My two penneth:

Performances aside, age alone means Roy will go either this summer, or at the very latest, next.

Then what? More anti-football? Or do we change direction? Can it even be done?

Asking if Southampton actually get better end results than us is a fair question, as is the response that, if the results are similar anyway, isn't it better to at least enjoy watching your team play?

I would be the first to say 'Yes', even with a 0-9 chucked in every season. In fact, don’t forget that Saints recently managed four top ten finishes, making Europe once. They play better stuff, and get better results than us for what seems a similar budget. I'd swap in a heartbeat.

But we cannot, and should not, aim to play like Southampton for two reasons, both I think get overlooked, particularly when calling for Roy to go:

1. Middling sized clubs can't survive playing decent football. Sadly, Southampton are the exception that proves the rule.

There are just so many clubs our size who played better football than us on their way out of the league, and so, so few to play better stuff and stay up. In fact, there is only one: Southampton.

Norwich, Bournemouth, Wigan, Fulham, Hull, QPR, Swansea, and post-Pulis Stoke etc all went down trying to play, whilst us, Burnley, Brighton (pre-Potter) and Newcastle all stayed up.

Forget about how long we've been in the league now. What matters is how our budget compares to the rest, and that hasn't changed. If you were a hedge fund manager, or a bookie, you'd give a middling sized club a better chance of staying up, by far, if they played anti-football. Sad, but mathematically evident.

2. We can't play a pressing game like Southampton, or a possession game like Brighton without the kind of major overhaul that just isn't possible.

We came up and stayed up playing counter-attacking football. Each new signing has been to replace a part of that particular machine. Team style is dictated by your players, especially your best ones. Just as Villas-Boas failed spectacularly when trying to get Chelsea to play a high line that didn’t suit key players like John Terry and Petr Cech, I see no evidence whatsoever that Zaha or Eze are suited to a pressing game, or to keeping possession for its own sake. Our DNA is the polar opposite.

Southampton came up and stayed up playing positive football. Adkins built them that way in the Championship, and as good as Pochettino, Koeman and Hasenhüttl may or may not be, each inherited a footballing side, with signings made to suit that style. The new man at Palace won’t have that.

We can’t play like Southampton, now, or at any time in the foreseeable future. We will have to get used to highly conservative football as played by Pulis, Allardyce and Hodgson for a good while yet.

Hodgson did mention about the need for new signings.
However, that was some time ago.
This season he has said the squad has been the strongest in his time at the club.
With this in mind he can't seek to use the squad as a valid reason for the inconsistent performances this season and inability to either defend or attack properly.
The players are of course partially responsible but Hodgson is responsible for selection, motivation and tactics.

Hodgson did mention about the need for new signings.
However, that was some time ago.
This season he has said the squad has been the strongest in his time at the club.
With this in mind he can't seek to use the squad as a valid reason for the inconsistent performances this season and inability to either defend or attack properly.
The players are of course partially responsible but Hodgson is responsible for selection, motivation and tactics.

Looking at in another way.
They have a solid keeper and back 4 , coufal must be one of the buys of the season, cost peanuts and has shown great quality.
In center midfield they have Rice and souchek, I don’t think that any of our preferred midfield 2/3 would even make their bench. They have game changers that don’t even start lanzizi/fornals/yarmalenko.
Also they have a Center forward that scares the life out of defences on his own.
But their average players like Cresswell and Bowen come off the pitch every game having given absolutely everything.
How many of our current eleven would start for them?
But the biggest thing for me is the big money signings Haller and Anderson (the equivalent to benteke and Sakho), they realised they weren’t for them and got them off the wage bill sharpish. Where as we extend their contracts , to ‘protect the asset’ load of bo**ocks.

Burnley, Newcastle and West Brom play anti football as much as we do. We are in awful form recently whereas they've picked up in form, but the set up and intention is fundamentally the same. Sheffield United are also pretty poor to watch.

I agree that we aren't as clearly defined tactically this season as in previous seasons under Hodgson, and I think that part of the problem (along with player quality and injuries) might be a desire to do a bit more with the ball - either that, or opponents are dropping off us a bit and letting us have the ball more. Our possession stats seem to be up on previous years, but that's made us worse not better. Which leads me back to the previous point - I'm not convinced this lot can play any other way than super negative and get enough points to stay up.

Believe me, I'd love to be proved wrong.

So are the players disobeying Hodgson with this slow passing out from the back sideways and backwards?
One assumes they are following his tactics.
When Benteke plays and receives only one cross in the air during a match are they disobeying tactics?
When Ayew is selected right of a midfield 4 and spends his whole match anywhere other than on the right is he disobeying tactics?
Put players in their correct positions and play to their strengths.
If they don’t perform, make changes.
It’s not that complicated.