How is instructing your players to burn as much time off the clock as possible, an intention to play?

With the amount of money you've put into the squad, I should hope that you can muster some semblance of an attack and not compare yourselves to West Ham in that respect. The difference in the quality of both squads are oceans apart.

Exactly. I do think it's intentional and it's part of his strategy when it comes to mind games. When someone is irritated or agitated by the mere sight of you, they tend to be emotional and could possibly make irrational decisions.

I know what the intention was and it worked because some of our players were visible frustrated, I know the fans were. I don't question the nature of the tactics as I think we all know why it was used, but I did earlier questions the ethics behind such strategies. Goes against principles of fairplay and sportsmanship. Merely my opinion of course because I can't imagine that given a choice, fans would want their clubs to win by playing non-attractive football, preferring instead of stifle the opposition and deploying time wasting tactics.

Once again, I have to reiterate that I have nothing against negative football but to say that this was any better than what West Ham did to you lot is unfair to them. Fact of the matter is that in order of priorities, yours was to 1) stop us from playing football, 2) nick a point or three. In that order.

It's gamesmanship which is often somewhat unsportsmanlike. I mentioned earlier that Suarez does dive and make a meal of challenges like some other players do and that's unsportsmanlike. The difference is the Chelsea players were instructed to go down, take their time, tie their shoelaces, whatever they could to waste time and this happened from the 3rd minute. It was a clear intent that they wanted to hold on for a draw by running the clock down as much as they can. We cannot fault them because it is within the rules of the game. What we can do is to say it's unsportsmanlike conduct (which I doubt anybody can deny) and it's no better than what West Ham did to them. In the end, it's 3 points and if you dispense with ethics, teams can do whatever they can to get a result even if it means inducing a coma in fans.

This post has been edited by Duke Red: Apr 29 2014, 03:35 PM

The only time a football fan will accept negative football and time wasting tactics is when it's used by the club they support, simple as. We won stuff under Houllier but I wasn't a fan of his football.

It comes down to the quality of our opposition. This season we've beaten teams who have tried to have a go at us and also ones that were more defensive. We have the quality to unlock tight defences unlike in the past and the Chelsea game is just one example where we failed to do so but there will always be exceptions. I'm not worried because most of the time, we've managed to score.

Chelsea have a good record against the top sides because they have quality players and when you play them in your own half, they are going to be hard to beat. Not every team, Crystal Palace included have the same number of top class players and thus, I'm personally not afraid of teams parking the bus unless they have £80 million worth of talent.

Thanks for the reminder. Most likely Friday as I'm on leave. Let me know where you'll be over sms

52 years old? Wow. Been to the standing Kop? Mates of mine have.

With 4th place and a the Champions League spot at stake, I really doubt Everton won't be playing for a result. If you consider TV revenue, ticket sales and prize money, you're looking at potentially missing out of tens of millions. Need also to consider that they'll be a more attractive stop for players and negotiate for more lucrative deals from sponsors due to the extra coverage. You can be sure Bill Kenwright has already drawn out plans on what they can do with the extra dough. Forget players. What about upgrading the facilities at Goodison? Infrastructure is a key component to a club's success. Treatment rooms with the best equipment, better quality training pitches, state of the art technology, the list goes on.

As for the players, not all are local lads. All I'm sure want to play in Europe's biggest club tournament if only to raise their own profiles. Also, which manager wouldn't want to test their mettle in such a prestigious tournament.

If Everton lose to City, it most certainly won't be because they threw all the above away. Important not to forget that football is now a business, run by businessmen who cannot let sentiment get in the way of profit.

This post has been edited by Duke Red: Apr 30 2014, 12:35 AM

Meanwhile in related news, a fight breaks out outside Anfield after a Chelsea fan allegedly spat on the Hillsborough Memorial. Reports suggest also that some fans started singing about Gerrard's cousin who was the youngest to lose his life at Hillsborough.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/liver...-erupts-3468925


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Unsubstantiated at this point as to what the cause of the altercation was. Aside from the article I posted, I was reading some of the comments from folk who were there. Nothing official at this juncture, only allegations my "eye witnesses".

Didn't realise there was such a healthy number of "seasoned" fans here . Dillion and I aren't that far apart in terms of our age. John Barnes was my favourite player at the time. Beckham's right foot rose to fame partly due to the coverage games get these days, and from videos that spread virally on social media but Digger's left foot was equally lethal. Maradona once dribbled past 6 English players to score a superb goal in the 86 World Cup but in 1984, John Barnes weaved his way past 5 Brazilian defenders (ok maybe Brazil didn't have defenders back then ) to score an equally impressive goal at the Maracana.

We had a number of good players back then. To add to your list, Beardsley, Hansen, Grobbelaar, Nicol, Staunton, Dalglish, Keegan, Aldridge, just to name a few.

Which makes the fact that he snubbed Rodger's after the game instead of shaking his hand as is status quo that much more unpalatable.

"Brendan Rodgers is making a mockery of teams in transition". I think that says it best.

Whitewashing Palace is darn near impossible. This isn't just any other Palace side, it's one managed by Tony Pulis who along with Brendan Rodgers, Pellegrini and Steve Bruce, is one of the managers of the season. Palace was rock bottom when he took over, that's how much of a difference he's made. This, many suspected would be a game where we'd drop points hence the importance of securing a home win against Chelsea but that's out the window. All we can do is hope for 3 points and pray.