I would feel. If you are going to argue at least use things I HAVE actually said. Rather than making things up "I would say" to suit your argument.

Dyer has proved himself, whilst King has proved himself effective going forward. Porter on the other hand has never done a sodding thing consistently (except being mentioned in your posts), a bit like your last over hyped champion Sheehan. Once again you are turning people against a player, just like you did with Sheehan.

If Mr Pearson ever wanted to play Porter, that would have been fine with me and I would hope the lad did well. It's getting to the point though that i'd rather him be released in this window to stop you banging on about him. The problem is you'd just move onto Beswick, telling anyone who'll listen that things would be just so different if he was playing.

Quite cleaver really. Every season you pick a player who is quite clearly not going to get a look in. You go on and on and on about them, making them out to be some footballing genius. Who, if played... would turn us into an unstoppable force. Knowing full well, the chances are you will never be proved wrong because they aren't likely to get a kick.

Keeps you in your little position of looking like you know best, because you never put yourself in a position to be proved wrong. If the person you're championing leaves and fails miserably (which they mostly do), you just blame the clubs coaches for wrecking them. GENIUS!!

As AOOWW says, you love winding people up. Sad really.

[TrickyTrev]

4-5-1 is good enough for Chelsea and Liverpool. Whether or not it is a defencive formation really does depend on who is playing in the midfield and how well they are supporting the forward.

We could have done without the extra fixture.

[Koke]

4-5-1 is good enough for Chelsea and Liverpool. Whether or not it is a defencive formation really does depend on who is playing in the midfield and how well they are supporting the forward.

We could have done without the extra fixture.

True so. Thing is would you start with Dickov/DJ even though both have scored 1 goal between them this season.

I thought we had the right personnel for a 4-5-1. Mark Davies, Andy King, Lloyd Dyer and Max Gradel are all good attacking players. King and Davies are box to box players and both offers something going forward. With Berner also playing, the idea was to give King and Davies free license to go up. Davies did do so, spending a lot of time in Palace's half.

Had Campbell or Dickov started today, I'm sure we would have played a lot worse than we did. I believe.

[davieG]

I thought our formation up to the time of the Dickov substitution was fairly attacking and far more productive at 4-2-3-1 / 4-2-2-1-1.

We completely lost the initiative when Dickov came on with our possession coming to halt virtually every time he was involved.

For those that slate DJ off for being off side at least he has an excuse, he's fast and less experienced - what excuse does Dickov have, some of his were very amatuerish, the attributes he had that gave hime the edge he no longer has, speed over short distances, timing of runs all we're left with is his crap attitude.

[DanTheFox07]

I personally thought we played a 4-3-3

Mark Davies spent a lot of time in their half, and both Dyer and Gradel offered something going forward.

It was a dull affair, but we were slightly the better team.

Porter would have made no difference whatsoever. He's no better than Gradel, Dyer and Adams and all 3 played today.

Dickov is finished - We're better off using Dudley, seriously.

Ill second that call, After all the fuss being spent in the summer over if he would sign for us and then he spends a month out injured!! waist of our time again! Im not Dj`s biggest fan i have to admit that, however must hold more goal threat than dickov. I think Pearson needs to think about that one.

[Sods]

I thought our formation up to the time of the Dickov substitution was fairly attacking and far more productive at 4-2-3-1 / 4-2-2-1-1.

We completely lost the initiative when Dickov came on with our possession coming to halt virtually every time he was involved.

For those that slate DJ off for being off side at least he has an excuse, he's fast and less experienced - what excuse does Dickov have, some of his were very amatuerish, the attributes he had that gave hime the edge he no longer has, speed over short distances, timing of runs all we're left with is his crap attitude.

Thats spot on.

[Bellend Sebastian]

I was pretty bored throughout, to be honest.

Palace looked pretty ordinary and the system was a bit odd, as plenty of others have already noted.

The only thing unusual about the whole thing was the lack of reaction of the crowd at the end - there's usually either applause, booing, or a mixture of the two, but today there was utter silence

[Darkzzz_]

It was a dull game today, Awful atmosphere.

The best part of today was that young ball boy who controlled the ball when it dropped out of the sky. He must have got the biggest cheer of the day.

One for the future, Thrac...

Palace were dreadful, I can't believe they are at the right end of the championship table after that show, We weren't exactly on fire but I felt we really could have won this today, We played ok for 60 odd minutes, we just didn't have anything to finish them off, they were more than happy to soak us up.

I was glad to see Nige rest a few of the players, my only slight criticism would be that he maybe should have changed it towards the end and added some extra fire power up front, I really hate replays, I would rather we went for it at the end and either nicked it or conceded in trying.

At least our name will be in the draw tomorrow.