A 2 – 1 defeat to Leicester City on the face of it is disappointing and combined with the result at Southampton it appears a relatively difficult and disappointing festive period. Yet a victory away against Millwall will be remembered for a long time and offers great joy to palace fans. The reality is however that often you can learn more from defeat in football than you can from victory, and in that regard this defeat to Leicester City could be one of the most valuable defeats in Crystal Palace history.
Valuable because sometimes one needs to pick your battles in football. Eight games in just over a month would stretch any squad at any level and to be successful you need to test the strength and depth of the squad available to you. Being placed in a good position in the league just outside the playoffs and with a great opportunity to get to Wembley in the League Cup, that is why many games are coming up in a short period and clearly one must prioritise the important matches and tailor the different abilities of squad players to the fixtures ahead. The important matches are the two games against Cardiff City in the semi final which could be amongst the biggest games in Palace’s history, and of course the big derby match against Brighton at the end of the month.
Although Freedman’s Palace lost to Leicester City at Selhurst (only Palace’s third home defeat in a year) it could prove a very useful loss. This is because viruses to Julian Speroni, and centre back partnership Antony Gardner, and Paddy McCarthy meant the squad was tested with Lewis Price continuing in goal and Peter Ramage and Deko Keinan coming into defence and although Keinan will not play against his parent club Cardiff, it did give Freedman the opportunity to look at the depth of his squad with O’Keefe starting in midfield with Jedinak and Garvan with Zaha providing pace and creativity in the middle of the park. The defence was at fault for both Leicester goals but grew into the match and when Jonathan Parr halved the deficit before the break the Palace midfield then created most of the chances in the second half only to be thwarted by the excellent Kasper Schmeichel who is capable of playing at a higher level at a bigger club.
The significance of the defeat is it shows Freedman the depth and capability of the squad available to him. Able squad players like Price, Ramage and O’Keefe have proven themselves ready to play a part if and when required in this most important part of the season. Striving for the playoffs and pushing to make history in the League Cup Freedman will need to optimise all resources available to him. Next week we play Derby in the FA Cup third round I will not be there although I look forward to following the game in the context of wider events on one of the best weekends of the season. My mind is now focussed on the massively important League Cup semi final next Tuesday. It will not be an easy game, in my view Cardiff City are the best all round footballing side outside the Premier League but I have faith in cup football and there can be no doubt that Crystal Palace are up for the cup. Good luck lads.
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