My thoughts from last night;
1. Tactically martinez is terrible. starting Kone in a role he dropped him out of for being ineffective a few months ago, before going back to that tactic is just signs that he has no other way of playing. The tactic doesn't work because Kone spends his time going centrally, leaving a huge gap on the left hand side. This then limits baines role in the team because he has to then cover the space, meaning he cannot get forward as much as he should be. How after so long of this tactic not working, can martinez just decide to change things?
We've stopped scoring goals mate. Lukakus last goal was vs Chelsea wasn't it? Kone is his bezzie, there is chemistry between them and bar a few stray passes, he had a decent game last night.
Baines has been lost in attacking sense all season no matter who plays ahead of him because NO ONE from the wide players passes the ball to him. The only one who seems to get how good Baines is is Barry who, btw, was excellent AGAIN last night.
2. Not resting players. See here is a thought more than anything else. We play 4 games in what 9/10 days? Luakaku and ross will play in all of them, why? People question why these players are innefective or not looking interested yet they play 90 minutes every week without any time off, considering they are young, that takes its toll surely? Last night would have been a perfect time to rest rom ahead of tougher games, instead he will be asked to perform that role another 3 times by next weekend, so when he turns up at wembley looking a little 'cant be arsed', that's why.
Who would you replace them with? Remember, we don't have the billions of Mosh to spend yet. Our squad is threadbare in the striking positions and attacking central midfield areas.
You're right, they were both dreadful last night by their standards however Ross still nearly scored with a trademark long ranger.
It would be daft to drop the pair of them for a rest when we all want to AT LEAST finish in the top ten.
3. The standards have dropped so much, from not needing to defend a lead vs west ham to hanging on against a side who is amazingly worse than us was shocking. we should be beating palace even with 10 men, we did it against a much better west ham, so why does the team then have to put everyone behind the ball against a team who for all intents and purposes may not have scored even if they were still playing? apart from one counter, we had nothing going forward after that, not suprising really.
Its confidence. With every lead that has slipped, every poor performance, the season end becomes closer and the inevitability of a poor seasons finish grows. Their heads drop, the spring disappears.
It happens to EVERY team mate. I'd it Aj excuse? Absolutely not. Is it understandable? Absolutely. The players aren't idiots. The FA Cup really is everything now, and there is nothing RM can say that's going to make them think otherwise.
4. 2 years ago palace beat us to hamper our chances of 4th, the fact that we were hanging onto a draw against them to stop going 15th should tell you all you need to know about how the future pans out for us now. the good thing is that this is ending his time here, but at the same time, i wanted us to show something a little more passion or fight to the game, not fear.
We are showing a lack of confidence and quality, not fear imo. We still get the ball down, we still try and play even if it's drab. That's not a sign of fear.
Overall i dont think the red card should have made a difference, it didnt a month ago so why now? It is games like this that amaze me how bad we really are, 3 wingers on bench and choose to play none, ask lukaku to essentially take on the whole defence by himself with no-one near him by the second half, no resting of key players ahead of bigger games to play, not changing tactics to suit the team, just not playing with any passion.
It not making a difference is the exception. Logically having one player less than the opposition does make a difference mate, of course it does.
As soon as JMc got injured, a point was a good result.
Hopefully we will get 3 on Saturday.