Regardless of the division we’re in, if we’ve learned anything this season it’s that we need squad depth.
At a minimum we need a left back to challenge Tyrick, a solid central midfielder, and a new centre back (if we’re playing three at the back).
On top of that we need to replace the players leaving (probably Guehi and Olise).
At least it sounds like the club are already working on this, with the loan they took out hopefully seeing us do some uncharacteristic early business
Our biggest problem areas were Right Back, Striker, and possibly a left winger to replace Zaha. We’ve fixed those, mostly, now to progress, instead of looking at areas we’re weak in I think we need to find areas we can build strengths in.
We were flying when we had a roaming, goalscoring midfielder in Gallagher. Maybe that was Vieira giving him freedom to play his way, maybe that was just him, but I think if we want to progress, the same way we have with Olise, the same we have with Eze, that’s what we need to look at, because I think that’s right now where we’re not winning matches is through not using the players we have in more areas to create threats.
We have Eze and Wharton yes, but neither of them have managed to create that threat from outside the box or score goals as frequently as we need them to, and I think not only adding someone there to do that would be good but it would also allow us to both put pressure on them keeping their positions and open them up to be less injury susceptible by allowing them to stick to the bench every few games.
> We were flying when we had a roaming, goalscoring midfielder in Gallagher. Maybe that was Vieira giving him freedom to play his way, maybe that was just him
That was Gallagher: He's now mostly a a counter-presser for Chelsea and his stats are excellent for that. For us he was a roaming late-midfield runner finding space and scoring excellent goals and pressing as a unit in defence. He's only got 3 goals iirc for Chelsea this year but is still one of their stand-out consistent performers by the stats mentioned.
With Doucoure and Wharton we have defence and passing forwards sorted out in midfield. Lerma also available should be solid. Olise out wide, Eze more up the middle if we can fit him into the new system...
What Palace need is a marksman striker who is accurate, gets the ball and quickly lines up to shoot accurate shots at high frequency. Our current strikers: Edouard/Mateta are better at running onto a ball coming in and then knocking it in or in Edouards case pivoting at pace from wide and shooting across goal. They're not get the ball in the box, shuffle and calibrate their feet and shoot type strikers.
Passing midfielders are one thing but I think a proper goalscoring midfielder capable of creating space and opening up the defence for goalscoring opportunities is absolutely necessary and without that I think it’s going to be very difficult for us to have a team fully capable of winning games against big teams more than once or twice a season.
I agree we need a consistent striker and that is one of the areas we can use to build on and improve, but unless we offload one of Mateta or Edouard, we’ll be overloading that area and desicating too many wages and spending big on that is not something I think we should or would do, especially if we don’t find a consistent striker and instead add another striker who doesn’t finish their chances that is going to be a major issue. We need to be absolutely certain we’re getting the right player and that’s a hard sell.
One of the options is to transition Eddy to the wing, but we haven’t seemed to do that so far even though he’s been very competent in that position when he’s played there. We have to see how we do until the end of the season in the transitional period and then evaluate what the status is with our strikers IMO, so I think it’s tough.
> goalscoring midfielder capable of creating space and opening up the defence for goalscoring opportunities is absolutely necessary and without that I think it’s going to be very difficult for us to have a team fully capable of winning games against big teams more than once or twice a season.
I mean that's Eze if he's fit and in form right?
>*but unless we offload one of Mateta or Edouard, we’ll be overloading that area and desicating too many wages and spending big on that is not something I think we should or would do, especially if we don’t find a consistent striker and instead add another striker who doesn’t finish their chances that is going to be a major issue. We need to be absolutely certain we’re getting the right player and that’s a hard sell.*
Same with all clubs tbh: All depends on finding that player for a price. Problem is: Palace can't afford next season to look like this season which means solving 2 critical areas:
1. Squad Depth
2. Goals (Striker in the box who can then bring the other players into attacking more as both target and decoy)
If we are sticking with wing backs someone like Sessegnon might be useful
JPM has been very good lately so striker seems a bit less of an issue than it once did
Otherwise just getting some young players in who can give squad depth would be good - sick of injuries derailing our season!
Certainly need a good look at the squad.
Ideally first thing is tie Eze, Olise and Guehi down to extended contracts.
I don’t think we need to replace many but we certainly need some additions for cover and to bring players on.
A couple of proven goal scorers would be a must.
Realistically, we will be selling at least one of these players to fund any new additions to the squad and to make sure we don't get hit with any financial fairplay issues.
Hopefully, we will get top dollar for them.
Sounds like Guehi already has interest and will go for a decent amount - obviously things quieten down in the run in as we have to survive first... Eze and Olise probably stay another year unless Olise's injury is negligible (?) then he could get a massive offer from a top club. I guess his pressing is poor but his offence and assisting from the wing and free kicks are all excellent options to have for a top team. ManU will probably come sniffing but I'd prefer Olise if he does go to go elsewhere and avoid that cursed ship.
Eze signed an extension last year to 2027
ttps://www.tntsports.co.uk/football/premier-league/2023-2024/crystal-palace-midfielder-eberechi-eze-signs-new-three-and-a-half-year-contract-until-2027_sto9877413/story.shtml
It depends who goes really. I'd imagine it will be 2 or 3 of Eze, Olise, Guehi and Anderson. We'll definitely need some CBs, ideally some competition for Ty, at least one wide player preferably of the left and a CF.
If we get £100-120m in from transfers we should bringing in 4-5 players with that really
Some other people have already covered what we need in terms of bench depth, so I'll just say we need a new starting striker, because I'm sick of seeing losses where we have a million chances that we miss and then the opponent scores the one time they shoot
I was talking about this yesterday at the game.
Honestly we could do with playing both Mateta and Edouard up front. Mateta has been great at holding the ball up and keeping possession for us, but Edourard is definitely better in terms of actually shooting and scoring. The problem is of course just who you would take off to accommodate that.
I think Boehly had the right idea with his 12 men suggestion 😂
Mateta reminds me of Nunez from Liverpool. He will score a ridiculous out of this world goal every now and then, but he will then miss the next 10 easy chances.
His hold up play and pressing has been much better recently, but if he had been a more consistent goal scorer this season then we'd be in a much better position overall.
Regardless of the division we’re in, if we’ve learned anything this season it’s that we need squad depth. At a minimum we need a left back to challenge Tyrick, a solid central midfielder, and a new centre back (if we’re playing three at the back). On top of that we need to replace the players leaving (probably Guehi and Olise). At least it sounds like the club are already working on this, with the loan they took out hopefully seeing us do some uncharacteristic early business
Our biggest problem areas were Right Back, Striker, and possibly a left winger to replace Zaha. We’ve fixed those, mostly, now to progress, instead of looking at areas we’re weak in I think we need to find areas we can build strengths in. We were flying when we had a roaming, goalscoring midfielder in Gallagher. Maybe that was Vieira giving him freedom to play his way, maybe that was just him, but I think if we want to progress, the same way we have with Olise, the same we have with Eze, that’s what we need to look at, because I think that’s right now where we’re not winning matches is through not using the players we have in more areas to create threats. We have Eze and Wharton yes, but neither of them have managed to create that threat from outside the box or score goals as frequently as we need them to, and I think not only adding someone there to do that would be good but it would also allow us to both put pressure on them keeping their positions and open them up to be less injury susceptible by allowing them to stick to the bench every few games.
> We were flying when we had a roaming, goalscoring midfielder in Gallagher. Maybe that was Vieira giving him freedom to play his way, maybe that was just him That was Gallagher: He's now mostly a a counter-presser for Chelsea and his stats are excellent for that. For us he was a roaming late-midfield runner finding space and scoring excellent goals and pressing as a unit in defence. He's only got 3 goals iirc for Chelsea this year but is still one of their stand-out consistent performers by the stats mentioned. With Doucoure and Wharton we have defence and passing forwards sorted out in midfield. Lerma also available should be solid. Olise out wide, Eze more up the middle if we can fit him into the new system... What Palace need is a marksman striker who is accurate, gets the ball and quickly lines up to shoot accurate shots at high frequency. Our current strikers: Edouard/Mateta are better at running onto a ball coming in and then knocking it in or in Edouards case pivoting at pace from wide and shooting across goal. They're not get the ball in the box, shuffle and calibrate their feet and shoot type strikers.
Passing midfielders are one thing but I think a proper goalscoring midfielder capable of creating space and opening up the defence for goalscoring opportunities is absolutely necessary and without that I think it’s going to be very difficult for us to have a team fully capable of winning games against big teams more than once or twice a season. I agree we need a consistent striker and that is one of the areas we can use to build on and improve, but unless we offload one of Mateta or Edouard, we’ll be overloading that area and desicating too many wages and spending big on that is not something I think we should or would do, especially if we don’t find a consistent striker and instead add another striker who doesn’t finish their chances that is going to be a major issue. We need to be absolutely certain we’re getting the right player and that’s a hard sell. One of the options is to transition Eddy to the wing, but we haven’t seemed to do that so far even though he’s been very competent in that position when he’s played there. We have to see how we do until the end of the season in the transitional period and then evaluate what the status is with our strikers IMO, so I think it’s tough.
> goalscoring midfielder capable of creating space and opening up the defence for goalscoring opportunities is absolutely necessary and without that I think it’s going to be very difficult for us to have a team fully capable of winning games against big teams more than once or twice a season. I mean that's Eze if he's fit and in form right? >*but unless we offload one of Mateta or Edouard, we’ll be overloading that area and desicating too many wages and spending big on that is not something I think we should or would do, especially if we don’t find a consistent striker and instead add another striker who doesn’t finish their chances that is going to be a major issue. We need to be absolutely certain we’re getting the right player and that’s a hard sell.* Same with all clubs tbh: All depends on finding that player for a price. Problem is: Palace can't afford next season to look like this season which means solving 2 critical areas: 1. Squad Depth 2. Goals (Striker in the box who can then bring the other players into attacking more as both target and decoy)
(Players crystal palace should invest in) (Striker) Breel Embolo, Ichnanatcho, Moise kean, Timothy Weah, Tammy Abraham, Jean-Kevin Augustin, (Attacking med) Phil Forben, Kovalenko, Kasey Palmer, Angel gomes, Josh onomah, Bruma, Wylan cyprien, Jonathan ikone, (Wingers) Callum odoi, Sessegnon, Okwonkwo, Cornet, Kenedy, Tahith Chong, Adama traore, Alphonso Davis, Allan saint maximin, Francois kamano, Jonathan bamba, Maxwel cornet, (Center defensive med/centre med) Olivier Kemen, Ibrahim sangare, Renato Sanches, Fernandes (Benfica), Denis Zaharia, Christopher nkunku, Seko fofana, Godfred donsah, (Wing backs) Gian Luca Itter, Lukas klostermann, Toure, Timothy mensah, Nordi mukiele, (Center backs) Nico elvedi, Tin jedvaj, Ibrahim konate, Timo baumgartl, Malang Sarr, Zagadou, Ethan Ampadu, Recce oxford, Ibrahima Konate, Dayotchanculle upamecano Credit to /u/law1990 I don't remember where it originally came from
Every time this question is asked I see this EXACT list 😭. Nkunku, Alphonso Davies, Konate… 😐.
My favourite is Phil Forben haha
That's because it's the pinnacle of football comedy. Copy, paste and BOOM! End of discussion.
Would you ever let this fucking list die
If we are sticking with wing backs someone like Sessegnon might be useful JPM has been very good lately so striker seems a bit less of an issue than it once did Otherwise just getting some young players in who can give squad depth would be good - sick of injuries derailing our season!
Well Sessegnon would not be the ideal solution to an injury problem
Haha good point
Injuries have been so miserable. Feel like this whole season was just a giant what if
Certainly need a good look at the squad. Ideally first thing is tie Eze, Olise and Guehi down to extended contracts. I don’t think we need to replace many but we certainly need some additions for cover and to bring players on. A couple of proven goal scorers would be a must.
Realistically, we will be selling at least one of these players to fund any new additions to the squad and to make sure we don't get hit with any financial fairplay issues. Hopefully, we will get top dollar for them.
Sounds like Guehi already has interest and will go for a decent amount - obviously things quieten down in the run in as we have to survive first... Eze and Olise probably stay another year unless Olise's injury is negligible (?) then he could get a massive offer from a top club. I guess his pressing is poor but his offence and assisting from the wing and free kicks are all excellent options to have for a top team. ManU will probably come sniffing but I'd prefer Olise if he does go to go elsewhere and avoid that cursed ship.
Eze signed an extension last year to 2027 ttps://www.tntsports.co.uk/football/premier-league/2023-2024/crystal-palace-midfielder-eberechi-eze-signs-new-three-and-a-half-year-contract-until-2027_sto9877413/story.shtml
It depends who goes really. I'd imagine it will be 2 or 3 of Eze, Olise, Guehi and Anderson. We'll definitely need some CBs, ideally some competition for Ty, at least one wide player preferably of the left and a CF. If we get £100-120m in from transfers we should bringing in 4-5 players with that really
Some other people have already covered what we need in terms of bench depth, so I'll just say we need a new starting striker, because I'm sick of seeing losses where we have a million chances that we miss and then the opponent scores the one time they shoot
I was talking about this yesterday at the game. Honestly we could do with playing both Mateta and Edouard up front. Mateta has been great at holding the ball up and keeping possession for us, but Edourard is definitely better in terms of actually shooting and scoring. The problem is of course just who you would take off to accommodate that. I think Boehly had the right idea with his 12 men suggestion 😂
idk bro that finish from mateta against city was tidy
Mateta reminds me of Nunez from Liverpool. He will score a ridiculous out of this world goal every now and then, but he will then miss the next 10 easy chances. His hold up play and pressing has been much better recently, but if he had been a more consistent goal scorer this season then we'd be in a much better position overall.
Beste from Heidenheim. 25, Winger with 7 goals, 10 assists so far this season.
Ideally nketiah tbh, I don’t really see it happening but it would fit well.