Down for the count
Patrick Vieira said he wanted his side to play like a boxer on Tyneside - one who had been hit but kept fighting on. That hit - referring to the Chelsea defeat - clearly knocked the Palace players harder than Vieira had expected though, especially if their first half at St James’ Park was anything to go by.
For the majority of the first period at St James’ Park the Eagles were second-best in almost every department. There were misplaced passes, throwaway fouls and a consistent failure to string together any kind of cohesive passage of play in the Newcastle half.
Newcastle had ten shots at goal during the first 45 minutes and eventually forced one into the net through Miguel Almiron - his first goal involvement of the season no less. And while Palace looked defeated on the St James’ canvas, their second-half performance showed more of the fighting spirit that Vieira was looking for from the outset.
READ MORE: Zaha poor, Gallagher and Olise hooked: Crystal Palace player ratings in Newcastle defeat
The Eagles had 78 per cent of the ball in the second period but couldn’t land any kind of knockout blow no matter how hard they tried. Buoyed by a superb atmosphere from the home crowd, Newcastle held on and ensured Martin Dubravka, for all Palace tried to conjure, was rarely tested.
“I think we responded well,” Vieira told football.london after the match. “In the second half, I was very pleased with the way we wanted to compete against them. I was happy with that. But we need to do it from the first half an hour, from the first minute of the game we have to compete better. The way we entered the game gave them confidence and belief. We didn't compete well enough in the first half an hour.”
With six Premier League bouts left for Crystal Palace and a top-half finish in the Premier League still mathematically attainable, the task for Vieira and his coaching staff now is to ensure this season doesn’t end with a whimper. The Eagles have winnable fixtures on the horizon and can still shift the mood of the fans back on side, but only if they show more fight.
FA Cup hangover
In his pre-match press conference on Tuesday, Vieira said he’d be keeping a watchful eye on how his players reacted to Sunday’s FA Cup semi-final defeat against Chelsea. The Palace boss said he would not accept any drop-off in standards or application heading into the clash at Newcastle, but it seems his players didn’t quite heed his warning.
Barring perhaps the calamitous first 45 minutes at Spurs on Boxing Day, this was Palace’s worst half of football of the entire season. Given that Vieira made five changes to his side from the FA Cup defeat, it was unacceptable for the manager, who was spotted regularly losing his temper and throwing his water bottle to the ground in frustration on the touchline.
“Losing the FA Cup, mentally and physically was quite challenging,” said the Frenchman in his post-match press conference. “We have a young group of players who need to learn from those kinds of games how to bounce back from a game like that. I think we struggled to get into the game in the first half an hour and we were really slow in our passes. We didn't compete well enough.”
There’s clearly a lot for Veiria and his coaching staff still to work on and it should be remembered that this is still his first season with the squad. However, performance levels like the ones seen in the first half on Wednesday evening will do little to dispel the thought that Palace’s season is effectively over, with a top-half finish now seeming a lot less likely than it was a fortnight ago.
Michael Olise substitution
You could have chosen virtually any player in Palace’s starting XI and said they deserved to be hooked before half-time. Nevertheless, it was Michael Olise who faced the ignominy of making way before the break for Jordan Ayew.
The winger didn’t manage to get going during his cameo, which wasn’t helped by Palace’s general failure to move the ball up the pitch with any urgency. On three separate occasions Olise, who was playing right in front of his manager and the dugouts, seemed visibly frustrated that the ball wasn’t being played forward by full-back Nathaniel Clyne.
After he then lost the ball in Newcastle’s half, Vieira turned to his bench and immediately called for Ayew to get ready to come on. By the time Olise came off the bench - with a slight shake of his head to the floor as he trudged off - he’d lost possession ten times and had just 22 touches of the ball.
In his post-match press conference, Vieira said his reasoning for taking Olise off was to protect him, having only recently returned to action following a foot injury picked up on international duty with France’s Under-21s. He said “We know that Michael had some issues with his foot in the last couple of weeks. We started him today, but he wasn't 100 per cent so the best decision was to take him off.”
Last week, Vieria told reporters that Olise would only feature against Chelsea at Wembley on Sunday if he was 100 per cent fit, with the winger coming on during the second half for a late cameo. Starting him three days later at Newcastle seemed a sure sign that Vieira and his coaching staff were satisfied with the 19-year-old’s fitness prior to kick-off, meaning Vieira’s post-match comments on Wednesday night were either a way of protecting Olise from criticism or a sign that they had miscalculated his ability to start a key Premier League game.
Bringing players back in from the cold at odd moments
It hasn’t always been easy to predict where and how Vieria will make tweaks to his Crystal Palace starting XI on a game-by-game basis, but generally, most of his team picks itself based on form and a lack of strength in depth in some areas of the pitch.
But every so often there will be a curveball that is almost impossible to foresee in advance. Christian Benteke being brought on while Palace were chasing the game against Chelsea in the FA Cup semi-final was one of those moments, with the Belgian making as much of an impact as you’d expect from a player who’d featured in just 28 minutes of the previous 11 matches the Eagles had played.
Vieira made a similar decision against Newcastle on Wednesday night with Odsonne Edouard chosen to lead the line for the first time in the Premier League since the New Year’s Day defeat to West Ham at Selhurst Park. Considering the physicality of Jean-Philippe Mateta - who before tonight had started 12 of the last 17 games - and the clear aerial threat posed by 6ft 7ins Magpies centre-back Dan Burn, it seemed an odd choice to go with Edouard from the off.
All things considered, Edouard didn’t have a poor 90 minutes, but his lack of match sharpness was incredibly telling during the first half and his best moments came when Mateta was introduced off the bench to give Palace a second outlet to find in the forward areas.
