Pragmatism the key as Liverpool visit Selhurst

t’s been a topsy-turvy opening nine games for Crystal Palace and with Liverpool the next visitors to SE25 there could yet prove to be another twist in this season’s unfolding story. Last season’s post-Christmas struggles means losing back to back games in the league like we have done against West Ham & Leicester leaves us fans fearing the worst; a home game against Liverpool next up does little to improve the mood.

Losing two on the bounce has led to the inevitable chorus of people calling for Pardew’s head but honestly, the repeated calls for his dismissal are growing tiresome. I completely understand the frustration - results last season were not good enough, I’ve said that hundreds of times, but what is more important right now and going forward is Pardew’s ability to learn from the mistakes which cost us so many points.

Much has been made of this ‘transition’ towards a more fluid, passing style of play that Pardew is trying to implement but ultimately we must pick up points during this period. After Christmas last season we didn’t do that, there was a stubbornness about the way the team was set up week after week, loss after loss. I felt at the time that a ‘Pulis’ like approach in which we focussed on defending and the basics before building up from there would have ensured we’d have picked up some more points here and there before gradually returning to a more attacking mindset.

I think we’ve seen it time and time again that an ‘attack-minded’ manager replaces a ‘defensive’ manager to great effect. Look at Martinez’s success after succeeding Moyes, even look at Pardew’s run after inheriting a team built on the organisational strength of Tony Pulis. For what it’s worth I think Pardew’s move towards a possession based style could provide the building blocks for future success but sometimes pragmatism is the order of the day and getting a result is simply more important.

This weekend against Liverpool is one of those occasions. If Liverpool are ‘on it’ their high press could cause us all sorts of problems, problems which we could exacerbate by trying to our way out all the time. I’m not saying long balls into Benteke are the complete answer – we’ve already seen that the lack of bodies in and around him make this a fruitless exercise at times – but we have to pick and choose when to play and when to miss out the midfield and look to get the ball into our wingers quicker. There are times when we are going to need to beat the Liverpool press, times when we’re going to have to turn Liverpool around to get a foothold in the game and we’re not going to do that by taking the unilateral decision to try and play around them, we have to be more pragmatic than that.

As for Liverpool, well their issues with inconsistency this season give Palace fans reason to be optimistic. Burnley’s 2-0 win in August is of course encouraging but more recently they struggled against a Manchester United who weren’t themselves either and the week before that Swansea had them rattled for 45 minutes before a second half penalty ultimately saw them take all three. They’re a good side but they’re not unbeatable.

Another potential weakness for Liverpool we could look to exploit is their struggles in dealing with aerial balls. Karius has flapped at crosses on more than one occasion and Mignolet has a documented propensity to drop a clanger that he’s demonstrated time and time again over the last couple of seasons. With a player like Benteke in the Palace line-up, if we can get the delivery right it could prove to be a fruitful method of attack.

This is the third time I’ve made this prediction, but this weekend could finally be the weekend that there is a definitive change in our defensive set-up that will set the norm going forward. Dann is fit, Tomkins is fit & Delaney is fit and only two will start. As club captain you’d have to presume Dann will be one of those but the decision between either Delaney and Tomkins is, in Pardew’s eyes at least, not clear cut so we’ll just have to wait and see how things play out. One player that could join one of our centre halves in missing out is Jason Puncheon who is touch and go fitness wise.

Playing Liverpool at home has provided me with some wonderful memories in the past but it is a new season, a new game and we must do it all over again. If we win on Saturday evening it will be for one of two reasons. Either Liverpool will have an off-day and we will capitalise on their poorly executed press or we will strike the balance between philosophy and pragmatism; we will play when we can and look to beat the press by going more direct when we can’t. I really hope it’s the latter, but I’d take a win and some more memories against Liverpool however they may come.