Crystal Palace vs. Liverpool: *Bumper* Post-Match Analysis

Paul Tomkins, Andrew Beasley, Daniel Rhodes and other TTT regulars will give their thoughts on the match for 24 hours after the game, so the article received via email is unlikely to be the final version. There's statistics from the match and videos too.

Post-Match Thoughts

Paul Tomkins

Sensational!

Not the performance – but the result, in the circumstances, was perfect. Top of the table? Can't be better.

To me, the first half was a question of three brand new freshly-imported midfielders (the best of whom is looking jaded after non-stop games) getting more of a taste of a wintry away game in a breezy, rainy open-sided stadium against an alehouse team of long-ball boxers and wrestlers, who were fired up at home by a rabid crowd in a 'no lose' game.

With the unofficial laws meaning that Liverpool tackles are often free-kicks and the brutish tackles on them are not – yet again Liverpool had 75% of the possession but were punished more for fouls – it means teams can bully the Reds; or at least, this particular midfield.

It struck me that few of Liverpool's players properly contest an upright 50-50, and of those who do, Wataru Endo does so with total heart and commitment and the ruthlessness of an assassin ... but often by the time the ball has gone.

The solution was to get a cohesive team on the pitch, with fewer new players and more stronger players, and as I noted the other day, for players like Harvey Elliott to take shots from outside the box when it's perfectly there to do so.

The vast majority of my analysis and the analysis of the others follows for subscribers only.