British Expatriate Network

Crystal Palace knocked the 'Pool out of the League Cup (sorry Carling Cup) last night. They beat them 2-1 at Selhurst Park. No offence to Liverpool but asides from their Champion's League form Liverpool havent won on the road this season and and I think that Palace thought that they had a good chance of knocking Liverpool off at home, Palace has been a bogey team at times for Liverpool.
Still, a good performance for the lads theyve prolonged their League Cup life a bit longer wink and Liverpool? is there any panic at Anfield yet?

Well though my membername says notts_lad I am a Liverpool fan too. And I am not impressed with losing to Palace

From what I read it seems Rafa threw some youngsters in there and it didn't obviously go that well! I think we have a way to go before we are serious championship contenders.

And not signing Owen again I think will prove to be a big mistake. The jury is very much still out on our strikeforce at the minute.

As a sometime Palace fan I listened to this on the internet (BBC). I thought they'd do it. Palace have been very patchy this season - I'd swap that cup win over Liverpool for a win over Brighton at home in the league oops

As Palace are unlikely to be world-shakers anytime soon havign bragging rights over arch enemies Brighton was far more important - still can't understand how they can beat European Champions and lose to the Seagulls....

That's part of the intrigue of being a Palace fan? ??? wink

I think a major moment in recent Palace history was the 1990 FA Cup Final v Man Utd.
2-1 up with about 15 minutes to go. Ferguson was about to be sacked if Palace just held on. I often like to think how the course of domestic footballing history would be different - if Ian Wright was brough on earlier...

I'll never forget the Palace vs Man Utd final, Palace waited far too long to put Wrighty on. I just couldn't believe the strong arm tactics which were used by Palace in the replay. Instead of trying to win the game they decided to kick United all over Wembley. The semi final against Liverpool was a classic.

I'm a liverpool fan and it was clear las tyear that we would suck this year. It's frustrating because there does seem to be potential there. But signing Crouch as the guy who would score us lots of goals was fairly strange. If Cisse, Morientes, Le Tallec and Baros couldn't score, then there must have been some other problem. But our midfield is full of supposed stars - Gerrard, Alonso, Garcia, Kewell, Riise etc. Surely one of them can cross a ball?

The worst I think is that Benitez has encouraged the team to be even more defensive and disorganized than Houllier did. There's just nothing exciting to look at there.

Bah.

That's the thing which is confounding about Liverpool. After a couple of games it looked like Liverpool's defence was tight and organised. How many good teams do you see who have a good defence? so I was optimistic about Liverpool. It seems now that the offensive part has dried up... ???
Okay there's been a couple of injuries but Benitez has got a good midfield engine there.... the trick is to liven things up a bit there. From the last couple of interviews Ive watched Liverpool players (the actual scousers wink ) are mourning the loss of Owen.

TnS is a Liverpool fan so I see a lot of them. They are stellar in Europe but awful in English competition. It's hard to put your finger on it but I think half of it is motivation. Especially when they are missing Gerrard they look like they don't care, and Gerrard's drive helps them pull through sometimes... but only once he gets that "I'm going to save this game" look on his face and tears off his shirt to reveal a big "S" in a diamond shape on his chest.

But the calibre of the Liverpool players is not in question. When I list the team it gives me goosebumps as to how good it could be. We have 3 good keepers, decent defenders, a potentially superb midfield, and what should be a great frontline. Someone needs to explain to me how with Morientes, Cisse, Crouch, Mellor, Pongolle, and Le Tallec that we cannot score for toffee. Before we won the Champions League I thought that what we needed was an admission that we'd been coasting on players who aren't working here. They aren't neccesarily bad (Traore excluded obviously) but just not suited. I'm positive if Kewell, Riise, Alonso, and Garcia were playing for Arsenal, they'd be player of the month contenders every month. But at Liverpool all that's happened is we've grown two great players in Gerrard and Carragher who are demanded to win each game. The surrounding players could, frankly, be anyone. And so many look like they'll be moving on shortly.

For me I'd have sold Kewell already. He isn't working out. How he can be in the squad but we'd let Cheyrou go on loan is a puzzle to me. At least Cheyrou isn't permanently injured. When I watched him play he looked great. I would not have bought Crouch - what was the point? He was never going to get 15 plus goals a year - especially if neither Cisse or Baros was going to. But then I was certain Morientes would be knocking them in for fun. I like both Pongolle and Le Tallec, but every supporter knows they'll be sold next year cuz they're not going to be worth anything after that.

I've admitted for years that Liverpool are not a contender - not without truly starting from scratch. This whole approach of having Gerrard and Carragher drag everyone else along with them will never win a title.

Last season I thought if Liverpool got a good target man to work alongside Baros or Cisse, they would be all set. Something in the Sheringham mould in his prime. Someone who can score or set up for more mobile players like Owen. When Southampton were relegated I said Crouch would go to Liverpool to fill that spot. Then what happened? They let Baros go, and Owen passed them up and went to Newcastle.

Owen and Baros know what is wrong at Liverpool. Something is not clicking. For a player to choose NEWCASTLE of all places as a more solid prospect than Liverpool, after all the trials and tribulations at St James Park the last couple of years, speaks volumes for what is wrong at Anfield.

Boards - our Palace thread has been hijacked. So continue...very strange tactics by Steve Coppell. I thought at one time he was going to become a great manager but he seems to have faded. Never understood why Palace reemployed him a few years back...

I stopped going to home games around the time the had 100 managers in one year - - just after the Venables era - Dario Gradi and Alan Mullery was one of them but I can't remember the rest....

PS = My all time favourite Palace player is Jerry Murphy - he came to my Primary School and presented our medals for winning the Lewisham League. He played without shin pads - probably the last professional ever to do so...

I don't doubt the calibre of some of the Liverpool players. Like all clubs Liverpool have made some good signings and bad ones. To me with all signings whether they be domestic or foreign it's a gamble, because there are players who are mercenaries and there are character players, and there is also the injury bug which Liverpool has seen quite a lot of over the last few years. Kewell was injury prone when he was at Leeds so I think Liverpool did take a bit of a gamble of signing him and what little he has played he's been inconsistant and hasn't seemed to be a factor. I think it's fair to say that since the start of the Premiership Liverpool has signed a lot of offensive talent but which hasn't worked out for them ( I was watching a game last week on FSC where the ex-Liverpool defender Kvarme was playing remember him?)

I think, just from my own observations of Liverpool that over the last few years theyve promised a lot, and have had some domestic and euro cup success, and I think if I was the manager or a fan I'd be annoyed at how good Liverpool have played at times, how theyve lifted their game and then thrown it all away on a bad home/away loss after that. The Liverpool team of the last few seasons havent been able to win the league, and fans want success domestically and in europe, and I think that Liverpool have been a good cup team like Chelsea team under Gullit/Vialli because like the Chelsea team back then they had a good home record but were inconsistant, but were able to lift their teams for cup games. Man Utd had the same kind of form in the 80's too where they had a big team but just couldnt win the league, they had cup success but rightly so your fans want success to start with the league.

I think like every other club Liverpool have got to keep on going on until they find a good mix and bring some consistancy back to their game. From what I'm reading right now the likes of Man Utd and Arsenal are making their own concerns public. They seem to be struggling in the Abramovic era. I personally would like to see Liverpool be a league contender again, not that I'm a Liverpool fan but because I'd like to see a league where there's some healthy competition. I think it makes for a better league, particulary for a fan of a yo-yo team like mine :wink:

To be quite honest my life with Crystal Palace has been very peculiar. I don't know how to say this because it just sounds so ridiculous, but I don't know how I became a Palace fan? I seriously have no idea? I come from Worcester (in the southwestern edge of the midlands) where we have non-league Worcester City and from the days when I was a small nipper Ive had this love affair with Crystal Palace? There's been a lot of highs and lows and Ive taken some schtick for it but I'll always be a Palace fan.

I just watched that FA cup replay in disbelief....... I had a feeling that it was going to be another Brighton replay, but the tactics were all wrong. Coppell's return was short lived and so was Terry Venables at that. I loved the Malcolm Allison era when I was a kid panama hat and all!! :wink:
Ive tried to pick out one player to hang my hat on and Ive struggled to do it. As a kid I loved Vince Hilaire, John Burridge, Jim Cannon, Dave Swindlehurst, Peter Taylor, Kenny Samson, and later I liked Mark Bright, Nigel Martin, John Salako, Ian Wright, Dougie Freedman, Gareth Southgate and many many more!! :wink:

I saw Vince Hilaire play for Exeter in the twilight years of his career - he was a 4th Divsion Midfied maestro - which contrast from his jinky spinng runs from his Palace days.

I stood on the terraces at most home games from about 1977 . I think the first game I saw was against Port Vale - Division 3. I was also there in 1979 - whe 52,000 people watched them get prommoted to Divsion 1 (Club record).

The best playes I ever saw in a Palace shirt was Gerry Francis. I think he was way best his prime when he played for Palace - but was much underated in his glory days at QPR .

I was also Worcester City's ground - I went to watch Exeter Univiersity play a final there - not happy memories I'm afraid - I think it was 7-0 to Loughborough.