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Ahead of Saturday's crunch clash against
Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park, we caught up once more with Palace fan Sam, from flyinghighmag.com.
He gives us his views on
Palace's season, their new signings and more. You can also
follow Flying High on Twitter @flyinghighmag.
Last time we spoke, whilst saying things had improved under Tony Pulis, you were
still not overly optimistic about avoiding relegation. Do you feel any
differently now?
I definitely think we’re giving it a much
better go now that Pulis is in and that is giving us at least a fighting chance
of staying up. I’m still a pessimist and we have a lot of tough matches coming
up at
Selhurst
Park but if you’d offered me this position when he was appointed, I would most
certainly have taken it.
The club made a number of signings during the January transfer window, were you
happy with the players coming in and are there any of the new boys in particular
you’re happy to see arrive?
It was quite an un-Palace like transfer
window. Whereas Holloway just seemed to sign anyone who was stood in the
vicinity last Summer, Pulis targeted players for areas that we were lacking. We
needed another centre-back so we brought in Scott Dann, needed another wide
player, so in came Tom Ince, got a goalscoring midfielder in Joe Ledley and
signed Jason Puncheon permanently after his good run in the side.
Ince is obviously the one that catches the
eye, he was brilliant in the Championship last year and was mentioned a lot in
the same breath as Wilf who was tearing it up for us. If he can give us that bit
of spark going forward and chip in with a few goals, he’ll be a fantastic loan
signing.
After springing perhaps something of an
upset by knocking Albion out
of the FA Cup at The Hawthorns, it must have been disappointing to be knocked
out by Championship side Wigan in
the next round?
We put out quite a strong team against
Wigan
and took quite a few fans up there for the game and whilst it’s a shame we went
out, ultimately we have to lean back on the old cliché that it’s the league that
matters most. If we’d had a run in the Cup, great but as it is I’m not too
unhappy we’re out.
When we spoke back in November, you said
Joel Ward had been your best player during the opening weeks of the season, has
he continued his good form or has someone else caught the eye recently?
Joel’s form has definitely carried out
throughout the season. He’s a full-back but has lately been playing as a partner
in the middle to Mile Jedinak in the absence of KG and with the exception of the
first match in that position in the 3-0 defeat to
Newcastle,
he has been very, very good. I will be very surprised if he isn’t voted out
Player of the Year come the summer.
Marouane Chamakh has continued to play very
well too, especially since he has been employed in more of a deeper role.
Arsenal fans may mock him but his link-up play is brilliant and if we can get
him a more worthy partner than Jerome (Glenn Murray, your time is now), then
he’ll get more goals too I’m sure.
Has any player been particularly disappointing so far this season?
The aforementioned Cameron Jerome. He has
the odd flash of usefulness, but really he just doesn’t offer much. He’s
athletic and able to put himself about but he doesn’t seem to have a footballing
brain – he makes poor decisions, never anticipates well and more importantly
doesn’t score enough. We’re not a team that creates tens of chances a game so
when he does get an opportunity, he needs to do better. Unfortunately of late
our options up front have been limited so he’s played most of the games, but
with
Murray coming back from injury and the likes of Dwight Gayle raring for a start,
his game time could be more limited.
Any thoughts on the previous two clashes this season? Both teams have won one
game each so it would suggest the squads are fairly evenly matched?
I wasn’t able to make it up for the Cup
match unfortunately, but it does sound like there wasn’t a huge amount between
us that day. Similarly, the league game that you won was just post-Holloway and
we were in disarray so whilst I don’t think either team were very good, you took
your chances and we were punished for it.
We’ve both got new managers now and I think
it will be a difficult game for both sides so it’s very hard to predict where
the result will go but I don’t think there’ll be much in it once again.
Were there any Albion players
that impressed you in those games?
To be honest, I was more annoyed at some of
our players than anything else up in the league game, but Berahino looked a
handful and he grabbed a goal too, so if he plays I’ll be conscious of us
marking him well.
Who do the Albion defence
need to keep an eye on Saturday?
It’s hard to predict which of the new boys
will get a game so it could be Ince, but based on current form, Jason Puncheon
is having a good time in front of goal. He’s very one-footed but always seems to
be able to move the ball onto his favoured left foot and he’s got a good strike
on him, so he’ll be one to keep quiet.
Are you happy to stick with your prediction
of Chelsea for
Premier League champions?
Well, they’ve just beaten
Manchester City
fairly comfortably at the Etihad and Mourinho knows what he’s doing with all the
mind-games so if that kind of form carries on, I think they’ll be up there
definitely.
Back in November you predicted Palace and Sunderland to go down but as it stands they both seem
more than capable of staying up. Which three teams do you now see dropping down
into the Championship?
Little did I know back then how close
everything would be come February! At lot of teams with very little separating
them is bad enough but with so many transfers this past week, it’s impossible to
say who will finish where. Fulham are banking a lot on their new striker to
score goals, Cardiff signing Zaha makes me feel ill (I wanted him to come home),
Swansea have just sacked Laudrup... there are so many variables.
I hate to say it, but I still think we’ll go
down though at least we’re making a fist of trying to stay up. Fulham look
troubled so they will find it tough to stay up too I think. As for the third
team, I could pick the name out of a hat!
Prediction for Saturday’s game?
Matches at Selhurst don’t come with many
goals. It’s a huge match for us both and I think it’ll end up 1-1.
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