for me if you cant find a place for players like Eze in your side be it on the parks at Palace or internationally then we may as all go home .
Defending is what the others do

And we still need a striker

Eze is a liability in midfield.

He is incapable of making a clean tackle so he reverts either to going AWOL or committing a foul.

Against Liverpool, he was guilty of both - from one needless free-kick, ‘pool were able to pump the ball into our penalty area.

Because he is such a skilful player, capable of scoring, I would put him up front as a striker with a brief to play like Jimmy Greaves.

At the very least, he should earn us a few penalties.

Sensible.

That was exactly the line up i picked on another thread, Hughes and Lokonga can cover the fullbacks, when the attack is on their side, which leaves Eze and Olise further up the pitch, especially as Andersen is such a great passer.

“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

Yes it'd provide extra protection and would be quite balanced but that middle 3 I'd say are more than just holding midfielders as they'd be combative, energetic and can pick a pass, which is not a combination we had when playing any of Eze, Schlupp and Ayew alongside Doucouré earlier on in the season. We also now have Ahamada who I think could also slot into that midfield 3 quite well.

We'll see if this formation comes back around, possibly when the run of fixtures becomes a little more favourable.

I'd slightly mod that based on difficulty of games. Assuming Wilf is fit also.

Hard games:

---------Wilf------
----Eze -------Olise
Hughes Doucouré Lokonga

Neither CF really helps hold the ball up to enable us to get out. So I'd rather Wilf up there. Olise and Eze have shown that they can release and find him quickly on the break.

'Easy' games:

-------Edouard------
-Wilf----Eze -----Olise
---Doucouré Lokonga

Assuming we are going to have more ball and need to break defences down.

Whilst Ebs doesn't always perform for 90 mins, its clear that we are more potent with him in the team. As lots have said, the theory is that with 2 decent CM's we've got the cover to hopefully get the best out of him.