I fully expect us to lose both (so if we get any result it will be Xmas all over again!) therefore defeats in those games will be of less concern to me than the actual manner of defeat and the performances, which have been shocking of late.

Sadly, its just not of late. The performance at home over the past couple of years have been awful. How many goals did we score in the first half of games? For RH to say we have our strongest squad & yet he sticks with the same team, formation, etc is a joke. He wont play Meyer etc

I think Roy should be given the respect to see out the season and start a rebuild from there.

I do keep seeing about how Roy has the best squad we have ever had and he is wasting our talent.

I just don't think our squad at the moment is very strong. I honestly love the team and effort is not questioned imo
however honest assessment would be:

GK -> Strong and good depth with Butland no.2
Def -> Aging. Tomkins when fit is very good. The rest distinctly avg and some for prem standards pretty poor
Mid -> Lacking creativity and pace. Aging also. Eze fantastic prospect
Forwards -> Zaha our star man creates something out of nothing and he papers over cracks in our team. Benteke gone back to old form after showing a spark. Ayew our top scorer last season but how many prem teams would he get into? Batman great finisher but offers little else

Okay waffling now but what i mean to say is... i don't think our squad is as good as we like to believe and we are 'probably' about where we could expect to be.

I hope Roy goes at the end of the season and hope for a rebuild but it might get worst before it gets better!

Our squad is the strongest ever if it was 5 years ago. A lot of our players are past their sell by date through age or constant injuries hence the lack of pace and intensity in our play

That's probably about right. And to think some on here seemed to honestly think we might go for Pochettino or Tuchel...

My only observation that Parish may not require an entertaining style of football if that is inconsistent with staying up. Hence CPFC are the only club to have employed the 'Big Three' of defensive, ultra pragmatic coaching: Pulis, Allardyce and Hodgson.

When you put it like you have, the reality of our position and the logic in retaining Hodgson (who achieves results with far more limited resources than most) is more clear than ever, whilst the likelihood of some dashing young thing being able to come in and move us up a gear to two is shown for the pipe dream it is.

Okay...since you asked.

Guiata - Yes
Tomkins - No
Luka - No
Eze - Yes
Zaha - Yes

And ironically probably:

Riederwald - Yes
Meyer - No
PVA (wing back) - I like what you did there

If we manage to survive under Mr Hodgson he will have secured survival for 4 seasons.
There will be little appetite by the club for a change and providing he wishes to continue and not retire I suspect his contract will be extended.

Next season could be our toughest in trying to retain our place, given that a number of our aged players will probably not be at the club for obvious reasons, we might of course lose Zaha and replacements will have to be found without significant backing in the transfer market.There will be a re-building job to be done.

Perhaps Mr Hodgson will decide that it is in his interests not to be at the club and will politely decline a new contract!! Perhaps this scenario has already unfolded!

Edited by Willo (11 Jan 2021 8.06pm)