Monday, April 25, 2005

Match Report 050423 at Crystal Palace: What do we want?

0-1 and this is a very very poor result, especially we know Birmingham had held Everton to a draw. If Everton get 6 points from the remaining 4 games our chase for 4th pace will be over.

The match saw a hard-fight Palace team with lots of tackles, and Rafa is not happy with it. But we should expect more of this from a team fighting to avoid relegration. And why should be rest Alonso if finishing 4th is really more important than winning the Champions League? And why do we play a 3-5-2 formation, giving it never work before?

Rafa had a lot to do in the pre-season training. And he will sort it out.

Player Rating:
Dudek: 5.5 Lack of confidence.
Carragher: 6 Even our ever-reliable player had a bad day.
Hyypia: 6 Not a good day as well.
Pellegrino: 5.5 Although he saved us from a second goal, his performance in general was not good.
Finnan: 6 An Ok performance for Finnan.
Gerrard: 6.5 At least he tried to save us from losing. Play bad in 1H but much better in 2H.
Welsh: 5.5 Not a good day for our highly rated midfielder.
Traore: 5 He's just not a wingback. His defense is good but attack is poor.
Le Tallec: 5.5 Failed to inspire the team. But we may be asking too much from him.
Baros: 5.5 From the first minute he was fouled he did not play well. Certainly the injury did affect him.
Morientes: 5.5 No supply, and he was too slow up front. Need to work very hard in the pre-season.

Substitutes:
Potter: 5.5 Subbed the injuried Baros and played an OK game.
Riise: 5.5 Better than Traore, but not enough.
Cisse: 6 Had a shot but was saved.

Crystal Palace: 7 A well derseved result. I wish them good luck in the survival. But it's too close to call now.

Rafa: 5 Sorry but the rotation just don't work out. He's going to start pre-season 2 weeks earliers and let's hope the players will be much fitter and there will be less injuries.

Man of the Match: Gerrard. But we need a much better Gerrard on Wednesday.

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