What to expect from Dougie ...

[brooklynlou]

Palace fan coming in peace.

If Palace are an example of Dougies "process" and if the man has a "method" (as opposed to winging it and hoping for the best), then below is the timeline of everything he did for us - and which he'll probably do for you but sped up and under a microscope.

• He'll sort out fitness fast. Basically Dougie is a fitness freak. The willingness of the player to do the daily fitness work is a big indicator of whether Dougie will play him (or even sign him). He wants players that can play the 90 minutes.
  
  PS - Expect to hear the word 'fitness' to pop up alot during the transfer window. Usually pops up in his explanation over why a player wasn't signed - or why he was sold.
  
  PPS - See pictures of Zaha compared to 18 months ago - he's put on a ton of muscle.

• Defense comes second If fitness is 1a, defense is 1b. Expect some pretty dour looking games till Xmas while the team becomes better organized in the back and better fit.

• Next comes the midfield, wingers and strikers Once he sorts the defense and the fitness he likes playing a 4231. The midfield is why Palace are on their current run. The back 2 break up play, back up the defense and link play to the wings. Dougie likes his wingers, and right behind the striker and infront of the midfield two is a creative playmaker directing traffic.

• Expect action in the transfer window He and Lennie will target replacements for any player not willing to work on the training ground or if they dont fit the system. He's pretty brutal about it. Dougie earned the ire of alot of Palace fans by his selling of Scannell (loved product of the academy) and Ambrose (Palace hero) over the summer.

So, as the player's fitness improves, coupled with new signings and a bunch of players shifted out, expect to make a run in the second half. (Or it all goes tits up and Dougie does commentary for the SPL.)

[Dr.Karl]

Points one and two seem very accurate so far. He hasn't got to point three yet. The players in midfield aren't correct imv but if it all goes to plan as you say I'm very optimistic!

[TANGODANCER]

Cheers for the post Brooklynlou. Sensible comment always welcome.

[Gail Platz]

Can't fault any of it so far. Despite Pratley being as slow as a bag of sand, he does seem to keep going throughout the 90 and it must be the only reason why he's somehow made it into the side as it's definitely not footballing ability that's got him in there.

Dougie seems like a bit of a 'safety boy' to me, which can be a good thing at times as Coyle was the complete opposite, but I'll reserve judgement because if he starts doing what Megson did i.e. taking strikers off for defensive midfielders when 2-0 up, then I'll get pissed off.

[TANGODANCER]

Can't fault any of it so far. Despite Pratley being as slow as a bag of sand, he does seem to keep going throughout the 90 and it must be the only reason why he's somehow made it into the side as it's definitely not footballing ability that's got him in there.

Dougie seems like a bit of a 'safety boy' to me, which can be a good thing at times as Coyle was the complete opposite, but I'll reserve judgement because if he starts doing what Megson did i.e. taking strikers off for defensive midfielders when 2-0 up, then I'll get pissed off.

But you just said:

What the feck did people see in Pratley last night? For me he did nothing more and nothing less than he's done at this club since he joined, so in my opinion he did jack shit. He is so slow and immobile. Seriously what has he done to warrant a place in the team,

?.

[football247]

Fellow palace fan here

Dougie built a very strong squad here, the football was dour but he did know how to pic a player in the transfer market

Im not sure about the wingers part, he played most of last season with 4 central midfielders but maybe he didnt have the funds i dont know

What did annoy me about dougies team is that as soon as we went 1-0 up it was defend defend defend, hes mentions alot about learning from Italian teams and he's very much an Italian style manager

What I find strange is that its the completely opposite of dougie as a player who was a creative player albeit a bit lazy

[bobo the clown]

So, I have to get used to watching the final 10-15m of each match through my fingers ? Oh dear.

But after something like 2 (or was it 3 ?) clean sheets in over 50 league games that may offer some advantage at this moment.

[thebish]

So, I have to get used to watching the final 10-15m of each match through my fingers ? Oh dear.

just like we did with Big Sam so many times....

[officer_dibble]

Cheers for the posts

[brooklynlou]

Dougie seems like a bit of a 'safety boy' to me, which can be a good thing at times as Coyle was the complete opposite, but I'll reserve judgement because if he starts doing what Megson did i.e. taking strikers off for defensive midfielders when 2-0 up, then I'll get pissed off.

Er... I didn't say he was perfect. Sorry to harsh your buzz but Dougie will do exactly that. He's Scottish but acts like a 60 year old Italian manager when he gets a 1-0 lead.

[irie Cee Bee]

Thanks for the insights Palace fans. Does give us some perspective of what to expect. My philosophy is that defense wins football matches and not pretty football, so always build from the back. Must say that I am aligned.

Given that many of our players under OC seemed unfit, and DFs view that our squad is too big, I guess we will see some clear outs in January.

[elfil76]

I like your points. it will work for us at this point as the team really need to get in shape and stop leaking goals. I guess we have enough talent to get an odd-goal or two and keep it tight at the back.

[CrazyHorse]

if he starts doing what Megson did i.e. taking strikers off for defensive midfielders when 2-0 up, then I'll get pissed off.

That's not right. Megson liked to swap strikers for DM when we were 2-0 down. In a fcking cup game.

[James B]

when we went infront against cardiff on saturday it was like going back to the days of allardyce/megson. excruciating to watch but we held on. had more success with it under allardyce though.

[BWFC_Insane]

I think the way Dougie sets up is almost a carbon copy of how Sam Allardyce would set up this group of players.

Megson had us deep, but we weren't particularly hard to score against.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

What I find strange is that its the completely opposite of dougie as a player who was a creative player albeit a bit lazy

As a player, George 'Stroller' Graham was Arsenal's top scorer...

Thanks for the input and info, Palace fans...

[BL3]

My philosophy is that defense wins football matches and not pretty football

I think you'll find that goals win games, unless they've started handing out 3 points for keeping a clean sheet.

P.S. Why are people spelling 'defense' with an 's' rather than a 'c'?

[officer_dibble]

You get at least a point for a clean sheet. Shipping two tends to get you nowt.

[BL3]

Sorry to harsh your buzz

Please stop mangling the Queen's English.

[BWFC_Insane]

My philosophy is that defense wins football matches and not pretty football

I think you'll find that goals win games, unless they've started handing out 3 points for keeping a clean sheet.

P.S. Why are people spelling 'defense' with an 's' rather than a 'c'?

Its an interesting debate. At Bolton we've certainly in recent years had success as a team that was hard to break down, organised, and pragmatic.

I think we've seen less success when set up as a more "free scoring" attacking side.

Clearly a balance between the two is best, but that seems hard to achieve.

I suspect there are few years where the winners of the premiership haven't had the best defensive record (or close to it) though I don't know this for sure, should anyone want to check........