Report by John Gallagher at Selhurst Park

This turned out to be yet another miserable away day for the Reds as they failed yet again to take advantage of a slip up by Everton earlier in the day for that coveted 4th place.

I arrived at Selhurst in bouyant mood after I heard the Everton score and even them scoring in the last minute didn't dampen my spirits as I had them down as a home banker to beat Birmingham after their exploits against Manchester United three days earlier.

I thought this would be the game which hauled us right back in the race for 4th place and we would go on to beat Palace who themselves needed the points for very different reasons.

We started the game with a 5-3-2 formation with Traore and Finnan used as 'wing-backs' (how I hate that word) and Nando partnered Milan with a midfield three of Le Tallec Gerrard and Welsh.

The much maligned Pellegrino continued as one of three centre halfs with Carra and Sami.

We made a decent start to the game knocking the ball about tidily but not really creating anything of particular note before Palace started to get in to the game with an aggressive approach which got their fans going in a must win game for them.

Baros was clearly singled out after his heroics in the home game in November, and he had to go off with a knock early on following a couple of hefty challenges.

He was replaced by Potter so Tony Le T went up front with Nando.
Palace to be fair generally played within the rules and hunted the ball
down in packs and looked stronger in the challenge than we did.

They were getting on top and it was no surprise when they took the lead with a goal from the excellent Andy Johnson who placed an instinctive header in the far corner after good work by Routledge who was also outstanding on the day, giving Finnan one of his more difficult games of the season.

Thank God Josemi wasn't playing.

Routledge looks deceptively strong on the ball despite his slight frame and worked his socks off all afternoon along with Johnson who has been linked to us in the past. Johnson reminds me of Owen about five years ago and considering he plays on his own up front in a struggling team he was fantastic I thought. He looked really hungry.

People have their reservations about him being a one-season wonder but I don't think he will be, he has the desire and hunger to better himself and if he does eventually leave Palace we could do a lot worse than go for him.

I think he would be the perfect foil for Nando as he makes so many
intelligent runs in behind defences which Nando holding the ball up it
sounds like a perfect partnership.

Routledge, who is on a Bosman this summer and has been linked to Spurs, was also superb. You think of our beloved number seven who is the highest paid player at the club, hardly ever plays and has generally been a lazy disgrace when he has done. Routledge would be a decent replacement to me on a fraction of the wages Kewell is on, leaving more money available for key positions in the squad.

We hardly created anything of note in the first half, Morientes had a
couple of half chances but nothing to trouble the dodgy keeper in the dodgy tracksuit bottoms.

I felt for the young lads Potter and Welsh as they tried their best
particularly Welsh who wasn't concerned about the physical aspect of the game as he loves to put his foot in.

I would be mightily pissed if we went for the likes of Joey Barton who is roughly the same age as Welshy but not as good as him in my opinion. Potter struggled to cope at times with Palace's physical approach and he is of very slight build.

He played right across the midfield at different stages in this game as we sought an equalizer and it may have made more sense to bring Igor on, who is more physical.

We should be blooding these kids when we are winning games at home so they can express themselves a bit more as at the moment they are just rightly sticking to basics and keeping it simple. I don't agree with blooding them at a really crucial part of the season when we are trying to get 4th place over our hated neighbours.

I didn't agree with the side and formation Rafa picked especially with the hapless Pellegrino who was ran ragged at times by Johnson. I like Pelle and he has shown a good attitude since he has been here and obviously Rafa trusts him, but it had us on the back foot straight away as we are forced to defend deeper due to his chronic lack of pace.

He makes Sami look like Thierry Henry at times.

The side Rafa picked wasn't the reason we lost the game but it didn't help our cause as it was a defensive line up with square pegs in round holes especially in Djimi's case who looked like a fish out of water at wing-back.

It made sense when Riise came on for Pelle and we went 4-4-2.
The main reason we lost the game was down to the application and commitment of some players which didn't match Palace's all afternoon.

Cisse came on with about fifteen minutes to go and worked really hard in trying to stretch Palace by staying on the right hand side and we did look slightly more threatening at that stage. He has shown no signs psychologically that he isn't over that sickening injury which is great to see and hopefully we can get some benefit from him in the next few weeks.

I went for Gerrard as my Star Man not because he was particularly brilliant or anything but he was the best of a bad bunch on the day. He gave the ball away far too much for my liking, but he did track back a lot and made some great challenges as Palace counter-attacked in the second half.

He had our best chance late on but the keeper made a great save to push the ball wide.

The 4th place has probably gone now as we will surely lose at Arsenal which means Everton would only need one win from four games to clinch it. It is very frustrating thinking they are going to finish above us for the first time since we last saw Halley's comet but if we can get the small consolation of the European Cup it wouldn't matter so much.

Or would it?

 

Team: Dudek; Finnan, Carragher, Hyypia, Pellegrino (Riise), Traore; Gerrard, Welsh, Le Tallec; Baros (Potter), Morientes:

Agree or disagree? Email me at johng@liverpoolway.co.uk

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