Reddish-Blue

I still don't get why we had to sign Kellyman from Aston Villa...there were other offers for Maatsen. I was expecting the club to at least get a decent squad player from Aston Villa, not a youngster that will likely play zero minutes for us. KDH was a Maresca signing, I don't think it's Maresca not trusting him, he just looks off the pace.

To be fair, with the way the PSR rules work, selling academy graduates is such an easy loophole. With Chalobah, what was the actual strategy in loaning him out....he's not a 20 year defender that will develop at Palace, he's already a squad player You either sell or keep him around as squad depth (unless Maresca wasn't a fan and wanted him out).

This has 1-1 or 1-0 to palace written all over it.

That's what happens when players aren't available in midfield or defense. Not saying its an excuse but we looked much better when Fofana/Badi were available at CB and Lavia was available in midfield. With the upcoming games, I get the feeling that the gap will only widen between us and the top PL teams. Maresca showed that he didn't have a plan B against Ipswich...every other team just has to follow the same game plan (1. mark Palmer and keep him near the center circle and 2. press our defense, especially Disaster at RB).

You forgot to add James (perma-crocked) and Chilwell (disappeared after that 1 appearance and part of permanent moving away squad). Put it this way, defense is the reason why we're likely to miss top 4 this season. Liverpool/Arsenal are well ahead of us, City will get it together.

I would think lack of quality in defense is more of a concern than our attack being a bit off-form. If Maresca continues to play Disasi in that RB/CB type role, we will continue to drop points. No point having young talent like Josh on the bench if he's not going to play, let him get some minutes on loan and develop for next season.

@Vesper what's your prediction for Gyokeres next move? Premier League or somewhere else as he's too good to be playing in Portuguese league.

He would have a choice of many clubs (rumors are that both Arsenal and City want him), there's like a 0.00001% chance of him moving to Chelsea. Felix is the definition of "wasted talent", maybe Mendes can help us out and offer him to Wolves? They seem to do better with Portuguese/Brazilian players.

We also had a relatively fit squad and players looking to prove a point earlier in the season... Will be interesting to see if Maresca can coach his way out of this slump

Under 24 policy? In that case, Disasi and Tosin shouldn't be at the club 😄

Tosin is fine as backup. Came on a free. I doubt the club went into the season thinking he would start so many games back to back, it was probably Fofana/Badi/Colwill to rotate and Tosin to fill in and play conference league.

It's a shame that our 2 best defenders appear to be made of glass (Fofana, James). Colwill's a good prospect but nowhere near ready to lead the defense, would be awesome to find a Cahill type who can slot into CB and calm them down a bit. I don't really get why we had Gusto and Acheampong on the bench, rather than one of them starting at RB? Disasi reminds me of Bakayoko, just a bang average Monaco player.

It's not a spark, not one of our attackers tried to take on their backline. We just kept recycling possession for 5 minutes, then give it to Palmer or Enzo and hope something would happen. Every time they won the ball off us, it was simple, get the ball forward as quick as possible and find Delap. The reason why we lost was because our players were complacent, sort of expecting Ipswich to make errors. That's the problem, not a single player wanted to take on their defense and give it a go. It was like, "yea we're happy to recycle possession even though we are down 2-0 at 60 minutes". Also, don't really understand why Disasi starts when you have Josh and Malo on the bench. And then you hear from Maresca in previous games, "Felix and Palmer can't really play together as it affects team balance" and yet he starts both of them today. I can see what Leicester fans were saying about Maresca last season, they said he's a good manager but also frustrating to watch as he doesn't want to adapt the style of play to the opposition, prefers to stick to possession.

This is what we should expect when players aren't available at CB and in midfield. Feel like people forget that Fulham let Tosin go on a free transfer and he's our starting CB right now and playing Disasi is like giving the opposition an extra player. It's a shame that Lavia got injured again as he could have helped keep Caicedo/Enzo fresh in this run of games.

Just be ready for some more 'ugly' results throughout January as we have a bad fixture list coming up. 🙃

You can't really consider Santos at this stage, he won't be back from his development loan till next season and Lesley's on loan at Southampton. So that leaves: KDH, Carney, Casadei....and to be honest, you wouldn't want any of them playing heavy minutes in midfield for Caicedo or Enzo. Will be interesting to see if the club goes out for reinforcements in January considering the injury concerns of Lavia, James, Fofana.

They'll definitely sign a new attacker in January, seems like their best shot to give it a go this season (especially with City looking mentally gone).

That's how Silva usually sets up though, keeps the impact subs ready to go for that 15-20 minute burst at the end of the game against tired legs. Feel like most of the PL sides would have learnt from that game where Wilson or whoever it was scored twice in injury time to get the points. Hopefully Maresca sorts it out as our January fixtures will be massive in terms of whether we keep pace for top 4 or not.

We don't have depth in midfield or defense as Lavia, Fofana and James spend 90% of their time in the treatment room. It will be an interesting end of the season as we look decent in most games but still off the pace against the more organised teams.

Seems like Newcastle have started clicking as well, Isak doing his thing. Think we're short in defense and midfield (particularly with Lavia's constant injuries).

If we don't invest in january, we may not get CL football next season. Feel like it's Liverpool, Arsenal, City then us or Newcastle for the 4th spot.

I like Guiu's energy up front and for a raw player, has the skills you want to see in a young striker.

Mudryk isn't being sold anywhere with the incoming ban and it would be stupid for the club to rely on a youngster with zero PL experience to be the backup RW option. I would have thought: Sancho on the left, Palmer/Nkunku/Felix through the middle, Neto and the Brazilian kid on the right.

It wouldn't be surprising, considering Pogba's original ban was 4 years, which then got reduced to 18 months by CAS. Think Sharapova (Tennis Player) had a drug related issue a few years back and it was a 2 year ban, which later got brought down to 15 months. The interesting part would be, if it is a long term ban (3+ years), would the club go down the path like Mutu and try to rip up Mudryk's contract?

Chilwell to make a rare appearance at LB and secure a transfer away from the club in January 😆