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Saints At Crystal Palace The Preview
Tuesday, 21st Jan 2020 13:01

Can Saints make it four away wins in a row and in doing so get into the home straight to the finish line to avoid relegation ? We take a look at our chances here.

Saints travel to Selhurst Park in confident mood despite the defeat to Wolves where another defensive horror show cost us points.

But they will hope that was a blip and they can put that behind them and get back to the task of putting points on the board and getting clear of the relegation zone.

That is made harder by injuries with Jan Bednarek, perhaps the most stable player in the defence looking doubtful due to an achilles problem, Ralph has many options to replace him, both obvious and not so obvious, but none are as good as Bednarek and that will be a major issue.

Hopefully though it will have highlighted just how short we are of quality in the centre of defence and that needs to be dealt with in this window, even if it is just with a loan deal for a temporary fix.

Saturday also highlighted as I have been saying all season, our problems in the defence are still there, it is just some weeks we will get away with it like the recent home game against Spurs and others like the visit of Wolves we won't and will get exposed.

Ralph says he will rotate for this game as he did for the trip to Chelsea and it will be interesting to see what he does, this could mean a return to the side for Che Adams who showed his battling qualities at Stamford Bridge and at Leicester as a sub.

It could be that both Ings and Long are rested and Adams and Obafemi resume their partnership from our last trip to the Capital.

The focus has to be on getting points to make sure we are not dragged back into a relegation battle, we have built up a good cushion we do not want to blow it, the task is to hit 40 oints and that means another 12 points from 17 games, that's basically .71 points a game, even a draw is a positive move forward this evening.

To break that down 3 wins and 3 draws from 17 games should be well achievable but the sooner we do it the pressure is off and we can look to next season.

We will suffer blips along the way but the key is as Ralph and his team have done is to stay calm, stay focused and keep fighting.

Tonight will be hard, Palace are good at home where they have lost just three times, all in the period of October/November where Man City, Liverpool & Leicester all triumphed, but they are not a team that scores a lot of goals, only 22 all season home and away, but they don't concede many either only letting in 26, only Liverpool, Leicester and Sheffield United have conceded less.

Our next target is to get over the 30 point mark then we are in the home straight, if we can do that tonight then that would be great, but we have to be prepared that it won't be, so a draw would not be a bad result in the grand scheme of things.

Photo: Action Images



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underweststand added 15:08 - Jan 21
Now begins the ..."we have 3 games in a week scenario"..should we rest Danny Ings ..or ?

Given his excellent fitness record this season (compared with his past troubles which might have been career-ending for others) ..do we put Danny's name on the team sheet first or ..give him a rest and have him fit for Spurs Cup game ...and then onto Liverpool.
You can bet your house he wants to play at Anfield...and maybe putting a couple of shots
past Gazzaniga on Saturday for practice....so what your choice?

Palace games at Selhurst Park are always a yo-yo type of fixture, often with one goal settling the issue - and if we do plan to keep Ché Adams, he has to learn to get dug into Prem.games. and DAJFU. I'd start Adams ...and have Ings on the bench .
Unless someone can see our name on the Cup already, goals against Spurs would be nice but so would 3 points v. Palace, especially as Liverpool aren't very charitable at Anfield--or anywhere else.

At the end of the day..you can do just so much to " protect " players whereas the likes of Shane Long aren't upto 95 minutes every week and shouldn't be "overplayed".
The final judgement will be easy..if we win ..or draw v. Palace it doesn't matter who plays, but having to rely on one man to get your goals / points is a dangerous situation to be in.
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LordDZLucan added 15:37 - Jan 21
A defence is only as good as the holding midfielder that plays in front of it. Look at Leicester. they lose Ndidi to injury and then go and lose to us and Burnley - with all due respect not the strongest of opponents. Our holding midfielder is....... ah we're not playing one at the moment. Until we spend £20m on filling what is probably the most important position on the pitch our defence will look a bit vulnerable. On the plus side our attack has more potency without one. So we'll just have to console ourselves with that until we spend the £20m.
2

aceofthebase added 17:38 - Jan 21
John Stones is unhappy and struggling to get a game at MC. Just saying!
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allsaint54 added 17:40 - Jan 21
Play our strongest team tonight & rest players if needed against Liverpool as even our best won't be good enough.
1


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