This will be TL:DR and I don't know why I'm bothering but I have some time to kill so here goes.
Ways out of this mess
It's really easy to sit back and say X doesn't care or Y is shit but the systematic problems of what is going on runs much deeper and exists on so many levels that just a change in manager isn't going to sort out what's been allowed to go wrong. Everyone at the club needs to take a long hard look at themselves in the mirror and we need to start again, soon, before it's too late. There's a lot of basic things I think that need changing at every level of the club and here's some of my suggestions.
Training Ground/Training
1. Training Environment
Replacing the inept coaching set up was a good start, but it needs to go deeper than that. I'd advise repainting the training ground, moving tables around, changing the times of training, even as far as getting Macron to design a new training kit.
The association the training ground currently has psychologically with the players is of the old regime. They say a change is as good as a rest and I think moving forward, tweaking these little things breaks up the routine and makes the players think a bit more, it all feels a bit negative auto pilot at the moment.
2. Individual Errors
There's still too many of these and it's still the same players making the same mistakes every game and that's a thing that systematic coaching should work on. I'm not privy to how it works but It seems to me there isn't enough mental work on mistakes. The vibe I get is, for example Ward will make a mistake that he shouldn't of made, and be like "sorry lads! don't know why I did that,won't do it again" and it's left there.
If these mistakes are reoccurring, on a mental side, the work should be on asking the player about the thought process behind the mistake, whether it's a conscious or unconscious thing, a decision is being made to move or not move, the coaches and psychologists need to work with the players on understanding 'Why' because the best way for the players to learn and improve is to understand why they have to do what they've got to do and how to do it. At the moment it feels like they're being footballing brain dead and waiting for direction. This also helps with rebuilding confidence and mental fitness.
Playing Squad
Pardew has left a pretty bitty and messy squad and it's going to need some brave decisions to be made. Big characters are going to need to be brought in to freshen the place up and some older heads will need to be moved out. The Midfield has no balance, the defense is completely porous and the attack is isolated and ponderous.
The key is going to be to pick a few of the current squad to rebuild around and bring in another 5 this window.
I'd identify
Two Fb's
one *LEFT FOOTED LEFT SIDED* Cb
two CM's
need for a new left back and right back is obvious but we need a new Cb as well, someone strong and experienced, who's good at organization. As good as Dann has ever been for us, he's never looked like a leader or someone who could put on a piss up in brewery. Also we're far too reliant on right footed players and there's no natural balance in the back 4 meaning you become predictable.
The Full back's need to be strong, fit and balanced, as in if they aren't technically great or amazing positionaly they need to the pace to be able to make up the ground, they need to be good going forward as well as defending as we've got to start rebuilding the links in our team. can be from outside the Premier league or even England, if there's better value to be had but needs to be able to get up to speed quickly
The CB needs to be an organizer and a talker, a slightly older head, left footed and left sided, someone like Ashley Williams would be perfect, seasoned pro, knows the league inside and out, this is where you'll probably have to pay a little over the odds wages wise but you'll probably save on transfer fee. Genuinely good defenders are almost impossible to find, so a good experienced head is what is needed.
We obviously need a destroyer who's a cardio beast. Ibarro looks like he could be that player, but if not it might be worth looking in the Turkish league. That's how we unearthed Jedinak and West Ham found Kouyate, the only issue with that is them getting up to speed with the league again.
The other CM we need is in the mould of Joey Barton or Robbie Savage or Dennis Wise, Alan Smith, Kevin Nolan, or a CM Craig Bellamy, a proper little hyped up petulant shit bag who's full of energy so as soon as the ball is lost, he's snapping at people's ankles, getting elbows into ribs, tapping people's Achilles, nothing designed to hurt anyone, but all the little competitive digs and touches that you need to be professional at this level, someone other teams hate playing against, because he's always in your ear or your face or the ref's ear.
Then we need to work on linking the team together.
Pre Afcon finishing
-----------Mandanda-----------
-Fb-----Dann-----CB-----LB---
--McArthur--CDM----New CM-
------------Cabaye-------------
-----Remy---------Benteke-----
It leaves us narrow and relies on the FB bombing on, but in theory the CDM can drop and become a 3rd CB when attacking and McArthur and the new CM can act as ankle biters and move across rather than forward to fill in the gaps.
Cabaye is there to not play as a number 10 but to play just behind Remy who's just behind Benteke, he's the furthest forward of 4 picking up the ball and just being able to use his technical ability without having to do too much running around but offering enough that defensively he can cover if needed.
This isn't so much about winning games as it is about grinding out points. It's a team designed so it can play on the front foot, but can control the space without the ball well enough to soak up pressure and pick up points without dropping too deep and inviting pressure on.
When Wilf and Sako come back you have your outlets and more links. We need to have one player in each line who's job it is to get the ball to the next part of the pitch, like a relay race, you're job is to get it up the pitch but to maintain control of the ball/the space. not just hoofed up to the heavens.
2.Kits
I'd even go as far as to possibly suggest Macron design a new Striped home shirt and a new plain away kit, again it's the mental associations thing.
3. Dann not captain
I think this needs to happen and would be good for all involved. Bring in a new big character a big presence who's well respected and intends to be here for some time and take the burden off Scott Dann.
Branding
I think the club needs to start putting the history of Palace at the heart of the match day experience.
1. New 'Palace' Lights show
I'm not against the lights shows I just think they're very poorly done. I think just before kick off the lights should dim and a video should play on the screen of Palace teams of old walking down the tunnel, like quick edits, lots of cuts, thumping bass line on the track, some kind of pump up song and a video package that Put's Palace's identity and the fans at the heart of everything. It needs a bit of bite, something that's very Palace. think any given Sunday.
I'll probably have more thoughts but these are just some things I've been thinking about. Feel free to comment/ignore. just rather do this than sit here and moan about everything.
Ways out of this mess
It's really easy to sit back and say X doesn't care or Y is shit but the systematic problems of what is going on runs much deeper and exists on so many levels that just a change in manager isn't going to sort out what's been allowed to go wrong. Everyone at the club needs to take a long hard look at themselves in the mirror and we need to start again, soon, before it's too late. There's a lot of basic things I think that need changing at every level of the club and here's some of my suggestions.
Training Ground/Training
1. Training Environment
Replacing the inept coaching set up was a good start, but it needs to go deeper than that. I'd advise repainting the training ground, moving tables around, changing the times of training, even as far as getting Macron to design a new training kit.
The association the training ground currently has psychologically with the players is of the old regime. They say a change is as good as a rest and I think moving forward, tweaking these little things breaks up the routine and makes the players think a bit more, it all feels a bit negative auto pilot at the moment.
2. Individual Errors
There's still too many of these and it's still the same players making the same mistakes every game and that's a thing that systematic coaching should work on. I'm not privy to how it works but It seems to me there isn't enough mental work on mistakes. The vibe I get is, for example Ward will make a mistake that he shouldn't of made, and be like "sorry lads! don't know why I did that,won't do it again" and it's left there.
If these mistakes are reoccurring, on a mental side, the work should be on asking the player about the thought process behind the mistake, whether it's a conscious or unconscious thing, a decision is being made to move or not move, the coaches and psychologists need to work with the players on understanding 'Why' because the best way for the players to learn and improve is to understand why they have to do what they've got to do and how to do it. At the moment it feels like they're being footballing brain dead and waiting for direction. This also helps with rebuilding confidence and mental fitness.
Playing Squad
Pardew has left a pretty bitty and messy squad and it's going to need some brave decisions to be made. Big characters are going to need to be brought in to freshen the place up and some older heads will need to be moved out. The Midfield has no balance, the defense is completely porous and the attack is isolated and ponderous.
The key is going to be to pick a few of the current squad to rebuild around and bring in another 5 this window.
I'd identify
Two Fb's
one *LEFT FOOTED LEFT SIDED* Cb
two CM's
need for a new left back and right back is obvious but we need a new Cb as well, someone strong and experienced, who's good at organization. As good as Dann has ever been for us, he's never looked like a leader or someone who could put on a piss up in brewery. Also we're far too reliant on right footed players and there's no natural balance in the back 4 meaning you become predictable.
The Full back's need to be strong, fit and balanced, as in if they aren't technically great or amazing positionaly they need to the pace to be able to make up the ground, they need to be good going forward as well as defending as we've got to start rebuilding the links in our team. can be from outside the Premier league or even England, if there's better value to be had but needs to be able to get up to speed quickly
The CB needs to be an organizer and a talker, a slightly older head, left footed and left sided, someone like Ashley Williams would be perfect, seasoned pro, knows the league inside and out, this is where you'll probably have to pay a little over the odds wages wise but you'll probably save on transfer fee. Genuinely good defenders are almost impossible to find, so a good experienced head is what is needed.
We obviously need a destroyer who's a cardio beast. Ibarro looks like he could be that player, but if not it might be worth looking in the Turkish league. That's how we unearthed Jedinak and West Ham found Kouyate, the only issue with that is them getting up to speed with the league again.
The other CM we need is in the mould of Joey Barton or Robbie Savage or Dennis Wise, Alan Smith, Kevin Nolan, or a CM Craig Bellamy, a proper little hyped up petulant shit bag who's full of energy so as soon as the ball is lost, he's snapping at people's ankles, getting elbows into ribs, tapping people's Achilles, nothing designed to hurt anyone, but all the little competitive digs and touches that you need to be professional at this level, someone other teams hate playing against, because he's always in your ear or your face or the ref's ear.
Then we need to work on linking the team together.
Pre Afcon finishing
-----------Mandanda-----------
-Fb-----Dann-----CB-----LB---
--McArthur--CDM----New CM-
------------Cabaye-------------
-----Remy---------Benteke-----
It leaves us narrow and relies on the FB bombing on, but in theory the CDM can drop and become a 3rd CB when attacking and McArthur and the new CM can act as ankle biters and move across rather than forward to fill in the gaps.
Cabaye is there to not play as a number 10 but to play just behind Remy who's just behind Benteke, he's the furthest forward of 4 picking up the ball and just being able to use his technical ability without having to do too much running around but offering enough that defensively he can cover if needed.
This isn't so much about winning games as it is about grinding out points. It's a team designed so it can play on the front foot, but can control the space without the ball well enough to soak up pressure and pick up points without dropping too deep and inviting pressure on.
When Wilf and Sako come back you have your outlets and more links. We need to have one player in each line who's job it is to get the ball to the next part of the pitch, like a relay race, you're job is to get it up the pitch but to maintain control of the ball/the space. not just hoofed up to the heavens.
2.Kits
I'd even go as far as to possibly suggest Macron design a new Striped home shirt and a new plain away kit, again it's the mental associations thing.
3. Dann not captain
I think this needs to happen and would be good for all involved. Bring in a new big character a big presence who's well respected and intends to be here for some time and take the burden off Scott Dann.
Branding
I think the club needs to start putting the history of Palace at the heart of the match day experience.
1. New 'Palace' Lights show
I'm not against the lights shows I just think they're very poorly done. I think just before kick off the lights should dim and a video should play on the screen of Palace teams of old walking down the tunnel, like quick edits, lots of cuts, thumping bass line on the track, some kind of pump up song and a video package that Put's Palace's identity and the fans at the heart of everything. It needs a bit of bite, something that's very Palace. think any given Sunday.
I'll probably have more thoughts but these are just some things I've been thinking about. Feel free to comment/ignore. just rather do this than sit here and moan about everything.
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