I am going to comment purely on the Crystal Palace game and try to not get into a debate of whether Big Sam should be sacked or not. This debate has been something that has pretty much gone in all of Sam’s seasons and one where most people now appear to be sharing thoughts that are similar to our own Iain Dale, amongst others, who expressed it this weekend.
I left the game, not for the first time this season, bored and completely dejected about what I had seen. I just feel we are so one dimensional. We continued to just hit the ball long to Carroll who, uncharacteristically, barely won a header. On this occasion their centre-back clearly had the better of him but rather than change our tactic to get round this we just continued to pump the ball up to him.
The reliance of a target man in our system relies on the wingers getting down the by line and putting in decent crosses. Continuously this season I have stressed on my twitter account that I think we are much better off having Jarvis on the right and Downing on the left. Both have pace but it is rarely shown because even though they may beat their man they often have to cut back on to their natural foot. This means that the defenders have time to get back on the player with the ball and others get in the box. I understand the reason for putting them on opposite wing, so that they can cut in and get shots away but quite frankly they don’t do this. Jarvis has scored a couple in the league this season and Downing hasn’t scored at all. So clearly this doesn’t happen, so to me, it is not rocket science to put them on their natural wing. They seemed to switch over a lot during this game (more than usual) but when they were on their natural side we played better, so why don’t they always play there?!
I thought Matt Jarvis was having a good game, one of his better ones this season and then Sam took him off first. I personally thought that if you were to take one of the wingers off it had to be Downing who has been off the boil the last few games despite having a decent season. Taking Jarvis off really baffled me and I am sure it did him. The best player to come on from the bench to replace a winger, in my eyes, would be Vaz Te. Yet again he wasn’t on the bench and is clearly on his way out in the summer. Vaz Te, before his injury, was one of our better performers and he offers more goal threat than our current wingers.
I am a firm believer in the theory that you are as good as your last game. This leads me on to the case of Antonio Nocerino. He was our best player in the previous game against Arsenal and he should have remained in the team. He had stated in the week he wanted to earn a permanent move to the club and is clearly trying to prove this. Dropping him for Nolan who had missed the previous game through a hamstring injury (one that he was clearly not completely over) does not send out the right message to the squad. Nocerino’s energy would have been very useful against our opponents’ box to box running.
This week was a tragic one for all connected with the club after the very sad passing of Dylan Tombides. I had met the man and shared the same feelings of admiration of his positivity and courage. He was an extremely popular member of the squad. I felt we would at least put a positive performance in, in tribute to the player and his family. Of course it is hard to predict how people respond to such sad events but I did really expect the team at least to show passion, determination and fight in this game like the fans had. Unfortunately it didn’t come and this was a major disappointment.
I hope we get a lot more from the last three games and if it is not points at least some entertainment and fight but we shall see if this is possible and then the board need to do some serious thinking.