Jase

According to The Athletic, Van Aanholt will be leaving Palace this summer. Sakho, Hennessey, McCarthy and Wickham expected to follow suit as well. Batshuayi will definitely return to us. Cahill has been offered a new one-year deal while Ward and Dann have held talks over deals on reduced terms. Benteke's and Townsend's future still up in the air. Not sure about the others. That is true but how many players will he be able to bring in? How much say will he get in the transfers? Given the rebuilding job at hand, won't be surprised if Palace opt for a more experienced head than Lampard. Am sure it's not lost on Palace what happened with Lampard this summer when he got new players into the squad. Last thing they would want is the De Boer nightmare again.

I know but I doubt they are just gonna let everyone go. They would probably keep at least half of them.

There's no point in being the underdog if he can't get the players to buy into his methods. Palace will no doubt look to get younger players in but their squad will primarily still consist of old, experienced players. Can Lampard get them to move away from the pragmatic style to a more open, expansive style? Can those old, experienced players play the way he wants to? If Lampard is not careful, he could easily run into the same problems that Scolari and AVB ran into here. They tried to change the style but it wasn't successful because the players in the squad then were already so used to playing in a certain way and couldn't change to a different style.

He's still scoring decent number of goals but not sure if it says anything that even none of the bigger clubs in Serie A have taken him from an average Torino side.

Declan Rice for the midfield area? Tomas Soucek? The attacking area is difficult because there's no clear target for the ST. Plus, don't think having one there is going to make a huge difference all of a sudden when the others can still feel rather lightweight.

His reputation as a player and his nationality will always be in his favor when it comes to getting jobs in the Premier League. If his playing style at Derby and here is anything to go by, then it could be a trainwreck at Palace considering they have so many old players there and are seemingly stuck in their pragmatic ways. Could end up like Frank de Boer's tenure.

Even then, going into the season with just TWO strikers is so risky, especially when you consider both of them will likely start a lot - and likely together - as well as form, potential injuries, suspensions etc.

I don't disagree with that notion but are we talking in the context of getting goals or what? Because you first mentioned the attacking areas and you now listed a bunch of midfielders.

I get the part about needing a recognized striker but Ivan Toney? Low cost or not, what makes you believe/think that he can make the step up from League One or Championship to the top end of the Premier League? This season is only his first season in the Championship and before this, he was playing at the lower level.

I agree that we need to be physically stronger in the forward areas but do we really need big physical men? Liverpool and Man City have shown that it's not compulsory at all. Sometimes I feel like we're still stuck with this old mindset that we need a big physical striker upfront to thrive, to play in a style that revolves around strikers like that. It's little wonder why the only strikers to have succeeded for us in the last 15 years or so are basically strikers in that mould - Drogba and Costa.

Think Werner has played in the front 3 in a 4-3-3 for Germany before? I believe he has played as one of two strikers in a back 4 for RB Leipzig. Also, where does Mount fit in a back 4 system if it's not going to be 4-3-3? Tuchel has come out and said he's not suited to the double six role and he's not a winger or a creative enough player for the #10 role. On top of that, none of our central defenders are really comfortable in a back 4. Rudiger and Christensen have done their best work in a back 3. Azpi can only play at CB if it's a back 3. Silva can play in a back 4 but he's getting older and playing him in a back 4 would expose him more.

How about winning all 3? Or just win the 3rd game?

No because everyone was/is more interested in the 'collapse' narrative.

If United are serious about challenging City for the title, then I'm not sure how realistic is it for them to rely on a 34-year-old and 19-year-old to spearhead that challenge. Given Kane's age, he might serve as perfect foil for those two and could be there long enough for Greenwood to gain experience and eventually take the #9 role.

Abraham + Cash for Kane? If Dortmund are demanding 150 million for Haaland, then am sure Levy will demand something similar for Kane, who still has 3 years left on his contract (so stupid of him to sign that long term contract). IIRC, was Modric not forced to stay at Spurs for like a season because they did not want to sell him to us and there weren't other offers? Can see something similar happen again this summer with Kane if no club are willing to spend that money. If no one are willing to spend 150m+ on Haaland, then it's unlikely they will do it with Kane, not when the effect of the pandemic is still being felt. If clubs wait for another season, they could likely get Haaland on a way cheaper price and for a longer term too.

Ivan Toney? Is this a serious suggestion or a sign of desperation? I don't think the price tag is the problem with Werner and Havertz. Don't recall anyone using their price tag to beat them with, even though Havertz is our most expensive signing. We just need to improve them and get more consistency out of them.

If the board put that on him, then there should be protests against them or something. Marina and co. are clearly still hoping for Kepa to come good because of the big money and/or contract (7 YEARS!) they committed to him. Tuchel has always played his #1 keeper in the cup competitions in the past but not the case here. Clearly been "pressurized" to play Kepa in the domestic cups.

How many times do we need to point out? Kepa may not have been blatantly at fault for the goal but having a top class keeper could have made a difference in that moment. That's why we have always started the #1 keeper in the latter stages of the competition in past years. Would you say this if James had gotten the pass right? Given our incessant tendency to just pass backward and sideways, seeing someone trying to pass it forward in that instance isn't necessarily the worst of ideas. Moreover, it's not like Perez didn't block it with his hand, accidental or not...

Similar thing also happened with Marco Rose at Gladbach. The mid-season manager changes were strange...

We just need to stick with the old kit for now! And I just realized earlier that the shorts look even worse than the shirt itself.

Would also add that James' pass wasn't a blatant error that led directly to a goal - e.g. playing a blind pass to a striker, who then scores from 1 v 1. It was still far away from goal and we should have done better to stop the goal. Heck, Jorginho's pass in midweek was way worse than James'.

Does anyone know if we're going back to the old one for Leicester and Villa? I know there's a possibility we might wear the new one against City...

Everton lost to a smaller team...again. They do well against the bigger/better teams but struggle against the smaller ones. This is why Ancelotti is a cup manager.

The point is, we have debuted the new kit in major cup finals. History says that doesn't go down well...

True but it doesn't change the fact that Kepa is bad at stopping shots from distance. Don't think anyone of us feels safe when he's in goal. The feeling is arguably worse than worrying our about the profligacy of our attackers down the other end. Shock or not, it doesn't mean the decision Tuchel made was the right one or people have to agree with it.