Ayew and donkey up front or ed when he’s fit. Or ideally get two new strikers

Looking for positives I thought Richards had a good game and is growing into a defensive midfield role. He will never be John Stones but he won the ball in important places, dropped back into defence when needed and supported the strikers at times too. Mateta continues to be a better option than Edouard despite his limitations mainly because he works harder.

A significant loss for Brentford is Bryan Mbeumo who will be available for about 3 months.Of course they will also be without Ivan Toney and Rico Henry.Brentford have lost 6 of their last 7 matches.

Yes, Lerma needed some steel alongside. Much as Hughsie has his limitations, I'd prefer him to Richards, who I feel is a central defender and looks lost in midfield. Ozoh would be a better fit, too.

Although it wouldn't change my mind about Richards playing in the middle, I must say his crunching tackle that set up the goal was just excellent.

Edited by Glazier#1 (28 Dec 2023 12.07am)

It was his tackle that set up the Ayew cross for the goal. Can;t see Hughes doing that

I despise this argument about money. Chelsea are bang average and were missing Palmer and Sterling, arguably their only two performers this season. Today was a massive opportunity to get something.
Wonder what my fellow fans think but the bit that really grates on me under Roy is how slow we are in attack. I get the impression he does zero attacking work with them. Even Wolves, Bournemouth etc play fast passes in transition and have players moving forwards at speed. Our players seem like they are stuck in treacle when we are attacking. I can only put that down to Roy.
Thats why I think we need to take a chance on a new (young?) Manager. I think any half decent manager could have got 4 wins from 19 games. It's the frankly boring football with no attacking threat which is getting on our nerves. We don't play to win and now we simply aren't winning.
What do we do now? Brentford is simply absolutely nailed on must win. They are missing top players and are also in a slump in form. Lose this and I'm sorry to say, Roy has to go.
As others have alluded to, 10 years in the prem and we dont have money, and we spend what we have mostly on rubbish with big wages to boot. We are so paper thin it's frightening. Most of the squad is championship quality. For those wishing us to go down- we won't do a Leicester we will sink. Andersen, Guehi, Johnstone, Eze and Olise will go, and we will be left with the duds.
10 years and never even had a crack at Europe. Even Burnley and Wolves have had European trips.
Us Palace fans are loyal, we know we don't deserve anything, but it's just so disappointing to see such turgid football week in week out, and owners who have serious money just ignore us completely. Isn't that so typical us, other clubs eg Villa get funds and choose a decent manager, and hey presto! Relegation candidates to top 4 candidates in no time.