I have decided to vent my views on what is happening at Palace recently.
To start we see a 2-2 draw with Holloway's old club Blackpool. Michael Appleton's side came to Selhurst Park with a point to prove as their former boss of three and a half years left to join the high flying Eagles. We've come to expect a lot from Blackpool over the last few years with a very attacking brand of football which was invited by Ian Holloway himself. Even under Appleton he has kept the same structure and mentality and they were a tough nut for Crystal Palace to crack. The opening goal was created by a very decent weighted ball to the back post from Tom Ince with the on rushing Delfouneso steaming into the six yard box to nod the ball home. Darcy Blake had an absolute mare in this game and many fans have vented their frustration with his performance. To be fair to Blake he would have been very rusty as he only seems to get game time playing for Wales. Blake is a good player and with regular playing time the Palace faithful will see a vast improvement in the young player. Honestly everybody please give him some more time as a lot of fans have written him off already and they expect him to be sold in January. This is a daft view as one thing I believe is Palace lack depth which I will come back to later. Palace turned the game around in the second half with a great cross from Yannick Bolasie and the cross was met with a well placed header from Owen Garvan. Palace were now looking good and eventually they took the lead with another headed goal from yet another well placed header from the goal Machine Glenn Murray taking his tally to 18 goals.
To be honest, after the goal I thought we were home and dry but I was sadly proven wrong. Dicko popped up at the front post to slot the ball home with quite a commercial celebration where he took his shirt off and ran the length of the pitch to celebrate with the away fans who were suddenly sent into raptures. 2 - 2 was probably a fair result and Blackpool really took the game to us. I feel a win at Birmingham next week is vital as we need to sustain our 2nd place spot and we need to catch up with Cardiff.
Now I want to talk about Yannick Bolasie. Two games in a row the guy has been insanely good! I mean he has been ridiculous! He did so much in the Brighton game and I believe he was the difference in that game, yet at times he was was unplayable. I hope you have all seen the highlights of the Blackpool game as the run he made down the right wing skinning players left, right and center was indeed mesmerizing. I wish he had gone on to score as it would have been the goal of the season without a shadow of a doubt. Unlike Zaha he is not as greedy and he probably did the right thing laying the ball off to Murray for the shot. Zaha is worthy of all the plaudits he has received recently and I take nothing away from him but Bolasie at the moment seems to be the in form player and I'm kind of glad some of the lime light has been removed from Bolasie as he is an absolute gem and Bristol City must be kicking themselves for letting him go. How much did we buy him for? £250k? the signing could prove to be the best bit of business in the Championship this season. So my first prediction has gone down the pan as I predicted a win for the mighty Eagles, but we could only manage a point. Now the Zaha speculation is starting to bore every single Palace fan, and you could clearly see Holloway was getting near the end of his teather in the post match press conference when he was asked once again about the future of Zaha.
He said: "I'm fed up talking about Wilf. We have some great players here.
"Why not talk about Andre Moritz or Mile Jedinak or Yannick Bolasie.
"Wilf's our player, he's on a four and half year contract and it would take a lot more than one player to de-rail us.
"We have many good players. It's all because he was called up by England lately."
I like how he put the reporter in his place with "what if you were a lady called Jane?"
I love Ollie he really is one of football's greatest characters and managers.
We have Birmingham next which will be a fun trip to St Andrews and I am for one looking forward to the away trip. I feel we will definitely get a win against a lowly Birmingham and the key is stop the women beater Marlon King. Despite his actions surrounding his "social life" he is a decent player and he scores a lot of goals. Stopping him really is the key. It is a shame to see Darren Ambrose not even on the bench for Birmingham these days and part of me wishes he was still at Palace but we seem to be doing a lot better without him. I just hope he gets some game time soon or a move to a club that actually wants him. I'm hoping Joel Ward is back as the guy has been superb for Palace and he really has been the Ideal replacement for Nathaniel Clyne. I've also heard Johnny Williams is 2 weeks to returning to the starting line up as I feel he will flourish in a Ian Holloway side and I'm excited to see what he can do. Depth is something we lack and it is an issue we need to address. We have been lucky with very few injuries this season but could you imagine if Murray sustained a serious injury at the start of the season? We would definitely be in a much different position that is for sure. Aaron Wilbraham is a fairly decent replacement for Murray but I very much doubt he would be anywhere as prolific if he was leading the front line. A couple more wingers may need to be called upon and we need another central midfielder. It also makes me think about Paddy McCarthy's role in the squad, as he has gone from captain to substitute as I really can't see him making his was back into the squad with the superb performances Delaney and Ramage are putting together. It will be interesting to see what Holloway does about the McCarthy situation but I can imagine he will have to fight for his place. I have never been the biggest McCarthy fan as I feel he has been a bit of a liability pulling players down in the box. Ramage and Delaney are definitely my preferred partnership but McCarthy has not had the opportunity to form a partnership with anyone else this season.
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