Crystal Palace vs West Ham, Sat 29th April, 12.30pm

buffybegood

IronHerb said:

Cancel culture at work.

PrestonHammer said:

Who's been cancelled and what for?

Benrahma. Suddenly 5 goals and 3 assists don't count because they were simple.

Personally I think 5 goals from general play is a much bigger contribution than 4 penalties and a single goal from open play; I don't think it's unfair to make that distinction. Approximately 4 out of 5 penalties are scored, and they're not even like tap-in goals where you need to be in the right position to make it a tap-in. I'm not denying I feel happier with Benrahma taking penalties than some of the others we've tried with them (notably Rice), but they do skew a player's G&A stats without a doubt.

IronHerb

Don't disagree but they still important and need to be scored. Rice's miss could send us down.

Kuchinghammer

Lukerz said:

Benrahma 5 league goals (4 pens) & 3 assists (2 simple passes for a Rice screamer).

Bring him on whenever we get a penalty...😉

Fortuneseeker

Kuchinghammer, He could be on a special teams bench with Soucek who we could bring on when we have a set piece. 👍

BubblesNeverDies

I'm still fuming that 2 diabolical refereeing decisions in the space of 3 days could end up being the difference between survival and relegation.

IronHerb

Lots of noise around Jota and Skipp but little around Antonio getting kicked in the head in the Palace penalty area.

buffybegood

BubblesNeverDies said:

I'm still fuming that 2 diabolical refereeing decisions in the space of 3 days could end up being the difference between survival and relegation.

For me it's more the fact that we'd more or less be safe now and so much more able to rest some players before the ECL semis. I still think we'll stay up, but are now potentially much less likely to win the cup.

ASLEFshrugged

buffybegood said:

For me it's more the fact that we'd more or less be safe now and so much more able to rest some players before the ECL semis. I still think we'll stay up, but are now potentially much less likely to win the cup.

I'm not so sure.

Of the three teams left in the ECL I though Fiorentina would be the toughest opposition but they were awful against Lech Poznan. Currently 9th in Serie A

AZ needed penalties to get past Anderlecht who we beat home and away while Basel are currently 5th in the 10-team Swiss Super League

If we field our strongest team I think we've got a good chance of winning this

buffybegood

ASLEFshrugged said:

If we field our strongest team I think we've got a good chance of winning this

That's the issue though, our strongest 11 is what we field for most matches, and we've just played 9 games in April with a further two to come before the 1st leg of the semi-final.

Our strongest 11 is definitely good enough, if they're not absolutely knackered that is. Those 2 extra points would have made it much easier to rest a few of them rather than having to scrap around still trying to pick up a couple of points to ensure PL survival.

Lukerz

We’ve got 3 chances (well 2 really) to get the 2/3 points I feel will get us safe. Man Utd & Brentford. If not, we’ll be playing that semi final knowing we have Leeds & Leicester in what will be huge games.

claretandbluesky

Maybe a case for selective resting even though we are not safe. Maybe we accept the City and United games as zero points and just do best to preserve goal difference with a defensive midfield. We then rely on the Brentford, Leeds and Leicester matches to provide the three points I think we may need, although 2 may be enough should we preserve our goal difference.

The main need of resting is Zouma, Antonio and possibly Rice, because him picking up an injury in a match we lose against City or United would be a tragedy.

buffybegood

claretandbluesky said:

The main need of resting is Zouma, Antonio and possibly Rice, because him picking up an injury in a match we lose against City or United would be a tragedy.

May well be too late for Zouma anyway, he'll not be fit for City, and guessing he'll be a huge doubt for Man Utd, the first leg of the semi, and probably Brentford as well, if he makes it back before the end of the season at all.

steve

I don't think we should except the Man U game as a loss

Hamstew

It'll happen though. Some how regardless of how both teams play Man U will get the win.