Only part of the facts as you haven't explained why the early subs took place, so here we go:

1. The 67th min sub against Everton saw Olise brought on for his long-awaited first game of the season after his June injury. Had he been fully match fit, he would have started the game.

2. The 2 early 2nd half subs in the Luton game arose out of injuries to Eze and Doucoure - nothing tactical about those 2 subs.

3. The 29th min sub against Bournemouth was another injury related necessity (Mitchell).

4. The HT sub against Liverpool was yet another injury forced one (Edouard).

5. The 34th min sub at the Etihad was another injury forced one (Ward)

6. The 59th min sub against Brighton (Hughes) was the only earliish tactical one as I recall as Hughes was in danger of getting a 2nd yellow.

Take those out of the equation and the complaint about Hodgson leaving his subs till too late has merit. Interestingly, in his post-match presser yesterday, Hodgson said how often Palace struggle to hold on to leads in the last part of games. Hasn't he cottoned on to the fact that players getting tired in the final 20 minutes tend to make mistakes (Eze v Chelsea). Brentford got a second wind with their 5 subs on (think fresh legs for half the outfield positions) and had they taken the chances they should have done, we would have only drawn that game. During that spell when they pegged us back it was crystal clear that we needed fresh legs BUT Hodgson refused to budge until the 86th minute.

Until Hodgson starts to make earlier subs and tactical ones to counter the opposition manager's, we will continue to concede goals in the last 10-15 minutes of matches IMO.

Finally, as someone who sits in the Glaziers section of the main stand, I'm fed up of seeing the opposition players scoring those late goals to win or draw matches.

Edited by doombear (31 Dec 2023 11.22am)

Edited by doombear (31 Dec 2023 11.23am)

good points. Whilst clearly Roy is reluctant to make subs we need to also appreciate that our bench is pretty woeful.

From the 1st game v Sheff Utd i looked at the bench and other than maybe Mateta there was not an obvious choice to come on. That game he sent on Tomkins late on to cover for an injury.

A central midfielder is an obvious change as we have quite a few of them and it is a position that requires a lot of running. Other than than we have limited choices.

Other than maybe making a change after 60 to 70 minutes, i'm not sure what else Roy can do. We have no wingers who can inject pace or can enable us to switch to 442.

Hopefully Franca will get a game v Everton, because at the moment it appears Roy doesn't fancy him.

Yesterday Brentford with all their injuries still made 3 attack minded subs. When teams make 5 subs against us, let's be honest we haven't got 5 possibilities on our bench.

Edited by palace99 (31 Dec 2023 1.24pm)

Really? What are those players of ours doing sat on the bench then? In fact, why are they even at the club? Ahamada must be wondering why he's here for starters.
No, it's more to do with Hodgson not being willing to give these players game time, and when you are 2 goals to the good with 20 minutes left on the clock, and some outfield players are showing signs of tiring, it seems to me a good to introduce a few, with strict instructions naturally.

It's common sense. The Xmas / New Year period has fixtures piled up close together and therefore it makes sense to distribute the playing load to avoid burn-out. Hodgson doesn't seem to get it, hence we concede more often that not during the final 10 minutes of a game. In fact Brentford were unlucky not to have scored and we rode our luck during that latter period.

Edited by Palacesince64 (31 Dec 2023 1.37pm)
Maybe with Ayew off to ACON, Franca will get a bit more game time

Edited by Palacesince64 (31 Dec 2023 1.39pm)

I do understand your point, but you also have to accept we are woeful at defending high balls in to the box and also the fact remains Roy has limited options from the bench, as he does when selecting the starting 11 as really only 6/7 are true EPL standard the rest are just championship or lower at best, this should not be the case after 11 years in the EPL!