[Albion] Crystal Palace vs Brighton & Hove Albion *** Official Match Thread ***

[Kalimantan Gull]

Is it time to stop the constant keeper rotations and just stick with one? I think so. Steele can be our number one, and Verbruggen can play in the FA Cup and against some lower-league teams as he gains valuable experience.

I agree with the premise, but would rotate those two names in your post.

Steele does what Steele does, he's good with his feet but never going to develop into a good shot stopper. Verbruggen has so much more potential as a keeper, he needs to be playing and playing regularly and these footwork errors will start to go.

 

[Change at Barnham]

Is it time to stop the constant keeper rotations and just stick with one? I think so. Steele can be our number one, and Verbruggen can play in the FA Cup and against some lower-league teams as he gains valuable experience.

That's what Bert was doing at Palace.

 

[maltaseagull]

Thought we were the better team. What a sickened their goal. Wait to Ensciso, Solly etc back and we'll be winning these games. Point ain't the end of the world. If only Welbrks deflection had rolled in instead of just wide. Heh ho

Solly won't be back this season. He was still on crutches recently.

 

[sussex_guy2k2]

Thank god for Welbeck, that would have been hella bleak night without him.

Steele was one of our key 4-5 players who got us 6th place last season and De Zerbi’s continued insistence in dropping him for so many games cost us 2 points tonight. We saw Bart make the carbon copy error on Sunday that put the Arsenal game beyond us yet De Zerbi still doesn’t learn that one keeper is totally ready for these high pressure games and one is still not quite there yet. That’s not on a young keeper, that’s on you RDZ

I’d take Bart over Steele all day long. There’s a reason he’s conceded less goals per game than Steele this year in the same amount of playing time. Yes, he has weaknesses to his game, but so does Steele. We’re a much better defensive unit with him in goal than Steele.

 

[sussex_guy2k2]

Is it time to stop the constant keeper rotations and just stick with one? I think so. Steele can be our number one, and Verbruggen can play in the FA Cup and against some lower-league teams as he gains valuable experience.

Potentially, but the other way around makes the most sense.

 

[moggy]

I’d take Bart over Steele all day long. There’s a reason he’s conceded less goals per game than Steele this year in the same amount of playing time. Yes, he has weaknesses to his game, but so does Steele. We’re a much better defensive unit with him in goal than Steele.

The difference here is Bart is a goalkeeper, Steele is a footballer.

 

[Triggaaar]

Steadying the ship.

How steady do they need it? They've turned it into a house boat.

 

[dolphins]

We want a manager who wants to win and is pissed off when we don't, so I'm not going to get too upset with him saying the odd thing that's unfair. As long as he calms down later.

This. And re: his phraseology, remember he is still learning English - when he came in, he knew very little, with Italian his first language, plus Spanish, and he was learning Russian while he was in Ukraine.

 

[Uh_huh_him]

I agree with the premise, but would rotate those two names in your post.

Steele does what Steele does, he's good with his feet but never going to develop into a good shot stopper. Verbruggen has so much more potential as a keeper, he needs to be playing and playing regularly and these footwork errors will start to go.

Personally I would have Verbruggen as No.1 but save Steele for games like last night, where the opposition just aren't going to offer too much.
His superior distribution helps by giving us an extra player to overcome the low block.

I thought this was what RDZ was doing, so was surprised Bart got the nod.

 

[tedebear]

Loving the high praise from Roy in his after match interview...Palace don't know how lucky they are with him, if they could park their ego's and actually listen to him...

 

[BN41Albion]

Another "derby"game that exposes the myth of the Selhurst atmosphere.

Noisy when they scored, but otherwise quieter than the Amex.

Considering they were winning against their bitterest ruvals for over half an hour, that is really embarrassing.

Yep, and laughable when on about the 40th minute they piped up with 'Can you hear the Brighton sing' when all you'd heard on the telly up to that point was the Albion faithful

 

[Kinky Gerbil]

I did not like that from RDZ. Saying we have to play young players and threw Baleba under the bus. We have Veltman and Pervis injured who bring experience in defence. Then we have March out for the season. Welbeck and moder not fit enough to start.

We can’t have a squad with 20 peak level footballers.

I love RDZ but that was wrong. Hopefully just a “please can we sign someone boss”

Roy saying Brighton like city and Liverpool hardest to defend against will go down well with palace fans.

It was an odd thing to say, if you have to play youngsters the last thing you want to do is dent their confidence, which those comments could do.

It was a nudge at the recruitment team ahead of the window I imagine, managers know what they are doing with comments like that.

 

[raymondo]

I always enjoy listening to Roy Hodgson: his balanced Sky interview post match, with plenty of praise for us and Welbeck's goal.

 

[Eric Youngs Contact Lens]

I've been reflecting overnight, and I still think the "blame" ultimately sits with Gross for the goal. The pass-back to Dunk when he had the chance to play along the line to Mitoma triggered a press when Palace were stillhad numbers in advanced positions. The final pass to Bart was the end of the unravelling that meant the "foot-through it" option, in the direction that Gross appears to be pointing, knowing it has unravelled, had gone. Bart's mistake was not kicking it out for a throw -in, so not blameless, but far more experienced players had the chance to manage that situation (in the 45th Minute) far better than they did.
I make this point in defence of Bart and not because I am keen to blame someone : almost every goal is "preventable" if you go back far enough and I thought Palace worked the opportunity well once it fell to them.

 

[tedebear]

I did not like that from RDZ. Saying we have to play young players and threw Baleba under the bus. We have Veltman and Pervis injured who bring experience in defence. Then we have March out for the season. Welbeck and moder not fit enough to start.

We can’t have a squad with 20 peak level footballers.

I love RDZ but that was wrong. Hopefully just a “please can we sign someone boss”

Roy saying Brighton like city and Liverpool hardest to defend against will go down well with palace fans.

I didn’t like the Baleba comments either…made me uncomfortable.

 

[Kalimantan Gull]

It was an odd thing to say, if you have to play youngsters the last thing you want to do is dent their confidence, which those comments could do.

It was a nudge at the recruitment team ahead of the window I imagine, managers know what they are doing with comments like that.

I thought his comments was defending the youngsters: 'our club policy is to play youngsters, the youngsters will make mistakes, but that is how they learn, they will become stars ' is basically what i heard him say

 

[London Irish]

But I suppose the question is how does he 'get ready' for these high pressure games? Best way maybe to play in them and take the odd hit?

It’s not an odd hit though - we could all live with that. It’s two games in 5 days

 

[London Irish]

I didn’t like the Baleba comments either…made me uncomfortable.

Agreed. And he could have played Dahoud if he thinks Carlos isn’t ready. Where does this leave Mo? Is he already chopped meat here?

 

[London Irish]

Yep, and laughable when on about the 40th minute they piped up with 'Can you hear the Brighton sing' when all you'd heard on the telly up to that point was the Albion faithful

It might be the acoustics of the place are terrible - noise seems to be sucked out of everywhere. At times I could see the Holmesdale moving but hardly any noise. The Palace fans alongside us in the goal stand and to our left were certainly quiet. A Palace friend of mine watching the game on Sky messaged me in the second half saying he thought the atmosphere coming through on TV was dire. I think with their team sitting back to defend and us having all the ball in the second half the Palace fans were knowing what was coming - the inevitable 1-1. A tough watch for them that they endured in depressed silence

 

[Wardy's twin]

There's a lot of focus on the goal but it really is only symptomatic of a wider problem , we don't look to get the ball forward quick enough we like to pass it around the back rather than quick incisive moves. Our first thought, certainly in first half, is a square or backwards ball . It meant that the two wingers (who weren't at their best) are having to make up ground to beat the last player , they need to be level with last player and ready to run into the space .