The problem as some have already said we have a very poor quality squad of players, in actual fact I would go as far as to say that we only have 6/7 players who you could say are EPL quality the rest are either unproven younger players or players who would struggle to make the grade in the championship. Poor Roy, yes he does look tied and would not you if you were 76 years old and had the responsibility on your shoulders of keeping a EPL team in the league on a shoestring budget. Roy was asked to come out of retirement because as hard as Parish tried he could not persuade a quality proven, ambitious younger manager to take the job based on the quality of players and transfer budget available (or not as the case maybe). Even dear old Roy was asking for 3-5 players in the twilight of the last window and we all know what he got. SP seems not to be on the best of terms with his fellow investors and I believe that Textor is estranged over the Lyon deal which Parish was not happy about. The other American are more interested in the real estate value (Selhurst Park) than they are about EPL football or the long term future of the team. Sadly, I do not have much confidence in the next window as it is unlikely anywhere near enough funds will be available to plug the holes in our first eleven let alone the bench. As others have already said, 11 years and the first team today is not much better (or maybe worse) than the one we came up with from the championship. The latter is now very much on our route map, thank you Mr.Parish!

Definitely. Ayew can fill in that position but it is clear not his preferred or best position. He is now off to the African cup from early Jan for maybe 6 weeks - and this absence is clearly not a surprise as it's been known about for a couple of years.

Schlupp has never really played as left winger, more a wide left in a 442, which we don't currently play, and he has proved an inadequate replacement in that position whilst Olise was injured (again a situation we knew about since early June).

The inability to get someone in as an attacking left player is inexcusable. The guy from Leeds on loan at Bournemouth would have been an obvious low cost choice.

If you asked Dougie Freedman why we didn’t sign an attacking left sided player, he would probably tell you that we did !

Definitely. Ayew can fill in that position but it is clear not his preferred or best position. He is now off to the African cup from early Jan for maybe 6 weeks - and this absence is clearly not a surprise as it's been known about for a couple of years.

Schlupp has never really played as left winger, more a wide left in a 442, which we don't currently play, and he has proved an inadequate replacement in that position whilst Olise was injured (again a situation we knew about since early June).

The inability to get someone in as an attacking left player is inexcusable. The guy from Leeds on loan at Bournemouth would have been an obvious low cost choice.

Agree - Eze didn't take him out, but he dangled a leg and the guy made sure he made the most of the contact. As he didn't touch the ball it has to be a penalty.

Was surprised Eze started. We were always going to have limited possession and he is not fully fit so i would have saved him for maybe 30 minutes at the end when the game opens up. His 1st half performance was poor. We definitely need him on Saturday.

In terms of pace, yes we are lacking in that centre mid position but i also feel it is partly how we use our full backs. Most teams have at least one attacking minded full back who can cause problems when they burst forward. Young Hinselwood did that role well the other night against us and repeated it against a much better team, Spurs, yesterday. Chelsea's RB, Gusto, was probably the best attacking player in the 1st half and he's not even a regular. Other teams such as Fulham have Robinson etc, and even Coufal at West Ham who is older and more defensive minded charged forward and supplied the cross for the goal against us a few weeks ago. We have a solid 433 with only the occasional brilliance by Eze or Olise to break the boredom. It makes it easy to play against us and mark those 2. We need players charging forward when we attack to create havoc. Yes it is higher risk, but we have a very fast and talent defended, Guehi, at the back who should be able to cover.

if you mean Franca, i think a 5 year old would have known that he was always going to be of limited value this season given his young age, his inexperience and the time needed to adjust to a new country and a physical league. He was also injured when we signed him.

Given that we lost Zaha and Olise had a medium term injury a short term replacement should have been top of the list.