I don't think of any area being necessarily 'weak', but there are players who play too frequently. They're perfectly adequate as squad players, and dependable to play when needed, but ideally wouldn't play every week. I don't want to name names, because it feels really disrespectful, and they're all pretty decent. All I would say, is if we sign any players, they need to be definitively better than the existing incumbent, not just another player of a similar standard who adds depth.

So, for me, the ideal player would be a left footed box-to-box midfielder, approximately 23 years old, on the cusp of being an international player. Give him a chunk of Benteke's wages on a 5 year deal, and have him start knowing he has the responsibility of 'key player' status.

One of them and a right back please.

I don't think it's realistic for your average team to have a 15/20 goal striker. If they did, he'd just be signed by someone else. It's more realistic that Edouard, Zaha, Mateta and maybe even Olise (within the next 18/24 months) need to be capable of getting 10 each as a minimum.

I don't see how Edouard is going to get 10 goals. I don't even see how he's going to get 1 or 2 goals. He's awful. The goal that Mateta scored, he would have never scored.

Edouard is Benteke 2.0. Can't convert sitters, looks terrified when he gets a clear scoring chance, gives away the ball every time.

The sooner we move on from him, the better. He was worth taking a chance on, but he's proven he's not a competent PL striker.

2017 Feb. (Van Aanholt) Palace 1 - 0 Middlesboro
2018 Jan. (Sako) Palace 1 - 0 Burnley
2019 May (Batshuayi, Batshuayi, OG, Van Aanholt, Townsend) Palace 5 - 3 Bournemouth
2020 Feb. (Van Aanholt) Palace 1 - 0 Newcastle

Said elsewhere on a thread where edouard is being talked up for what he did yesterday, the bar is set so low for our strikers now, strikers have to score goals 1st and foremost, Edouard isn't even coming close, that 1 on 1 summed him up, no pace, desire or strength to even get a shot off, then scuffs a fairly easy chance minutes later

Plange. Give the kid a chance. If he doesn’t cut it send him out on loan. I agree that Edouard isn’t pulling his weight goals wise but we already have Wilf and Mateta who can play up top so I think a midfielder is more of a priority.

Agree with you Lanzo. We have goals in this squad. As I've posted before only 2 strikers hit the 20 league goal mark last year. Teams are increasingly relying on more fluidity up front and from midfield.

The days of relying purely on your CF for goals is fast disappearing - AJ scored 21 for us (out of 41) back in 2004/05 and we went down.

We showed against Villa what we can do and with more confidence for players like Edouard, Ayew and Hughes, we'll score comfortably enough goals this season to keep well away from the trouble zone and we haven't seen Olise let loose on the wing properly yet.