Speculation is rife ..

But the basic fact is:

We are stuck in a rut with Hodgson playing only one (defensive) way using his favourite players (who he once could rely on but now cannot)
and seemingly has no alternative strategy and certainly is very reluctant to blood younger players unless he has to.

That is why so many have contributed to this thread.

Man and boy Palace since my first game in 1948 sitting on my dad's shoulders

I'm not in the Roy Out club but I think this is one of those stats that don't really tell the whole story so you take at it your own peril. We are an established Premiership club so it's dubious to compare us to a recently promoted side. The skill upgrade from the Championship to the Premiership required is huge and even if a team can do it, it takes time to gel. It just took time for Fulham to get the right pieces in place and everyone settled into the newer faster style of play. That's my take on it anyway.

Success will lie to you but failure always tells you the truth.

When various posters talk about playing defensively, the facts this season do not bear that out.

For example, the decision was made in the close season to move to 4-4-2 with Wilf playing a front line offensive role. Whilst Wilf has done well in terms of his goals contribution, the defence has let in an awful lot of goals. This is partly due to the big injury problems there have been but also to the midfield 2 getting overrun - partly due to their ability but partly to being outnumbered.
The recent run of games - Brighton, Fulham, Man Utd - essentially saw a change of tactics to 4-5-1 and the results speak for themselves. As soon as the team revert to a more attacking mode, as in the second half against spurs, the results speak for themselves with lots of goals against.

I think it would be foolish to discount a young manager because he oversaw a relegation. It is possible that much will have been learned through the process making him an overall better manager.

Whilst I fully accept the point Willow makes about the comparison between Roy and SP over the last 15 games - I don’t think there is much comparison between style of play and enjoyment (accepting the last two game have seen a slight improvement from us).

And don’t forget the mighty Graham Potter and 1 point behind the genius that is Bielsa.

I was comparing the performances of the sides over that period, asserting that whilst Fulham have been lauded for their revival, in points terms over a significant number of games they are only 1 pt better than us.

One of course could point to recent wins for Fulham - They beat an Everton team that don't have a good home record, they beat rock-bottom Sheff Utd by a solitary goal and then Liverpool whom we all know have lost 6 successive games at Anfield.

In terms of the respective performances of the teams at the business end of last season, the teams were of course in different divisions, a tad different to the situation this season!

Edited by Willo (09 Mar 2021 8.57pm)