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Crossover with Daily Fulham, The Croydon Boy and The EX
19 Plays9 days ago
As Like Everyday Wale, Joe, Alex, and Dan are discussing the latest goings on at the Mighty Palace
In this Episode: Dan joins Gavin from the Daily Fulham team to preview the Weekend Fixture. Were they discussed how the Season has gone so far and the Hopes for Rest of Season. Compare Resent Form and a Few Key Players including a Familiar Face or Two.
Season :- 1 Episode:- 105
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Transcript
00:00:02
Speaker
Every club. Every day. The Global Sports Podcast Network.
Introduction to Daily Fulham Podcast
00:00:08
Speaker
What's up everybody, welcome back to the Daily Fulham podcast brought to you by the Global Sports Podcast Network.
00:00:14
Speaker
The only place to give you daily coverage on all 20 Premier League teams as well as a dedicated podcast for women's football. My name is Gavin Ruffell and it's that time of the week where we start to look forward. We look ahead to the weekend's game and we do that by inviting a guest on from one of the other podcasts.
Preview of Fulham vs. Crystal Palace Game
00:00:29
Speaker
And this week that guest is from the Daily Palace team. We have Dan. are you doing today, Dan? I'm doing alright so far. It's a It's been a good week so far. Not well, ignoring the weekend fixture, which I really, really don't want to go too far into because it was a bit of an embarrassment.
00:00:46
Speaker
But we look forward to the Fulham game.
Crystal Palace's Recent Performance Issues
00:00:48
Speaker
you did You did bring up the weekend's game, so let's make a start on that. I mean, Crystal Palace's form has been a bit up and down recently, hasn't it? And playing Everton on weekend, I quietly fancy them to win that game, just given the euphoria Everton experience after the Merseyside derby, scoring that last-minute goal. I thought it might be a good opportunity.
00:01:06
Speaker
They might have maybe slightly overlooked this game, put all their energy into that Merseyside derby, but succumbed to another home defeat. what was What went wrong in that game, do you feel? Oh, pretty much everything went wrong.
00:01:17
Speaker
One of the goals, we quite literally threw the ball to him. just it Just absolute embarrassment. And I think one of the the second goal, we just kind of got caught flat-footed. There was kind of slight calls for handball, and there were a few Palace players that were kind of waiting for the referee to blow the whistle if anything was going to happen.
00:01:39
Speaker
It was also, i think, there was an indecisive VAR decision. and a corner went out of so out of play, but between the two or three camera angles they had, they couldn't actually determine if it went out of play or not.
00:01:56
Speaker
So they just ruled it as a disallowed goal.
Home vs. Away Form Analysis
00:01:59
Speaker
So basically, there's just an absolute comedy of errors across the pitch. it's just It wasn't fun to watch and then having to talk about it on Monday morning either. That was rough.
00:02:12
Speaker
because we very much thought that that kind of play had stopped from Palace because we've been doing really well since like the end of November and then it just come back with all of these silly little mistakes again.
00:02:26
Speaker
But I guess if we look ahead to the weekend's game though, there's probably a bit more optimism going into it knowing that you're you're playing away from home. Oh, definitely. We got a really, really good away form. I think it's seven or eight. I think we are undefeated away from home. So, uh,
00:02:41
Speaker
Yeah, I'm definitely looking forward to this. I don't know why we can't win at Sellers Park or at least make it, like, difficult for ourselves anyway. it's yeah The home and away form is definitely like chalk and cheese, and I don't know why. It really is very weird.
00:02:58
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I was doing my research before before this episode, and I was having a look, and I seen that... You haven't lost away from home since October and haven't even conceded a goal in the last four.
00:03:08
Speaker
Whereas since since the end of October, you've only won once at Sellers and that was against the bottom clubs of Hampton. So
League Position and Aspirations for Europe
00:03:15
Speaker
I know you said you can't put your finger on it, but if you had to, what why such the stark difference?
00:03:20
Speaker
i I have absolutely no idea. I don't, because there seems to be this idea that Sellers Park is some kind of like really difficult place to come play against. I was talking about, think this was the Arsenal guys a couple of months ago.
00:03:32
Speaker
and i think that's a complete and utter fallacy i absolute it's a myth i don't know why it's just sort of as soon as we come to sellers park it's almost like it's either comforts or something like that just doesn't click and i can't put my finger on we don't play any differently we play the same tactics and largely the same team over and over and over again as many times as depending on injuries etc but for some reason just at sellers park we just don't play very well We make life difficult for ourselves and i don't know why. Yeah, it's funny you say that actually because I always hear it, always pundits say, oh, Sellers Park's a tough place to go and when I've looked at Crystal Palace, they're their kind of heydays in the Premier League. It's been made out of their form away from home going back to the days when Wilfred Zah was a really good counter-attacking team and they seemed to collect a lot of points on the road and
00:04:21
Speaker
I mean, we've already dwelt on the Everton defeat there at home. And if we go back to October, they lost the correspondent fixture 2-0 at home to Fulham. What do you sort of remember from that game that might have an effect, an impact maybe on on the game on the weekend?
00:04:35
Speaker
Well, I seem to remember there were two off two goals that were chalked off by Fulham for being offside. I think it was very sort of minor things like that. And...
00:04:47
Speaker
So you probably could have won 4-0 quite handsomely on that game. That was part of the the time of the year where we were just awful. We
Crystal Palace's Season Evaluation
00:04:56
Speaker
were very could have very easily lost a load of games 4 or 5-0 before halftime.
00:05:03
Speaker
And Fulham won was not too dissimilar to that. Smith Rowe kind of tearing us apart, which doesn't help being the Croydon boy. Yeah. Croydon, the Croydon.
00:05:16
Speaker
Yep, and then you've got, you had the ex of Anderson of clearing off the line and things like that, and it's just like, oh, come on this and Just yet and another game where were just like we were just so bad and nothing really clicked.
00:05:31
Speaker
Yeah, so it's just one of those. It was that time of the year where we were just bad. the so Yeah, it was certainly a very slow start to the season, wasn't it? And I think expectations were raised maybe to...
00:05:46
Speaker
maybe a higher level than they possibly should have been given the form, the way you ended the season. Everyone was playing to the maximum ability and there was a lot of talk about Europe possibly being challenges for Europe this season. and then They are where they usually are in the table, aren't they, this time of year, which is 13th. They're kind of in no man's land. They're not going to get relegated, but they're too far adrift that the team's in front of them, the challenge for Europe. So
FA Cup Rivalry and Strategy
00:06:05
Speaker
so how do you feel how do you feel on a whole? Is good season, bad season, indifferent?
00:06:10
Speaker
So far, well, the last couple of months has been a good season. It started off, as you said earlier, and I've said many times, absolutely woeful, but not unsurprising. We are a slow starting team. We take our time to let everybody have a false sense of security.
00:06:26
Speaker
Then it becomes a full sense of security, and then we have to make uh fight our way back up the league so where we are now is kind of where i would expect us to be just would have preferred it be a little bit more comfortable instead of sort of losing like one nils and two nils and things like that but if we can push a little bit further and make it a little bit more secure just because i know palace and we can get very very easily tumble into that bottom third of the league with only a couple of losses like
00:06:57
Speaker
Spurs and Man United are perfect examples of if you lose a few games in the Prem, you can tumble down the league very quickly. So we can kind of secure where we are, maybe get into the top 10.
00:07:10
Speaker
We can get top 10. I'd be absolutely ecstatic. that will consider that a huge success. And also, as we're still in the FA Cup, if we can get on a good run of that, we can get to a quarterfinal or even a semifinal, a trip to Wembley,
00:07:24
Speaker
also another sort of huge success for the season yeah i mean i was just going to come on to the fa cup actually i mean you're still going well in that fulham are also involved in that competition and it seems like there's an opportunity for a lot of teams sort of in that mid-table region because there's a lot of the top teams have got knocked out the likes of liverpool and arsenal spurs if you want to call them top team chelsea but You've got a home tie, a local derby against Millwall.
00:07:51
Speaker
We kind of outsiders recognise the rivalry between Brighton and Crystal Palace and maybe from a Millwall side of things, their rivalries with West Ham. Can you just elaborate maybe on what the rivalry is like between Millwall and Palace?
00:08:04
Speaker
Well, the rivalry, it doesn't come along very often because we haven't been in the same league for a while now. So it doesn't come up very often, but it's mainly it's because it's one of the closer...
00:08:17
Speaker
teams in london because there are only so many in like south london and i think the only one that's slightly closer to us is uh charlton which is probably considered slightly more of a rivalry game it's it's more of a local rivalry than sort of rivalry rivalry what the brighton one which is a rivalry game it's not strictly a derby but the uh millwall is probably closer to a local derby game more than anything else but it's but And you know what Millwall fans are like, so they're just, they're to everybody.
00:08:53
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely absolutely. And you are in the last 16 now, favourites for this tie, so just a couple of games away from Wembley. I think he fielded a strong side in the last round, didn't he, against Doncaster.
00:09:04
Speaker
Do you think it's full strength from now on in, as far as the FA Cup goes? uh glasner likes to play full strength regardless of the competition so we did the same thing in the league cup probably take a couple of people out if they were sort of nursing an injury here and there but uh pretty much it's going to be full strength all the way through as much as humanly possible i think because there's own it just glasner doesn't do it any other way he wants to win every single game And we also don't have the depth to really get away with rotating too much.
00:09:40
Speaker
And even if we do, the players are kind of like for like. So we're not going to change tap tactically that much. It's just whoever's in form is going to be sort of maybe stand out a little bit more.
00:09:55
Speaker
Interesting. So we've spoken a little bit there about the season as a whole. In the next part, we're going to be focusing on one or two of the individual players and maybe what happened in the transfer window. But before we do that, let me draw your attention to our sponsors here at GSPN.
00:10:09
Speaker
Here at the Global Sports Podcast Network, we spent a lot of time selecting our delivery platform. Zencastr came out the clear winner. With 4K video recording from your phone and AI editing that automatically removes all those ums and ahs, it's super easy to start a podcast that sounds great and is delivered efficiently.
00:10:26
Speaker
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Transfer Dynamics and Fan Reactions
00:10:32
Speaker
going to start not by talking about a current Crystal Palace player. I'm going to talk about a former Palace player now at Fulham.
00:10:40
Speaker
He made that move, didn't he, in the summer? Joachim Andersson returning to Craven Cottage, where he got relegated with Fulham a few seasons back, but he was captain in that campaign What was the Palace view on that move at the time? Because I know you see a lot of stuff on social media and I think it's hard to get a real idea of of you know the overall feeling because there's there's a lot of guff that gets spread on social media and there's a lot of, oh, well, he was never that good anyway. But what do you feel what the genuine feeling was amongst fans seeing him move to...
00:11:09
Speaker
A club like Fulham, I guess, where a lot of people would have seen that maybe as a sideways move. He's not going to a club that's necessarily going to be competing to win trophies or to qualify for the Champions League. Well, it was more shock than anything because there was no rumours, no nothing. It just came out of nowhere.
00:11:26
Speaker
I think we were talking about it on the pod when it actually happened. And it was like... Because the entire transfer saga in the early part of the the summer was Gailly going to Newcastle or Liverpool, whatever.
00:11:38
Speaker
And then suddenly, in the middle of the of the middle of the night, something like that, oh yeah, Anderson's gone to Fulham. What? this no There was no rumours, no nothing.
00:11:49
Speaker
He was just gone. And he was like, oh, now we have to scramble to try and get a replacement centre back in. So that's when we go and get Lacroix in from Wolfsburg and we go and get Chalabar on loan from Chelsea until he recently left, got recalled.
00:12:05
Speaker
So that it was, it was more just shock more than anything else. Just like it was nothing there and there was no animosity, no nothing. It was just, oh, he's gone. Why, why has he decided to go to Fulham?
00:12:18
Speaker
He was, seemed to be perfectly happy at Palace. I think at least a couple more years left on his contract. So there was no beef there. He just just left. So I probably just assumed that he preferred to play at Fulham than play at Palace, which, yeah, fine by me.
00:12:36
Speaker
Yeah, I think there was talk, wasn't there? Maybe they didn't offer him the terms that he wanted. So then... They were standing firm, weren't they, on the fact that they wanted to keep Gehi and that bid from Newcastle kept getting bigger and bigger, but not to the amount that they wanted. So I always i always felt, because there was a little bit of speculation with Fulham over the summer, but as you said, it came out of the blue. It was only lasted for three or four days and then he ended up making the move. So I thought as long as they kept all the Gehi that there was a possibility that Anderson would join Fulham. They replaced him with LeCroix.
00:13:04
Speaker
What would you say the similar similarities, the differences between those two are then? I would say they're fairly sort of similar. They can both play these sort of long passes with fairly decent accuracy.
00:13:16
Speaker
I just think Laquire gets the fans going a bit more than Anderson did. He's sort of, after the game, he's celebrating or consoling with the fans. He'll get them riled up and sort to try and make some kind of noise and sort of encouragement from them.
00:13:31
Speaker
he started to get a little bit more into, into his stride and, uh, his sort partnership with uh gay and now Richards they've started to form a quite sort fairly solid defensive unit they still will make mistakes here and there they're only human but yeah I don't think there's much difference between them so yeah I don't think it's changed the squad all that much so yeah Anderson moving on uh got us LaCroix then yeah fine by me
00:14:06
Speaker
And you talk about the defensive unit there. I mean, a lot of clubs in the transfer window, they weren't busy. Palace, they did make a couple of signings. One of those signings was Ben Chirwell at left back.
00:14:17
Speaker
I think he's a player that needed a move. He's clearly not in the plans of Enzo Maresca. But i it was a bit of it seemed like a bit of a curious move on the surface. Maybe you can... give a better explanation as to why the manager looked at Chilwell because it seems like Tyreek Mitchell has cemented his place in the team he's made that kind of a position his own left back left wing back so why did they go for Ben Chilwell I think you're the mainly for depth because we don't have a second left back uh our backup fullback is Joe Ward
00:14:47
Speaker
so who's now currently out injured and has been for a while so i think the main reason was to get somebody with experience particularly premiership experience just to get in on loan as a kind of backup for tyreek mitchell so he can take a rest here and there and probably on occasions maybe move tyreek mitchell into sort of a central sort of central defense mean defender kind of position that wide center back role and get Chilwell to be sort of a bit more of an attacking threat because he does have a pretty nasty cross when he wants to.
00:15:22
Speaker
and I think he's a fairly decent set-piece taker as well. So those are probably the attributes that we're looking for because we definitely we are struggling with set-piece takers as well. So I think that was probably the main thinking process behind getting Chilwell in, just to solve to cement the sort the depth in the squad.
00:15:43
Speaker
do Do you think it was mainly for cover them? Because I feel that's interesting you kind of say that because Ben Shear was a kind of guy that needs his career to get back on track. And it's not that long ago. He was in the England set-up and he was the first-choice left-back. So I would have thought if he was to get a move, then it would have been agreed upon or he would have been given you know the idea that he's going to be first-choice. So you think he would have gone to Crystal Palace knowing that he's competing rather than that he is going to be the number one guy?
Player Debuts and Impact
00:16:09
Speaker
I think he's probably perfectly happy. I think he's more just to get him out of Chelsea. He wanted game he wanted game time. He wasn't going to get played at Chelsea. And because of his wages, but probably not a lot premiers teams were willing to sort of fork out that kind of bit. So getting a loan move for...
00:16:26
Speaker
three or four months get him in the shop window and hopefully he can either make the move permanent at palace or he can try and find somewhere else just so he's actually out in a shop window a little bit more so i think he's perfectly happy to actually just play as a sort of semi-rotation because he's coming back from several kind of long-term injuries over the last couple of years so just yeah just getting some first first team football at a premiership level is probably what he was after And the other player he did bring in was Eze from Millwall and he scored on his debut within minutes or within seconds, I think it might have even been his first touch. It was his first touch. He literally came on the pitch as his first touch.
00:17:07
Speaker
Is he one for the future then or is he one that's going to be pushing for a start in the in the coming months? I think it's at the moment, I think it's probably one for the future because he's kind of in the same position so as Eze. So i think it's more the...
00:17:24
Speaker
there is a distinct possibility that Eze might not be here next season. So it's trying to mould him into the Eze kind of mould or even a bit more of a Lise and try and get him into the squad in a kind of so essentially a rotation situation, coming on sort of half-time or something like that, just to get him into the squad and get him a bit settled.
00:17:50
Speaker
Because he is 19, so it's definitely going to be one for the future. And yet again, it's Palace going into the championship to find some of these gems. And we seem to be very, very good at finding these guys and then giving them the experience in the premiership like we've done with Horton as well.
00:18:09
Speaker
So he's definitely one for the future. it's It's just going to be giving him the next few months to sort of yeah get up to pace, get up to speed. And then I think next season you'll probably start seeing him starting a few more games, probably playing alongside Eze if he's still there or whoever else we've brought in to try and sort of replace Eze.
00:18:31
Speaker
And just the final one, as far as the transfer window is concerned, is there anyone that you you missed out on or is there an area in the squad that you felt needed fixing and needed identifying, but they weren't able to bring anyone in in that particular position?
00:18:44
Speaker
Well, because we were talking about this on our podcast for ages that we needed a left-back and Chilwell fit the bill. And he'd been brought up and thinking a couple of rumours before, but it was slightly infeasible because...
00:19:00
Speaker
Chalabar was on loan so we couldn't have two from the same club. So once that freed up, that made the Chilwell one possible. But in terms of positions that we needed, I'm always going to be looking for a kind of playmaking midfielder as it's sort a position that Palace desperately kind of needs.
Mateta's Role and Performance
00:19:20
Speaker
But now we've got Wharton's come back from fairly long-term injury and still sort of getting minutes under his belt and he in the midfield. Doncaster game he showed what we were kind of missing so I'm less sort of looking at that anymore but it's still definitely on the radar as some kind of a player that Palace does need one of these sort of uh almost midfield generals that a lot of clubs are always looking for but in the case of actually players we didn't get I don't think
00:19:51
Speaker
We didn't miss out on anybody because there wasn't a lot of rumours when it came to Palace. We kept everything very close to our chest until basically the last minute. So with a transfer window, I'm fairly happy with what we've got.
00:20:04
Speaker
I want to have to see what it's like in the summer. and And we can't not talk about Chris Palace without mentioning the main man at the minute, which is Jean-Philippe Mateta, who's on absolute fame. He's found his goal-scoring form again.
00:20:17
Speaker
Interesting one, isn't it? Because he he had a couple of years at Palace where he didn't really do much. he was kind of going through the motions. And then all of a sudden, towards the end last season, a new manager comes in and he's scoring everything. What do you think the big turnaround was for him?
00:20:30
Speaker
ah just think it was probably a bit of confidence because when palace got him in he was basically a third string center forward we had edward and bentake ahead of him as well as um are you as well so he's a third fourth string center forward and i think when we signed him he'd come off a uh year injury i think he'd broken his leg or some sort of long-term injury so i think it was just getting some confidence because uh roy hodgson obviously didn't don't think much of him so uh as glasner comes in and seems to have this effect on players he seems to have done it at wolfsburg as well and so that he's just of invigorated players and given them some confidence to actually sort of get to their full potential and but tetter is just yeah you watch him pre-game and after the game he is just
00:21:21
Speaker
Yeah, just full of confidence, full of beans. He's definitely trying to yes so take the club and but basically putting it his back and drag them kicking and screaming. And I know he had a slow start to the season, as did a lot of the Crystal Palace players as well, as did the club in general.
00:21:38
Speaker
you Were you always confident that he would find his goal scoring form again then, like he did the last the end of last season? Or was there any concern, the element of you thinking maybe he's just hit a purple patch and then we're not going to see that sort of form again?
Key Player Partnerships
00:21:50
Speaker
There was definitely concern at the beginning of the season, but that was across the entire board. But when your main man centre-forward isn't scoring, it's always a concern. But Palace have had that for years. We've had Ben Teke, we've had Edouard, we've had centre-forwards that can't score for love nor money.
00:22:07
Speaker
And then they'll just suddenly get a couple and go, oh, brilliant, right, let's go, let's go. but mateta is sort of a very much a form player so if he's on form he's going to get the goals if he's not it's just going to be wandering around trying to sort of be a sort of pest in the in the box really it's just my need sort real issue is the fact that we are becoming slightly reliant on him and we need some other people to actually start sort of putting in a few goals as well and ketia is definitely one that needs to start pulling his weight a bit or he's going to
00:22:41
Speaker
probably be pushed further and further down the pecking order or even try to get get rid of him as well. So yeah, I was always confident that Mateta was going to start doing it. It's just when he gets going is the problem.
00:22:56
Speaker
He needs to get one or two under his belt first and then he'll start getting into positions. It also helps recently that Eze has now gotten into this sort of playmaking form and they've kind of started develop this really sort of deadly combination.
00:23:13
Speaker
I think it was sort of evident and in the West Ham game where they would just sort of, they know where each other's going to be and it's starting to sort of bear fruit and come to fruition now.
00:23:25
Speaker
Interesting. And of course, Crystal Palace fans will be hopeful that John Filipe Metteta, the goal scoring streak, can continue in this weekend's fixture, which we will look ahead to in a bit greater detail in just a moment. But before we do that, just got to draw everyone's notice that we do have brand new sponsors here at the Global Sports Podcast Network.
00:23:44
Speaker
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00:24:06
Speaker
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Opposition Analysis: Fulham's Threats
00:24:20
Speaker
Get what's right for you right now. So Crystal the Palace will be looking to right the wrongs of that defeat earlier in the season Fulham 1x2 goals to nil.
00:24:30
Speaker
Is there anyone on the Fulham team, in the Fulham squad, you're particularly wary about? You're thinking if they have a good day, we've got our problems here? Oh, I think I mentioned earlier Smith Rowe is definitely one that I'm always going to be paying attention to because he can be a real handful.
00:24:47
Speaker
He was kind of wasted Arsenal. Because as soon as Arteta came in, he had no idea what to use him as. Were Palace in for him at any stage in the summer?
00:24:59
Speaker
They were, actually. we He was on kind of... There were a few rumours going around because he wanted out of Arsenal. And it's like, Palace, he's a Croydon boy. Come home, right? You'll be beloved. And yeah, he decided to go to Fulham instead. and And we got Nketiah as a sort of consolation...
00:25:17
Speaker
from that sort of from Arsenal but he's definitely player I'm going to sort of be very wary of he can be really really tricky and really hand forward especially in the the last game where he scored I think it was his first goal for Fulham I'm not sure but he did he got two one of them got called off side we just couldn't handle him so he's definitely one that i'm going to be paying attention to And also you've got to keep an eye on the ex, Anderson. just as i He's going to do something again. You just know it
00:25:53
Speaker
When the ex-players come back, you know it's going to be a problem. Yeah, I think he had a really good game at Salis Park and his form of late has just been a little bit indifferent. He had an injury, which he sustained at home to Wolves a few months back. And then once he came back from that injury, his form's kind of been a bit up and down, but had a good game on the weekend.
Game Predictions and Tactical Setup
00:26:10
Speaker
So hopefully that's a sign of things to come. He can have another strong game on the weekend, as did Smith Rowe. Smith Rowe is another one that Fulham fans have been a little bit critical of recent in recent times, but he seemed like, yeah, they're springing his step and he was back to his best on the weekend.
00:26:23
Speaker
As far as the team, what what are you looking at? Is it going to be similar to Everton or is he likely to make changes? I'm pretty sure it's going to be the strongest squad he can get away with.
00:26:35
Speaker
Besides from our two or three long-term injuries, I think as far as I know, everybody's clear. it'll be the same, the usual suspects when it comes to the the lineup and probably the formation.
00:26:46
Speaker
Glasner really doesn't change all that much unless he has to. So I'm expecting sort the likes Mateta as a Gahey are going be on there. You're going to have Richards and Laquire in the defence.
00:27:00
Speaker
Boughton might get a game. I think he's slowly coming back in, so he might get a start with Hughes as well. So, yeah, it's going to be probably the same XI that has been put out for the last few games.
00:27:14
Speaker
And you said it's hard to put your finger on why the home form and away form has been different. but i think obviously the clearance that is that they've not conceded a goal in any only of the last four games. So just maybe isolating each of those games, what have they done particularly well that has led to them coming away with all three points?
00:27:32
Speaker
I'm not sure. Just sort of like sometimes it is like the Man United game. so Just the opponent didn't play particularly well and they just couldn't. they Either their formation or their setup didn't work. So like against Man United, they decided, right, we're not going to have a centre forward.
00:27:48
Speaker
We're now going to put what essentially is a box-to-box midfielder as a solo solo attack. And it's like, oh, OK, we'll just play right through that. No problem. Just, yeah, it's just sometimes I think Palace's set-up slightly confuses people, but then there's other ways. Then at home, we just get torn apart. I don't know. It's very, very weird, and I don't know why.
00:28:12
Speaker
So with that being said, what kind of game are you anticipating on the weekend? do you see it being free-flowing, a lot of goals in it, or would you see it possibly being a cagey affair? I expect it to be fairly free-flowing. Palace are... When it goes to defence, we can kind of...
00:28:29
Speaker
uh will be somewhat solid we'll play try and play in front of uh in front of us but we can get kind of done with through balls and maybe sort of like overloading the box and things like that at close range but when we go forward, we are fairly effective on the counter-attack, especially if you've got like, as an open field, potentially isolated by himself, I think he can do quite a lot of damage given half a chance.
00:28:59
Speaker
So I'm expecting it to be somewhat free-flowing. wouldn't say like high high scoring, but I'm expecting goals in this. Yeah. I know Fulham came up against a team on a weekend that played a back five. know Crystal Palace always played a back five. He doesn't tend to tinker. does he Does he sometimes change? Does he ever go to a back four?
00:29:19
Speaker
I don't. As far as I know, he's only played the three, essentially three at the back and then two wingbacks and then kind of defensive sort of midfielders. So he likes to compact. It's very much a counter-attack football. It's trying keep the ball in front of us as much as possible and then just sort try and muscle our way so the ball and then get it down the pitch as quickly as possible.
00:29:44
Speaker
Yeah, well, that's it that's interesting because I guess they're almost set up in a similar way to Nottingham Forest with Fulham's last opponents where they got the five at the back, they got that big striker up front, Nottingham Forest, k Chris Wood, you guys, Mateta, and they got the pace as well, just like just like you guys have. So, I wonder if Fulham may be given the result on the weekend. And To be fair, the 2-1 against Forrest was flattering for Forrest because their goalkeeper was by far and away their best player. i think Fulham had 24 shots on goal and that could easily have been a 4-5-1 drubbing. The 2-1 doesn't tell the whole story. So I'm sure Fulham fans willll be hoping for a similar performance and then just convert their chances when when they get them, when they're on top in games and be able to score their goals. So we can't end things without giving a score prediction end. So Dan, what are you saying for the weekend's game?
00:30:27
Speaker
I have to go for a Palace win. I think it's going to be 2-1. I don't see us keeping a clean sheet. Not with the game against Everton still very much in our sort of memories. So it's going to be, that's definitely going to be there and that's going to be drummed into them. Like you can't make mistakes like that.
00:30:45
Speaker
But like Mateta is on form at the moment. So he's going to be up for it as well. And I think he's got like two right he's got like two goals in the last couple of away games. So he's definitely going to be up for it. So I'm going to go for a 2-1 Palace.
00:31:00
Speaker
And I'm going to have to counter that. I think that Crystal Palace will score. Fulham don't tend to keep many clean sheets at home. I think that Mateta might get on the score sheet again. But, you know, it's not it's not going to be easy. so' Certainly looking at the form and the statistics tell you that Crystal Palace haven't conceded many goals away from home recently. But I think Fulham's form has taken an upturn this month after a bit of an indifferent January.
Wrap-up and Listener Engagement
00:31:22
Speaker
They've won their last three in all competitions by the same scoreline. So I'm going to go for that streak to continue and I'm going to go for a fourth consecutive 2-1 Fulham win. Just final thoughts before this game. Anything you're looking out for in particular?
00:31:37
Speaker
Not especially. It's just sort to basically get back into some kind of winning form or at least try and get a draw out of this. Just as so so we get back on track so we don't get this...
00:31:49
Speaker
domino effect of losing sort of games of uh consistently because we've been sort of really good the last but month and a bit and we can't let that go to waste at the moment we kind of need to kind of secure where we are just so we don't sort of as i've mentioned earlier start tumbling down the league again
00:32:10
Speaker
Well, there we have it. That'll do it for today's crossover episode. Many thanks to Dan for joining me from the Daily the Palace podcast. Be sure to check out their podcast. Continue listening to the Daily Fulham podcast.
00:32:21
Speaker
I'll be here with you as we continue to build up to the game on the weekend. That's all for now. Catch you all next time.
00:32:30
Speaker
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00:32:37
Speaker
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