Let's Be Brutally Honest - Our Matchday Squad is No Longer Top 6 Quality

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Are We Still Top 6 Quality?


  • Total voters
    84
I think there are three concerns that work together to exacerbate our problems, and have led to a team that is right now lesser than the sum of its parts:

1) Our weaknesses are not evenly spread on the pitch. Instead they are concentrated on the back half, across our back line and at #6, leading to too many weak goals, too many leads conceded, and this leads to an overall lack of confidence in the club.

2) We consistently run out three players who are somewhere between deficient and dumb: Aurier, Lucas, and Sissoko. Aurier is a physical specimen with great speed and a great first touch, but he is brain-dead on the pitch: he commits defensive lapse after defensive lapse, and his crosses are sprayed without forethought or precision. Trippier was slow defensively, but at least his crosses were good. Lucas I will always love for Ajax, but he runs with his head down, he too frequently costs us width and runs into blind alleys, and he ends up costing Kane space to operate. He should be used strictly off the bench. And Sissoko clearly has no idea what that round thing is at his feet, especially in the final third where something like a blind panic sets in. I appreciate his motor and the desperate coverage he provides for the idiot Aurier, but he is far below the level we should aspire to.

3) I do not know how much this is related to 1 and 2, but there is something clearly wrong with the mentality of this club as constructed. Colchester, Brighton, Sheffield, so many examples of a team that seems to lack fight. I am not fully ready to let Poch and Mou off the hook, but at some point, we should admit that there is a lack of leadership and determination on this roster. Perhaps this is one more way in which the stagnation and lack of turnover from windows past have created a problem.
 
We have definitely fallen behind a number of clubs and you must be deluded if you think our team is as good as United's or Chelsea's.

Both of those teams will be even better next season (United will spend big, Chavs have Werner on the way) not to mention Liverpool and City.

We need to start building a new younger team under a progressive coach that wants to play good attacking football.

We will do so at some point but it won't be under Mourinho. Next 2-3 years are going to be tough, going from being complacent about CL qualification to hoping to scrape into the EL.

Wonderful!

:pochunimpressed:
 
Top post

My thoughts exactly.

The only Caveat I will put in is that Poch did not want a DOF and Levy went along with it. We got this bullshit transfer committee instead.

Let’s hope a DOF is appointed soon as I think José will be on board with that
 
I was kind of checked out from football during the corona-break but whatever happened to Campos? Why did he never join us? He is probably the most successful (financially anyway) DOF in the world right now. Was it just rumors or did talks break down?

Word was he's not prepared to break his contract so IF he's gonna come here then, much like a player, he won't be 'signed' until the summer window is underway.

Gut tells me it's not happening though cos the rumblings have stopped; which is a shitter...
 
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Good post actually......one of your best.
Gold star son.

I genuinely think we are shit.
Bored shitless and done defending any of them.

Id literally keep Kane and sack the rest of the entire club.

Honestly I can’t disagree with that

On thehour mark last night I said to Mrs B why am I watching this shit?
Because you always do was the reply shaking her head!!
 
that's encouraging until you realize despite that, they are still superior at every defensive position other than GK than us.

I'm not trying to peddle false hope; just objectivity.

Their lads back 4 can be pretty shit when they want to be; we're just more tuned into our woes becasue they're ours.
 
I don’t think that’s true. You have to remember that horrific Chelsea back line is supplemented by a world class holding MF in front in Kante. Ours has Sissoko, so it inevitably looks worse.

Azpi is well past it, Alonso is a defensive horror show, Christiensen Zouma and Tamori are very average. Rudiger is decent I’ll give you that, but I’m pretty sure every Chelsea fan would take Toby at CB for their team still.
Are you related to GGK , MVP MVP or Col_McCafferty Col_McCafferty by any chance?
 
Good post. The only additional point I’d make is that I haven’t given up on Toby yet. It’s too easy when a player has a bad patch and they’re over 30 to say they’re done, but it isn’t always the case. It can just be a bad patch.

Gary Cahill looks excellent at Palace this season after being written off by Chelsea as “shot“ a year ago.

Injury has precluded it, but I would have really enjoyed a run with Toby and Tango CB, with Japhet being able to learn from easily the most intelligent defender at the club.

I guess without even adequate DCM protection in front, our defence is always overly exposed though.

Look how good Morgan and Huth looked with Kante in front!

I think it's likely that under the right system, with the right defensive midfielder in front of him, therefore limiting the chances opponents get against us, Toby could quite well be a great option for his experience and reading of the game alone - I just think perhaps we need to start thinking of the future when it comes to it - playing Toby ahead of Sanchez, Dier or Tanganga does nothing for their development. Unless of course you're suggesting Toby is right sided centre half with one of Dier/Sanchez/Tanganga on the left side?
 
Hmm... I’d say 6th is where we are currently. In a highly competitive season where someone surprises like Sheffield and wolves have that puts us where we are today. When we get lucky like last season It’ll put us 4th.
It's highly competitive BECAUSE we are shit.

Look at the 15/16 team. We've regressed at literally every position. Except for those who remain like Kane, Lloris, Son, Toby et al - but they've all regressed too.

We are even with Everton in the table right now - can you honestly say that you would not take some of their players?

Digne > Davies
Mina > Sanchez
Gomes > Sissoko
Richarlison > Lucas

Even two years ago - there's no way we'd even entertain the notion to put an Everton player in our first XI. Now a combined XI would be almost 50% Everton, in all honesty.

Next year, Woolwich, Wolves, Everton, Chelsea, Leicester & United will undoubtedly strengthen. Will we? If not, will Mourinho's managerial abilities make up a 5-10 point difference to get us back into just the EL - not even aiming for the CL..?


Need to improve fast. Look what happened to Liverpool after their CL wins 15 years ago or Woolwich when they built their stadium; failed to push on and spent a decade being shit. And that was when the division was far weaker than today...
 
Because Palace's game plan is to sit back and play on the counter. In theory with a player like Zaha plus other speedsters like Ayew and Townsend it makes sense. It's perfect for Cahill because he's an old fashioned defender who puts his body on the line. He doesn't have to cover spaces because he's got a block of team mates doing it. He doesn't have to move much. Just hold fort, stick his head here, put his laces through the ball there. Perfect for him but they hardly score goals and I can't imagine their forwards are enjoying it.

Toby if we started to adopt those tactics such as the Man Utd game full time might start showing his old form again only in the sense he's being asked to always be alert and give him lots of work to do. But we'll have the problem where if your CB is constantly being called into action by design then it's not sustainable for any ambitious target and it's boring to watch.
Of course, my point was that Toby and Jan have been completely written off as players because they’re on the wrong side of 30, when the reality for me is that the overall composition of the team and tactics is as much to blame, and a player (any player) can have a bad patch. It doesn’t mean they’re gone.

You’re spot on though, in our pomp we didn’t do much actual defending. We pressed so aggressively and “strangled” teams to the point they would turn the ball over to us easily. It worked a treat.

It’s also worth pointing out the Toby still has exceptional distribution and that’s an important part of the way we want our team to play.
 
Of course, my point was that Toby and Jan have been completely written off as players because they’re on the wrong side of 30, when the reality for me is that the overall composition of the team and tactics is as much to blame, and a player (any player) can have a bad patch. It doesn’t mean they’re gone.

You’re spot on though, in our pomp we didn’t do much actual defending. We pressed so aggressively and “strangled” teams to the point they would turn the ball over to us easily. It worked a treat.

It’s also worth pointing out the Toby still has exceptional distribution and that’s an important part of the way we want our team to play.

Tbf, Poch had pretty much retired Jan prior to the season kicking off.... Would have made sense to have sold him then truth be told.
 
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