Another of life's great ironies. Roy is a hero for keeping us up playing the most awful football ever witnessed at Selhurst Park (the style of play was necessary chirp the sycophants) yet PV is a terrible clueless novice numpty for basically serving up the same gruel and leading us to a similar league position. Maybe one day we'll see some progression. Perhaps.

Edited by southnorwoodhill (12 Feb 2023 9.19am)

It's funny...reading the report on BBC Sport and watching the BBC post-match interview with PV, you wouldn't think we'd played badly at all. It comes across as a hard-fought, resilient display for a well-earned point against a really good team. The BBC man singled out Jordan Ayew for giving it everything and PV agreed.

Palace since 19 August 1972. Palace 1 (Tony Taylor) Liverpool 1 (Emlyn Hughes)

While I can empathise with some of your issues, I think you have fallen into the trap of over expectation after last season.

I'm sure that the club would love to be competing higher up the table and pushing for a place in Europe. But unless investment is made in improving the squad it's just wishful thinking.

You say the club has no ambition and yet you yearn for the Championship ! That really is a lack of ambition.

I'm sick of people banging on about Brentford and Brighton and why aren't Palace performing to their level. How about instead taking a look at some of the other clubs you mention ; Leeds, West Ham, Everton, Wolves and Southampton all below us in the table.

Like it or not, Palace are just about where you would expect them to be at this moment in time.

I think there will be changes afoot in the summer, major changes. And some of your issues may be addressed.

Old, Ungifted and White

An excellent post Sir !

Our squad was too small at the start of the season so when Andersen got injured we were in trouble, then Wilf got injured and then Richards got injured and suddenly we were missing two of our most important players and one who had put in a couple of MotM displays and we were coming up against one of the most in-form teams in the league who were at full strength. Yes yesterday was a hard watch, but given the circumstances a draw was pretty respectable, however it was won. I did find it hard to work out the tactics, but aside from Schlupp and Edouard I thought every player was working really hard and we pressed Brighton into mistakes numerous times, we just didn't take advantage of them aside from the ridiculous goalkeeper error.

Basically at the moment it feels like Roy's tenure at its worst when we were scraping points without playing that well. On the plus side we are scraping points with key players missing against teams challenging for Europe. If Everton lose today (fingers crossed) we're 7 points clear of relegation despite a big slump in form since the WC and having played mostly teams above us (winning the only game that wasn't).

Andersen/Richards and Wilf return, get a win (against anyone) and I think tails will be up and things will improve. I also have a feeling Lokonga will turn out to be a key player once he gets to start. To me yesterday looked like a team unsure of itself and low on confidence. Several times we had opportunities on the break and (usually Mateta) fluffed their lines. When you're more confident you make fewer of those mistakes. As Ferguson used to say, it's all about momentum.

Please look on the bright side!
As a supporter for more than 60 years, I am as saddened as everyone else by how poor we were yesterday, but let’s look at the wider picture.
Patrick took over a creaking ship, a side which was boring us to tears and with many players about to come out of contract.
Yes, his early success was largely due to the input of Connor Gallagher. Another way of looking at that, is that we are only one player short of having a very good team.
Olise and Eze are enormously exciting, Anderson is one of the best passers in the division, Mitchell and Guehi are touted as international prospects, Richards’ performances have been excellent.
And surely either Mateta or Odsonne must regain their scoring ability soon?
It has been a strange season with the World Cup interruption and a savage run of matches.
This is not the time to be turning on the manager or the players.

Edited by djmikeyp (12 Feb 2023 11.36am)