Team for Crystal Palace

[rg6royal]

Armstrong has to start at LB for me and push Hunty to LM.

[Royalee]

not sure how wise changing 3 of the back four is for one game,
and ive not seen anything of mooney to make any kind of judgement about him deserving a start
but other than that
id take that quite happily

Well if they let less than four goals in then that's an improvement surely? The extra strength in midfield will lessen the pressure on our defenders anyway.

As for the strikers, I've put those two in purely because Mooney's big and in some sort of goalscoring form and I've been told Noel Hunt's played well when he's featured.

Against a Palace side who haven't managed to score a league goal this season and compared to a defence that kept 2 clean sheets prior to that?

No, not really. changing 3 at the back is a good way of risking giving Palace their first goal IMO. Especially as 1 of those players is weak in the air and considered a midfielder by the management, another is young and relatively inexperienced and the third will have managed about 2 training sessions.


For Floyd:

My point about Ivar working with Coppell before is relevant because it means he Coppell knows him and how he plays and can adapt well. He is also likely to be familar with Coppell's tactics and style of play.

As I said it can be done but it's not ideal. If you have another option for the short term that isn't going to cause a disaster why take the gamble.
Hunt's done ok at the back, Convey has done ok on the wing. We'll want Armstrong in, but better to get him fully up to speed, unless he is deemed ready and raring to go.

1. Ingimarsson's weak in the air and Sonko can't direct his headers - Cisse's not any worse than either of those two.

2. Every player would be inexperienced if you didn't play them and according to most on here, Pearce showed more coolness and composure than a Champions League Semi Finalist the other night. I don't think playing for Norwich in the Championship last season makes him inexperienced either.

3. Who would you rather have at left back, a specialist who knows the position or Hunt? As for training sessions, he'll have seen us play several times before and you don't need to have trained a million times before being ready to play - that's just one of Coppell's idiotic myths.

[silas]

Pearce, Karacan, Bikey, N Hunt, Armstrong IN
Convey, Sonko, Ingimarsson, Doyle, Cisse OUT

Cannot argue with that.

Coppell would though

[Wycombe Royal]

1. Ingimarsson's weak in the air and Sonko can't direct his headers - Cisse's not any worse than either of those two.

He has both those attributes. He can't head, and when he does he can't direct it. I would rather have either of those two at centre back ahead of him, preferably Sonko, the joint top scorer in the Championship.

[rotherwick_royal]

Sonko can't direct his headers

He's directed them into the opposition net 3 times this season so far.

[Alan Partridge]

I wouldn't play sonko down to him being an absolute liability whenever he walks on the pitch. I wouldn't play Cisse either but he is a hopeless player, it's all about Bikey (Y)

[winchester_royal]

I wouldn't play sonko down to him being an absolute liability whenever he walks on the pitch. I wouldn't play Cisse either but he is a hopeless player, it's all about Bikey (Y)

'greed.

Sonko is a red card on legs.

[brendywendy]

id have bikey in like a shot any day under any circumstances
but sonko was in the team who looked very solid defensively previous to last weekend
who had a bad game, in mongst a team of bad games
and has scored 3 goals already

id say bikey and sonko for me, see what happens
2 red cards perhaps!!

[Xavier Onassis]

Reading Coppell's comments on selection I think the team is loking like picking itself:

Hahnemann
Rosenior Sonko Ingimarsson Armstrong
Kebe Karacan Harper SHunt
NHunt Doyle

It sounds like he's talking himself out of Bikey, so almost the only other option in midfield (compatible with the "senior pros" remark) would be SHunt in the middle instead of Karacan and Convey LW.

[winchester_royal]

Reading Coppell's comments on selection I think the team is loking like picking itself:

Hahnemann
Rosenior Sonko Ingimarsson Armstrong
Kebe Karacan Harper SHunt
NHunt Doyle

It sounds like he's talking himself out of Bikey, so almost the only other option in midfield (compatible with the "senior pros" remark) would be SHunt in the middle instead of Karacan and Convey LW.

From his comments I reckon he is gonna put Karacan in.

Maybe Pearce as well.

[Xavier Onassis]

Reading Coppell's comments on selection I think the team is loking like picking itself:

Hahnemann
Rosenior Sonko Ingimarsson Armstrong
Kebe Karacan Harper SHunt
NHunt Doyle

It sounds like he's talking himself out of Bikey, so almost the only other option in midfield (compatible with the "senior pros" remark) would be SHunt in the middle instead of Karacan and Convey LW.

From his comments I reckon he is gonna put Karacan in.

Maybe Pearce as well.

The thing about "senior pros" suggests he won;t put in too much youth. Karacan is the one he bigs up by name, so more likely than Pearce.

[West Stand Man]

Sonko can't direct his headers

He's directed them into the opposition net 3 times this season so far.

Don't mix up facts with HNA opinion, the 2 are incompatible.

[Man Friday]

Armstrong must start and Convey must be dropped in favour of SHunt. These are absolute no-brainers. Armstrong IS a left back and Convey is playing crap with SHunt showing promises of previous heights. If these changes aren't made I despair.

[rg6royal]

Karacan CM

And by reading what Coppell said on the OS it looks as if it may well happen.

[winchester_royal]

TBF to Coppell, he does say there will be a 'mix'.

[rg6royal]

TBF to Coppell, he does say there will be a 'mix'.

I.E

Kebe right back and Doyle centre mid

[Ian Royal]

Hunt's done ok at the back, Convey has done ok on the wing.

No he hasn't. He's contributed very little and you could probably count on one hand the number of crosses he has put into the box. You are Steve Coppell AICMFP (but even our dithering manager wouldn't play a left winger instead of a recognised left back on Saturday.....would he?).

He's looked less spectacular than Kebe but has made a promising start with some good attacking play. Little end product so far, but he hasn't performed badly.

I'm not Steve Coppell. If I was, Karacan would have played everyone of Cisse's minutes so far this season. Yes he may, for reasons I've already posted several times and won't go into again.

[Ian Royal]

id have bikey in like a shot any day under any circumstances
but sonko was in the team who looked very solid defensively previous to last weekend
who had a bad game, in mongst a team of bad games
and has scored 3 goals already

id say bikey and sonko for me, see what happens
2 red cards perhaps!!

I like the idea of Sonko and Bikey at Chump level providing Sonko continues with more Plymouth and Forest performances rather than more Charlton ones. I don't think Sonko has what it takes to be a prem defender though.

Pearce I am more than happy to put in the defence, but not as part of a whole host of defensive changes.

I will be happy to see Armstrong play because that means Coppell thinks he is ready. If he doesn't, providing he appears in the next game, or Golbourne has his place I will also be happy.

Karacan must play.

[OLLIE KEARNS]

Armstrong must come in with Hunty pushing on into midfield. That energy in midfield brings far more positives than any risk from Stretch only having a couple of days at the club.
I think Pearce can be our number one centre back and I'd put him in on Saturday but it would be with Ingi. Pearce is going to need a steady talker next to him in the early stages and Ingi was constantly talking and encouraging him on Tuesday. Sonko constantly gets out of position (red card on legs was a good description from earlier post ) and he will only put pressure on Pearce. Ingi doesn't do much wrong and only gets found out at Premier level with the ball played in behind. If Pearce comes in and has a few solid games on the spin then he'll be there to stay. One difficult game with the back four all over the place would be a big setback.
Cisse is out so Bikey in midfield with Harper for me. Two reasons. 1) I think Bikey is potentially top notch so I'd either have him in CM or CB before anyone else. I actually think he can play a bit too so CM gets the vote for now. 2) I thought Karacan was very good on Tuesday but he put everything into that performance and he looked very tired in the last 10 mins. Anyone who has played knows that could mean heavy legs on Saturday and again, a poor performance would be a big setback given that he can play a big part this year. Bench for now but in the squad for sure.
Doyle and Hunt up front because they both really work the back four which Doyle has been doing alone for some time now. Leroy is an out and out box player but we can't afford that luxury IMO. Hunt and Doyle will create chances for each other. Doyle badly needs a goal though. Once that happens then he'll be off an running again.
Only other debates. Kebe stays because he's done nothing wrong so far. Harper is still first on the sheet for me. Won't go into all of the reasons but we'd miss him if he wasn't there.
Saturday is a big day for us. A good win against a poor Palace team with a couple of changes to the side that can then become permanent. Fingers crossed I'm looking forward to the game.

[sachalois]

Doyle and long are starting up front against palace