Match Reaction - Palace 1-2 FA Cup Winners

These are the same conversations we have had with all our midfielders seemingly on rotation.....Santi, Ozil, Rosicky.....and many were suggesting not too long ago that Cazorla was very expendable and even that his career at the top level was finished. Certainly at Arsenal. Look at him now. As far as I'm concerned he is a world class player.

That's not to say we should keep them all indefinitely but relatively young players who are clearly talented should not be let go at all easily, regardless of the fact we have better options at this exact moment in time.

I think when he has been fit, Jack has been very good this season. He tends to punctuate games with a few silly moments which overshadow or mask the fact he has actually played well and then he exacerbates things further by getting caught with his pants down off the field and sprinkles various injuries on top to finish which further stokes the ire of many fans. All of it goes a long way to obscuring the fact he has been good even during the times when few others were playing well around him this season.

If he wants to get in the side he will need to raise his game and get serious off the field and I want to see him rise to the challenge rather than just seek the first bus out the club for him.

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Originally Posted by Blink 1nce Quince 2wice

Rosicky has only failed to be a first team player for a number of years because of the scepticism over his fitness.

The point I'm making though is that if Ramsey, Wilshere, Arteta are in that midfield trio with Coq and Carzorla rather than Ozil what we lose in attacking nous we gain in a little bit pf physicality and because of that tend to control the midfield better? I'm speculating really, but I am happy to see Ozil, Santi and Coq in midfield though I agree with NQ......losing Rambo and Jack, no thanks for me.

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I hear you, but for me, Rosicky is the best central midfield player we have to do the job. Defensive midfield and attacking midfield we have sorted, but central midfield is another story. We've seen Ramsey and Wilshere play that role and both of them are guilty of pushing too far forwards or surrendering possession too easily. They don't protect the ball well enough or distribute it well enough at the moment. The balance was perfect with Coq, Rosicky and Cazorla. They got the winning streak started when we were in a slump and we should be looking to that combo to keep it going whenever possible.

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Originally Posted by Herbert_Chapman's_Zombie

I agree, although Ramsey has had a long time this season to struggle to find "his groove", we need a holding midfielder in the summer and that's going to make us overloaded in the central midfield position and i now see him as someone we could potentially cut our losses with. His brilliant form last season would see to it that we'd get plenty of money for him

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Hmmm..I dunno about that, Ramsey has an incredible engine, he definitely offers this team something unique, I don't see any of the others doing what he does.

I accept he has been sub par this season but I wouldn't give up on him just yet. I agree that we need a holding midfielder or more defensively minded midfielder, maybe someone like Schneiderlin, I really rate him.

If we do get a new midfielder in then Arteta and Flamini should definitely be moved on, and one of Wilshere/Ramsey/Rosicky are going to be surplus to requirements too IMO.

AGAIN - we get to 2-0 at half time & then decide to stop offering an attacking threat. How many times does this have to happen especially against pub teams for Wumger to realise we aren't good enough to sit back - we nearly let Brighton back in FFS.
We are an attack minded team & when we are 2-0 up we have to go for 3. There maybe some argument about being sensible against the big teams but no possible reason in the world to sit back on a 1 or 2 nil lead against inferior opposition. The obvious outcome will be that they finally take one of the chances that falls to them & we're in danger of dropping points. When you also take off your quick attacking players it also results in us being less of a threat on the counter.
If Palace had scored 2 goals to draw level on Saturday with 10 mins left - who then becomes the likely winner.