What a difference a few days makes ay? The emotional
outpouring at the final whistle on Saturday against Sheffield Wednesday seemed
a world away from the feelings experienced a few days earlier with the rather
unceremonious dumping out of the League Cup at the hands of Preston North End.
For a team that were penalty kicks away from the
final last year, a 4-1 reversal to a League One side seemed even worse than
would normally be the case. In previous years, being knocked out of a Cup early
was not really big news, fans would forget and move on. And yet we did not want
to move on, we wanted to remember the memories of Old Trafford and the
semi-finals and that’s what made the score line from Deepdale even more
painful.
The old saying goes; ‘concentrate on the league’
although before Saturday that wasn’t going so well either. Perhaps now though,
three points on the board it was all part of the master plan? Perhaps not, but
the Selhurst Park garden looks slightly more rosy now than it did before.
After the first couple of this new season’s games I
posted a piece on this site born out of frustration. I like to think that I’m a
reasonable optimist when it comes to supporting my team, someone that likes to give
time and patience rather than knee jerk reactions but I was starting to veer
dangerously into pessimism before the weekend’s big win and I don’t think I was
the only one.
As I wrote, it wasn’t simply a case of booing
because we had lost our first couple of games it was because most were nervous
about the lack of signings when contrasted with some key players departing and
most remembered that we had limped home at the end of last season with wins few
and far between.
Some fresh blood was a must, and happily the last
week saw significant developments, and as we sit here today, the Palace squad
has certainly been ‘beefed’ up. Sure, it’s not big names, but it’s the shot in
the arm the place needed, and provides some significant improvements in the
options available to the manager.
Darcy Blake form Cardiff is a Welsh international,
established at this level, versatile with a huge ‘upside’. Damien Delaney
brings experience and know how, whilst Yannick Bolassie, if Saturday is
anything to go by is fast, direct and has a whole load of tricks. David
Goodwillie, a loan arrival from Blackburn never got to show much in the Premier
League last season but offers promise, and most importantly goal threat.
Overall though, and perhaps more importantly the new
signings seem to have given the club back some optimism, which reflected in a
far more positive and committed performance against the men from Sheffield.
Whereas previous games had seen the team approach with a safety first strategy
compounded by a brittle sense of self confidence, from the first minute, or
rather the first 30 seconds (how long it took the ball to end up in the
Wednesday net) players looked far more aggressive and far more willing to take
the game to their opponents.
Dougie Freedman still seems a manager that first and
foremost will look to keep things tight, not that was appearing to work this
season so far, but the signs are hopefully showing that sitting on leads or
waiting for the opposition to cede initiative rather than taking it may
hopefully be on the way out. The most eye catching of the new arrivals for me
was the player who kept it simple, passed it and kept possession neatly and who
was always looking to keep the play moving, that was the rather unheralded André
Moritz.
I think it’s fair to say that the Brazilian
attacking midfielder, arriving on Planet Selhurst via a spell in Turkish football
was not a name that captured many of the transfer deadline headlines, but his arrival,
and the way that he started, by playing in front of the players there to harry
and win the ball, offers undoubted promise for the future.
It feels rather egocentric to continually self
reference myself, but last week I said that while we can sit here and argue
about a lack of goals, defensive errors and superstar signings (as in the lack
off) the main issue for me was in Freedman’s overtly reactionary outlook on the
game. These things are never as simple as all this, but it felt like to me that
there was a link between the lack of fighting spirit being shown in the first
couple of games and the fact that the team was very much set up to be on the back
foot, waiting for the opposition to make the first move.
I titled my last post ‘he who dares wins’ and that
very much summed up what happened against Sheffield Wednesday last Saturday.
Scoring in the first 30 seconds always helps of course but right from the
opening whistle it looked like the side was fired up and determined to take the
game to their opponents. Furthermore you felt that when the game was level at
1-1, the team still believed in going for the winner even when one might have expected
confidence to be as brittle as the defence had been at Preston.
Glenn Murray’s winner was the reward for
trying to take the initiative and with three points on the board and new
arrivals boosting the squad, things are starting to look up in SE25. New
signings by themselves don’t make all the difference, but their appearance charging
over the hill to the rescue on the proverbial white horse seems to have
provided the boost the club needed in order to believe that playing on the
front foot and being proactive rather than reactive is the answer. It’s only
one win, but if there’s been a fundamental change in the way the team want to
play then we could just be onto something...
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