After a miserable Monday on Tyneside, the magpies are hitting the road, this time off to sunny south London. Travelling to Selhurst Park is already difficult on a good day, forcing you to brace either the standstill traffic of city centre London or go the very long way round the M25 before heading north towards Croydon. However, this weekend’s trip is particularly difficult due to Kings Cross being shut for engineering works. Good luck to everyone travelling down, I don’t envy you!
Crystal Palace, if you can believe it, are having a worse season than we are. It’s up for debate whether you think that five wins, three draws and four losses in the league constitutes a bad start to our season, but I can say with confidence that Palace have certainly not been off to a flyer. They have lost six games, drawn five and won once, against Tottenham. For a club that wanted to push for the European spots this year, sitting in 19th place wasn’t part of the plan.
Last week, they drew 2-2 against Aston Villa, who have struggled more in the league since competing in the Champions’ League (Emery tends to find it difficult juggling more than one competition, as he never placed in the top-four of La Liga in the years he won the Europa League with Sevilla – but anyways, back to Palace). The Eagles were 2-1 up, until a Ross Barkley equaliser snatched the two points away from them.
Despite their current predicament, from this game alone, there were plenty of strengths found within this Palace side that we need to be aware of ahead of this weekend’s match. For a start, they seem to have found an attacking rhythm. With Michael Olise sold and Eberechi Eze injured, wingers Ismalia Sarr and Justin Devenny had big shoes to fill. They scored a goal each, and the latter could cause problems for our back-four, as he has incredible speed on him.
Meanwhile, at the back, we are all familiar with a certain Marc Guehi, but it is the centre-back Maxence Lacroix who was a defensive unit against Villa. He was another one of their summer signings who seems to be improving as the season carries on. He’s another pacy player who has the capability to keep up with our rapid wingers.
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Notice these strengths. Do you realise what they have in common? Players who were bought in the summer (or came through the academy) that have made a difference to the team. You know, like new signings should do.
It was glaringly obvious on Monday night that we seriously need to make some signings in January. Despite having both strong options on the pitch and on the bench, we still have gaping holes within the team that manage to pull everyone down to their level. Respectfully, Lloyd Kelly should not be starting in the same team with the likes of Alexander Isak.
What is interesting to note about Monday is the midfield. Everyone wants the Tonali-Bruno-Joelinton partnership to work, but it hasn’t seemed to kick into gear. However, the Longstaff-Bruno and Joelinton-Willock strategy does work, but this comes with strings attached: this formation tends to work against teams who are capable of dominating us, such as Chelsea and Arsenal, so it’s up to our midfield to put tackles in and win the ball back constantly so that the opposition feel caged. On the other hand, when we are more dominant than the opposition, against teams like West Ham and Crystal Palace, then these players (particularly Longstaff and Willock on Monday) really struggle to complete passes and keep hold of the ball.
Therefore, looking onwards to Saturday, let’s try and be positive. Burn will be back from suspension, Trippier and Wilson got some minutes in, and I’d honestly like to see a reappearance of Miley coming off the bench. I think Howe could revert to the Tonali-Bruno-Joelinton midfield, especially after Willock was hooked at half-time, but he always tends to surprise me. And I still don’t think Barnes should start; even with Gordon playing poorly recently, Barnes is far more impactful off the bench.
Cheer up. It can only go up from here. Christmas is coming and everything.
To us.
Safe travels. HWTL!
**Grace Laidler @gracewillhuntin**