Bobby....caught in the moment.

[Verbal Kint]

I am not going to say I wasn't wildly excited by the starting XI tonight but my nagging worry was that we had opted for Plan B first.

There was no Plan A tonight.

Bobby was obviously going for an early kill and if we had indeed scored first and they were forced to come at us more then we might have won comfortably.

As it is we went in at half time with three of our four game changers already on the pitch.

With McGeady, Mirallas and Gerald already committed from the start, there was only Naisy to throw into the mix.

My own opinion is that Bobby got carried away with the whole "feel good" factor sweeping Mersey soccer at the moment and that team selection reflected a more ebullient than normal approach.

But there we go.

A tremendous match and as my arl granpappy used to say "if it wasn't for the bad days sure you wouldn't know what a good day felt like".

Looking forward to Sunday and the next adventure with Bobby's Blues.

I looked at the team and straight away i had mixed emotions really, McGeady, Mirallas and Deulefeuo all starting had me worried from the off, i feared we would be overrun in midfield and so it proved. Looking back it is easy to have a pop at Martinez for the selection and im sure if he could pick the team again he would have played Osman in midfield if he wanted to rest McCarthy, Barkley for all his potential doesn't have great defensive capabilities yet, Palace simple outplayed us for the first half. Deulefeo also negates Seamus going forward. It was just a bad night at the office, hopefully we finish the season on a high now and at least secure 5th place, any lower and i would be disappointed.

 

[toffeejack]

in hindsight he miade a mistake - we're without barry for man city so ross will probably play alongside mccarthy, a position he's not played all season. he needed some game time there and it was our easiest fixture on paper left - when else was he going to experiment?

should probably have just left it until the city game and if we lose that one, no biggy, as long as we win the rest. mccarthy hasn't had a minutes rest all season and with three games in a week our squad needs rotating from time to time, sadly with gibson's injury it wasn't as easy to do.

take nothing away from palace, from what i saw they were clinical - it happens.

 

[toffeejack]

Some people here have been moaning all season that we don't need two defensive midfielders, particularly at home and to lesser teams.

i admit i was wrong haha. although palace are 11th now, so maybe they don't fall into the category of lesser team.

 

[Jags]

Dropping Barkley back wasn't the problem. It was playing Mirallas behind the striker, when Osman/Naismith should have started there, and Mirallas would have been an effective option off of the bench. We played 3 wingers really.

 

[Khalekan]

Some people here have been moaning all season that we don't need two defensive midfielders, particularly at home and to lesser teams.

I think both Palace and Sunlun showed last evening that we underestimate "lesser teams" at our peril.

 

[Big Fat Sam]

Can't blame the manager too much, we had more than enough firepower and creativity from the off to outscore Palace, it was just a massive fail and bottle job by the players on the pitch.

Let's not forget we had Barry in front of the back four, and Barkley was sitting deeper, albeit in an unfamiliar role, he should have been able to perform better.

Looked like they were all playing with a massive hangover, leggy, lazy, lax performance all round.

Lukaku and Barkley were both horrendous, while our full backs had their worst showing ever, for me. As bad as Benfica.

 

[Billy Dean]

I think both Palace and Sunlun showed last evening that we underestimate "lesser teams" at our peril.

Indeed. Here's hoping Arsenal underestimate the lesser teams in their run-in and slip up.

 

[efcfanwirral]

I think it was a case of too much change to be honest, that front 4 would be great with Barry and Mccarthy behind to keep it tight, while Barkley next to Barry would have been fine with a more disciplined front 4 (Naismith instead of one of the fast wingers maybe). Good try though, I was excited when I saw the team

 

[Joey66]

He gambled and the gamble backfired .

Simple as really

He will learn from that first poor formation last night - its his first bad mistake ala Anfield where injured centre backs were to blame!

 

[Kantareller]

Defence was bullied last night. Our attack did OK, we scored 2 goals after all.
But we conceded 3 horrible goals. Cameron Jerome scored ffs

 

[Ihaters]

Some people here have been moaning all season that we don't need two defensive midfielders, particularly at home and to lesser teams.

I still believe that, we do need the players to turn up though.

 

[TrixyStevens]

Players let us down massively, particularly Lukaku and Mirallas. Extremely poor showing. Battlers are needed against teams like palace last night

 

[Khalekan]

Whats this gamble ffs?

Barkley for McCarthy? Is that it? Or is it playing Kev/McGeady/Del in the same side

The latter.

 

[Oviedo37]

I hate to mention Moyes, this was the polar opposite of him, and unfortunately it backfired. Very attacking, going for the throat early on..

It won't happen again, we will destroy UTD this weekend.

Totally agree. Not nervous about United at all.

 

[streeky]

we need jags back this weekend, stonesy has been great but got found out last night.I would not be too bothered if Robbie moved him into holding mid with james mc for the city game instead of ross or Osman.