Palace hoofball. An appeal to Dowie.

[glaziers fan]

Yes that's right, we're a long-ball team with a target man. Only problem is that our target man is 5'6" tall!

I can't believe how things don't ever change. Is Dowie really as thick as his team tactics and line-ups suggest? Same mistakes OVER AND OVER AGAIN!

1) Borrowdale is a ••••••• sh!t defender. We have seen it time and time again. Why did we have to watch that cr@p again?

2) Soares is a waste of space. Does he play on the wing purely because Iain doesn't want us to have any width, or because he is such a negative manager, or because Soares works hard in training? Probably all three.

3) There is no point playing the ball over the top for Johnson ALL the time, against a team defending deep. Just is not going to work. Balls need to be played into Clinton's feet. He can hold ball up well. He is strong and rarely tackled. Play it to Clinton. Get AJ to drop deeper. We are not in Premiership now, where AJ has space in behind last defender. AJ terrorised teams in CCC last time by running from deep, not by being the furthest forward.

4) Substitutions. Why did Reich get only 15 mins AGAIN?! Does Iain want to give him given a pay-off like Kolkka? Why did we sign him if Iain doesn't want to play him? What is the point of making substitutions so late on and so gung ho that we concede? Why could Reich not have come on with 30 mins to go (for Soares) and then Macken brought on for last 10 if things were still not working?

I don't want to see the following in the starting line-up next Sat:

Borrowdale - has shown time and time again he can't defend.
Leigertwood - Dowie you haven't shown faith in him up till now, so no point playing him for 1 match now.
Popovic - He was poor in our WIN vs Watford; u obviously think it is not rustiness or he wouldn't have been dropped
Butterfield - he has played no games in reserves. Even if he plays in midweek it'd be unfair that Reich and Granville play 4+ reserve games and still don't get a look in and yet Danny B can just Walz straight back in

Soares - Yes, he needs a rest - a bloody long one. He is not a footballer, sorry. Find another profession...
Aki - He has played several games recently. You keep dropping him and bringing him back. You wouldn't drop him if he was good enough. He has been appalling this season, even if he has suffered lots of injuries

They have proved time and time again that they are not good enough TO START. I'm sure if we look at stats they have been dropped more times than any other player:

Kiraly, Ward, Hall, Boyce, Watson, Hughes, McAnuff, AJ, Morrison are your regulars. Fine. Now bloody well bring in Granville and Reich:

Kiraly

Granville
Ward
Hall
Boyce

McAnuff (left side to cover Granville)
Hughes
Watson
Reich (right side cos covered by Boyce but switch occasionally)

AJ
Morrison

Subs:

Don't care. You never use them properly anyway.

Tell the players to go out there, play football and not to aimlessly hoof it to AJ. Get Johnson to work channels and Reich, Mcanuff and Watson to utilise space this creates. Get a bit of width into the team.

Please Iain, you're driving me crazy.

[bananaman]

dont talk so much sence on here its not allowed!!

[glaziers fan]

Originally posted by bananaman
dont talk so much sence on here its not allowed!!

Sorry!

[Stumpy]

Agree totally!!!!!

After 4 hours to get to the poxy game, and 3 hours to get home lets just say i am

[The Gerry Queen]

Summed it all up perfectly Glaziers Fan ! What a great post. That starting eleven would really work well and would be a winner for us. I could even relax a bit and actually look forward to the Play Offs ! Let's hope Dowie can be big enough to do as you suggest, I suspect that he may even privately accept that he has run out of ideas in that two dimensional mindset of his and actually be looking for a way out. Let's hope he reads your post.

[maestro]

I agree with that, Im so pissed of with the continued selection of saores, he's a winger who doesnt ever score, he doesnt take people on and he doesnt cross so why the •••• is he in the side.

Id rate him as a league 1 player tops

[Beck The Eagle]

right so Hughes warrants a place above Leggy AND Aki for what reasons.

His awful tackling, his lack of pace, his whole round average game?

[Halfwayline]

Post of the month and contender for post of the season.

[pedro]

You got my vote for manager.

[Al From Bromley]

Manager my arse. This statement is nonsense "Aki - He has played several games recently. You keep dropping him and bringing him back. You wouldn't drop him if he was good enough. He has been appalling this season, even if he has suffered lots of injuries".

[Farawayeagle]

Originally posted by glaziers fan
Yes that's right, we're a long-ball team with a target man. Only problem is that our target man is 5'6" tall!

I can't believe how things don't ever change. Is Dowie really as thick as his team tactics and line-ups suggest? Same mistakes OVER AND OVER AGAIN!

1) Borrowdale is a ••••••• sh!t defender. We have seen it time and time again. Why did we have to watch that cr@p again?

2) Soares is a waste of space. Does he play on the wing purely because Iain doesn't want us to have any width, or because he is such a negative manager, or because Soares works hard in training? Probably all three.

3) There is no point playing the ball over the top for Johnson ALL the time, against a team defending deep. Just is not going to work. Balls need to be played into Clinton's feet. He can hold ball up well. He is strong and rarely tackled. Play it to Clinton. Get AJ to drop deeper. We are not in Premiership now, where AJ has space in behind last defender. AJ terrorised teams in CCC last time by running from deep, not by being the furthest forward.

4) Substitutions. Why did Reich get only 15 mins AGAIN?! Does Iain want to give him given a pay-off like Kolkka? Why did we sign him if Iain doesn't want to play him? What is the point of making substitutions so late on and so gung ho that we concede? Why could Reich not have come on with 30 mins to go (for Soares) and then Macken brought on for last 10 if things were still not working?

I don't want to see the following in the starting line-up next Sat:

Borrowdale - has shown time and time again he can't defend.
Leigertwood - Dowie you haven't shown faith in him up till now, so no point playing him for 1 match now.
Popovic - He was poor in our WIN vs Watford; u obviously think it is not rustiness or he wouldn't have been dropped
Butterfield - he has played no games in reserves. Even if he plays in midweek it'd be unfair that Reich and Granville play 4+ reserve games and still don't get a look in and yet Danny B can just Walz straight back in

Soares - Yes, he needs a rest - a bloody long one. He is not a footballer, sorry. Find another profession...
Aki - He has played several games recently. You keep dropping him and bringing him back. You wouldn't drop him if he was good enough. He has been appalling this season, even if he has suffered lots of injuries

They have proved time and time again that they are not good enough TO START. I'm sure if we look at stats they have been dropped more times than any other player:

Kiraly, Ward, Hall, Boyce, Watson, Hughes, McAnuff, AJ, Morrison are your regulars. Fine. Now bloody well bring in Granville and Reich:

Kiraly

Granville
Ward
Hall
Boyce

McAnuff (left side to cover Granville)
Hughes
Watson
Reich (right side cos covered by Boyce but switch occasionally)

AJ
Morrison

Subs:

Don't care. You never use them properly anyway.

Tell the players to go out there, play football and not to aimlessly hoof it to AJ. Get Johnson to work channels and Reich, Mcanuff and Watson to utilise space this creates. Get a bit of width into the team.

Please Iain, you're driving me crazy.

Agree almost entirely. Except for the bit about Popovic. I understand he had a back injury, which is why he wasn't in the starting line up.

[Thanet Eagle]

A good post from glaziers fan. Fair points and I totally agree.

[henryhallandhisbasque]

Awaits posts from outraged Dowie and Jordan groupies."Jordan saved the club.....Dowie's got us to the play-offs...." Zzzzzzz

[KP'S Nuts]

Great Post sums up how I'm thnking as well!. Dowies us of subs is the most frustrating thing to me 1.usually always to late in the day to be of any use, 2.predictable for the oposition manager 3.mostly the wrong individual swop and 4.way after the balance of play has shifted to the oposition. In a battle you don't wait until your force is routed and then think I better put in my reserves you put them in when the formation is starting to be over run.

[Batsta]

I want to ask Dowie why he thinks Borrowdale Is good enough one week, then drops him the next.

Can we decide on a back 4, then play them every week please. Thanks.

[Gazpacho]

I agree 100% with this post. We've never really fired on all cylinders this season and it has been frustrating. Yes, we are fifth but we could and certainly should be second. Sheffield Utd are no better than us - they just want it more, the team has been picked properly for the type of football that works in this Division. I am not excited by being in the play-offs. We were too slow, laboured and sloppy against a team that was average but organised well. I would be excited if we started to do what Glaziers fan has said - which is to get the best out of the team from selection on - and stopped mucking about.

[westsussexeagle]

Well I'm amazed both at the original post and those so full of admiration for it? What does it tell us. Not a lot I'd suggest.

The team GF ends up with is the team that started (and played most of) last night with the exception of Reich instead of Soares and Granville for Borrowdale. I know Borrowdale had a poor game (who didn't) but isn't Granville still injured? Has GF miraculous curing hands? Soares similarly had a bad game and has a had a few. But to say 'He is not a footballer' is nonsense. I can see Soares making it over the next few years and more than likely not at Palace. As someone noted on another thread we can all remember the stick a young John Salako got when he was starting out.

The fact is the team were pitiful last night and deserved a Stuart Pearce dressing room talk. I can agree with the rant at a general level but I don't think the content moves us on in any particular way. I think we've known for a while that we are 'play-offs' at best but are unlikely to reproduce the results of 2 years ago to get through them.

Failing to win promotion will see Johnson, Watson and Soares all moving on to premiership sides for a start. ID may well call it a day especially if the 'appropriate job' comes along - Charlton, Bolton or Middlesboro depending on who gets the England job? That will leave us with a mid table obscurity side at best with a new managerial team (ID will take bro' and co with him) and a Chairman becoming increasingly disillusioned with the game.

The future definitely doesn't look Orange.....

[eagles #1]

We can all see it, except for Dowie. I don't know whats wrong with him?

[Gooders]

We can chop and change all we like, what this season has proved above all else is that this current group of players isn't good enough to get us up automatically, and I shudder to think what the big guns in The Premiership would do to us. We would threaten Sunderlands record I think.

Just makes me feel that last season was an even more heroic effort than I realised at the time.

Another year building in the Championship would almost certainly be for the best. If it means AJ (inevitable) leaving, Watson (shame) leaving and Soares (who cares?) leaving, so be it.

We can take the opportunity to clear out the old crusties and the perenially injured as well.

[eagles #1]

Originally posted by Gooders
We can chop and change all we like, what this season has proved above all else is that this current group of players isn't good enough to get us up automatically, and I shudder to think what the big guns in The Premiership would do to us. We would threaten Sunderlands record I think.

Just makes me feel that last season was an even more heroic effort than I realised at the time.

Another year building in the Championship would almost certainly be for the best. If it means AJ (inevitable) leaving, Watson (shame) leaving and Soares (who cares?) leaving, so be it.

We can take the opportunity to clear out the old crusties and the perenially injured as well.

But if our best players all played in their best positions we would be good enough!