SavoMissalot

For me he is already better than Stan could ever be. Would love to see Petrov benched for the rest of the season and then sold and see a midfield five of Young, Delph, Reo-Coker, Downing and Milner.

As has become customary now i will forcast another defeat due to the fact that i get the vast majority of football forcasts wrong. Would love to see a great performance from us, but as already stated, just a little worried about the attitude of the players so close to the cup final?

Should win but will the players have the cup final in the back of their minds when going in for a 50/50 tackle?

I would also add Petrov, Petrov and Petrov. :winkold: Now fixed, thanks :oops:

Time to offload both Heskey and Carew in the summer. They are no longer good enough to take us where we want to go. I would also add Sidwell, Petrov, Harewood and Osbourne and to that little list.

Thought it was a typical cup tie all kick and rush without much quality. Warnock sent his team out to rough us up and generally it worked. We didn't have enough steel in our midfield to win the battle and certainly not enough ability to enforce a passing game on them. Palace deserve great credit for their performance, while we have produced another poor performance in a season full of them. Our football is putrid to watch and we lack vital incrediants in certain areas. For a team suppose to be full of pace, we have very little in the centre midfield positions where it is vital to have as an attacking option. Our midfield also lacks bite which was pretty evident today again. Young and Downing being our most creative outlet in wide areas simply don't create enough and as for our forwards....Jesus! With the exception of Gabby, who still has a way to go to be the forward we need, the rest of our strikers don't score enough, or carry enough threat. There is a lack of balance in our team, not enough pace in centre midfield, pace on the flanks and in our forward line when Gabby plays, but not the creativity we need and strikers who don't score enough. On a brighter note, Fonzie again looked good when he came on and looked a threat whenever we got the ball to him. Our best two strikers then, not purchased by Martin, but born from our academy. Maybe now is the time to unleash the Gabby Fonzie partnership on the Premiership? At least it might promote more of a passing game through the middle for us and kick the hoofball out the window? It might also give us better balance if we switch Downing from wide areas to centre midfield, just to see if he could become our midfield playmaker? I've seen enough of Milner in midfield now to say that he is not the answer to our lack of creativity and he also lacks pace.

At the moment Downing needs two new feet.

Well fitted black pants for me every time. I wear black due to needing camouflage for the brown stuff and the odd protruding pile!

This...although would like A Young to have a rest as well. You pair not want to be in the 6th round draw then?.. That's good enough to beat Crystal Palace if we play well enough. Quite agree...why would this team not get through? The defence is pretty strong even with 2 players coming back to fitness...Clarke looked good against Portsmouth and Palace arent better than them. Midfield where 3 of the 4 played against Man Utd Strikeforce could score goals and compliment each other... I think it would be a big disappointment if that team could not get past Palace to be honest... Ya man wants to give ash young a rest... You then have about 9 hours first team football between the rest of them in 7 months!.. That palace team would have been in the play offs if they hadnt have gone into administration, dont be fooled by there current league position so i think they should be given more respect!.. Please see Qpr 08-09... & Leicester 07-08... Yes but the likes of Osbourne etc played then....why should we under-estimate our squad players? Davies, Beye, Albrighton, Delph, Sidwell, Carew, Delfouneso etc...these are very good players and are all better than anything Crystal Palace have. We play well we win with these players. What's the point of having a squad if we don't use it!? Couldn't have said it better myself. Martin has to rest players for this game as i can't see another opportunity to do so before the end of the season. Trust in the squad you have built Martin, or, do you think some of your signings aren't good enough?

Paul McGrath for me was one of the best centrebacks i have ever seen. Imagine if we had a fit McGrath now along side Dunne.

You must have been watching a different game than me mate. You say we played well. If that is the case then i wouldn't like to see us playing badly. An absolute rubbish performance by us with no one further forward from our defence deserving of any praise whatsoever. No creativity, no ball retention and no cutting edge. The only thing i do agree about your post is that we have now got a run of easier fixtures ahead.

If everyone here at the start of the season was offered 4 points against Manure in the Premier League, who would have refused that? That said, we didn't show a winning mentality tonight, our passing and ball retention was poor and we were again toothless up front. Jimmy Milner is not the answer to our lack of creativity in midfield, Petrov along with Sidwell, Carew, Heskey should be sold in the summer and Martin needs to visit foriegn fields in the summer to learn a few modern day tatics and take his coaching staff with him. If we'd been down to ten men, Fergie would have told his team to go for the throat. Martin and our players were happy to settle for the draw. Overall, another disappointing performance in a season full of turgid football from us. Martin needs to watch or attendances will start to fall at our ground. But do you know something, i don't think even that happening, would make Martin change the style of football we play.

Team? The same, just Delph in for Heskey. Agree with this 100%.

Great post, I agree entirely... you'll most likely get hammered for it though! Thanx mate, going to emigrate now, just to be safe. :winkold:

50-60% for me. He has a long way to go before creating the same type of team that 'Big Ron' produced. Our team at the moment is functional, at times effective, but without that sprinkling of flair that 'Big Ron's' team had. We are a work in progress with our defence now one of the best in the Premiership, but it has taken Martin nearly four years to achieve that. We lack punch up front and not signing a decent striker over the past two transfer windows has possibly cost us CL qualification. It might cost us that again by the end of the season in a weak inconsistant Premiership. Tactically, Martin can also infuriate. Sticking to 4-4-2 when we don't have the quality to support that system, either in midfield, or upfront is criminal in my opinion. 4-5-1 is the best way to go with the playing staff we have yet Martin refuses to see that and his lack of footballing knowledge concerning substitutions and changes to our system when the content of the game supports this has me pulling my hair out. We have improved, there's no doubt about that, but wee Martin has been given terrific support in the transfer market by Randy so that improvement has been driven by money rather than just management skills. Martin's report then, doing ok, but much room for improvement.