Pizy

Oh, god. Jackson linked with Napoli now that Lukaku apparently picked up a serious injury? You know what that mean. Incoming €20m offer! Or better yet, loan with option to buy for €20m!

Much like we are running it down to near the deadline to try to get Garnacho for cheap, other clubs around Europe are likely doing to us knowing we’ll be desperate to move the likes of Nkunku, Chilly, Sterling, Disasi etc.

We really just have to wait for updates from Fabrizio, Ornstein, and the English journalists who the club briefs all at the same time to get an update on what’s really happening. These German guys like cfbayern are nonstop bullshitters who get almost nothing right and just throw stuff out there. It’s probably true that Bayern are trying to get us to agree to some shitty deal that’s more beneficial to them but until we hear otherwise from the top tier sources I don’t think it’s on the verge of collapsing.

Again, I really like the look of Acheampong and he could go on to grow into a great player. But the thought of him being used as an every match starter and going up against the likes of Haaland or other world class forwards makes me nervous. It’s even more nervy because you also have bloody Sanchez behind him.

I hate dealing with German clubs, man. Cheap as fuck when trying to sign players but dig their heels in like a stubborn ox when anyone wants their players. Even the biggest and wealthiest German clubs act like penny pinchers. This “we MUST sell before we can bring anyone else in” shit is rage inducing. We’ve got players who have apparently been desperate and waiting to join only us for weeks and weeks and yet we’re keeping them in limbo because we need to sell first. Both Xavi & Garnacho (despite what I think of him) have reportedly been turning down massive clubs because they want Chelsea. And yet there doesn’t seem to be any urgency from our end.

And as an aside, a game like today shows that it makes zero sense for us to be in for Garnacho. Both he and Gittens are best against teams who are open or play a high line so that they can use their pace to burst in behind. Both are completely nullified as we saw today when a team sits in and they receive the ball whilst standing still with a defender in their face. So why are we buying another LW in the same mould as Gittens?

Playing Xavi in the 10 and Palmer on the right is the best solution I think. Get Palmer away from the congested middle of the pitch where 4 players are attentive to him.

The experiment of Cucu inverting into midfield and Enzo pushed WAY up the pitch needs to ONLY be used against teams that are more open and trying to actually play. Against teams like today who sit in their half with 3 compact lines of players it just doesn’t work. Put Enzo deeper where he can use what was his best asset was and the entire reason we bought him: his ability to control and dictate from midfield. Then we’d have Cucu AND a winger out there creating overloads. Enzo playing way forward surrounded by their entire team meant he was totally invisible.

Thought Josh had a really good game but he didnt offer any forward passing. Same with Trev. It’s like Maresca says, we have a bunch of CB’s, yes, and quite a few really solid ones like Josh, Trev, and Tosin. But none of them offer what Colwill does and that’s a BIG problem when teams park the bus like that today. All we could do is pass it along the back and to Caicedo 800 times with no danger to the opponent. We don’t have that deep player now who can put a team on their heels with a single pass.

Result itself isn’t an embarrassment but that performance was. Not a single attacking player had a good game except a couple of flashes from Estevão. We will still struggle mightily against super well organized defensive setups this season unless we up our tempo. All that hype about us finally taking a step towards challenging with the big boys and then we get deflated a bit by such a shit performance.

We still look like Palmer FC. If he doesn’t have a worldie we have nobody else who can consistently create magic.

The complete lack of ideas despite all this talent is what’s most maddening. We look clueless how to deal with this Palace shape.

Palace has completely out tactic’d us. Played right into their hands and not made them uncomfortable at all.

Just insane that we STILL haven’t changed the tempo. We’re walking about like this is the first preseason match, ffs!

Is Enzo on the pitch?!

Chelsea player gets a second yellow there. Fucking lucky Mateta.

And btw, we’re seeing exactly what Maresca was concerned about so far with the CB’s. Trev and especially Josh were very solid defensively and even with the ball in terms of retaining it. But without Colwill we have no CB who can play those penetrating, dangerous passes through the lines. All they can do is pass it side to side with the occasional diagonal from Trev.

We SHOULD be playing Enzo as a Jorginho/Fabregas style deep lying playmaker like he was to great effect at Benfica. But for whatever reason Maresca is obsessed with playing him way advanced where he’s basically a second striker. Xavi Simons in this sort of #10 area would be much more suited.

Xavi in place of Enzo in this match would’ve made a massive difference. Enzo looks like he just arrived back from holiday last night and hasn’t trained in weeks.

We’re literally playing the excact game Palace would’ve wanted. Playing this like a training session.

Enzo has been woeful this far. Miles off the pace.

We’re playing at walking pace and allowing them to just sit in their shape and easily nullify us. They’re perfectly happy letting us pass it 400 times between our CB’s like this.

We look so vulnerable when the ball is turned over as I feared.

It was absolutely 200% nailed on he’d score against us on his final match before joining Spuds.

If we play to our best level we should be blowing them away for sure. Will we be at that level on MD1 is the big question.