Vieira was lucky that that clown Lampard was in the other dugout. The fact remains that we have an horrendous record against Everton (1 win in the last 18 PL games) and apart from the home win 2 years ago we haven't beaten them at home since the 1990s.

Given the rest of your comments, there's obviously no point in you turning up to or commenting on any future Palace games this season as you've clearly said it all here.

I don’t necessarily see a decent CF as an out and out goal scorer who is always in the right place and finishes 50% of all shots as they are very rare (Kane, Haaland, etc), however I do expect them to be able to control the ball and hold it up, link up play, work the offside line, attack the ball aerially and generally make a nuisance of themselves. By the nature of their position they should be scoring double figures a season anyway so whilst I’m happy with the goals Edouard has scored I wouldn’t call it an exceptional return. I do see him lacking though in so many other areas of a decent CF’s attributes.

In short I’d rather have a Glenn Murray type player back in the side, or if we want to play slightly differently a super quick small CF in the mould of Vardy or our very own Andy Johnson. More than one way to skin a cat, but I don’t think Edouard would even catch it.

I'm sure everyone would like to see a primetime Murray or AJ type player in the side but this is all fantasy isn't it. The fact is currently we have what we have, and to criticise a player who has scored half our goal tally (despite all his faults) seems to me harsh. Edouard could well go on to score upward of 15 this season, and still be the player with the faults you describe. Does that make him a bad player? Or is he doing his job, which primarily is to put the ball in the net?
Perhaps ultimately what you are suggesting is that if we had a better player than Edouard up front then that player would help improve the overall play of the side and therefore our position would be higher up the table. Until that becomes a transfer reality we can only guess. It's more how the whole team plays in the grand scheme of things I think.

Edited by southnorwoodhill (12 Nov 2023 12.10pm)

With yesterdays performance it is clear that Doucoure, Eze and Olise are our three key plays, and if the three of them play we can beat anyone, if either of the Centre Backs need to be sold to finance a RB and a Striker then it should be done in Jan, this is my list IMHO:

Eze, Olise, Doucoure: Outstanding, irreplaceable for us.
Johnstone, Guehi, Andersen: Very good, but replaceable.
Mitchell, Lerma, Ayew, Schlupp: Good
Hughes, Edouard, Holding, Jairo: Average
Clyne, Mateta, Ward, Tomkins: Poor
Franca, Ahamada, Richards, Matthews, Rak-Sakyi: Unproven
Hendersen, no idea.

Bottom line if no money sell Andersen or Guehi, have replacement in place, then CF and RB, buy or loan to buy.

“That’s a joke son, I say, that’s a joke.” “Nice boy, but he’s sharp as a throw pillow.” “He’s so dumb he thinks a Mexican border pays rent” “ “Son… I say, son, some people are so narrow minded they can look through a keyhole with both eyes.”__ Forhorn Leghorn

Can’t argue too much with this assessment. The telling thing for me is that Ahamada and Richards are “unproven” a year after we spent substantial sums bringing them in. That tells me Roy doesn’t rate them. The others are young and I don’t think Roy is a big fan of youth either! It feels like there’s a disconnect somewhere between Roy and Dougie. Effectively we have a first team squad of 15 players at best whom Roy is prepared to play. We can’t afford to keep paying several million for players the manager isn’t prepared to play. We need to ship these guys out. I’d settle for 1 signing in January who would be guaranteed a place, ideally a goal scorer or failing that a right back.

Good assessment and sums up where we are that only ten are good or better.
I’d create another category for Mateta btw….