You could be accused of hyperbole in referring to our ‘defensive woes.’
We have a -1 goal difference which is better than it has been for some time and we have never been in danger of taking an absolute trashing.
Mitchell and Guehi are enjoying fine seasons and, prior to Christmas, Ward had looked very solid.
I understand that you have a problem with Anderson and accept he is not a Dann nor a Cahill.
While he is not a dominant old school defender he is critical to the way Vieira wants to play and he is an adept passer of the ball from the back.
There will be a mistakes made , but the key question is whether the benefits outweigh the detriments?
Insofar that our defensive record is comparatively good and that we are attempting to play constructively I would argue that the answer to that is yes.

I guess that sometimes we need to look at it from the Players point of view.
Their objective was to win the game - and they did.
Would they have preferred to play better and win more easily - I am sure that they would.
I suspect that a lot of used to play at one level or another and frankly those horrible games when you won ugly were great games to play in.
Maybe it is different at the professional level but nonetheless, while I have been critical of last nights performance, we did do what was asked of us.

We did indeed.

Did just enough, we are through, no injuries, plenty in the tank for the next game... and would you have bet on the scorers!

We have conceded 13 goals from set-pieces, we are vulnerable at crosses and we look far from convincing at the back.

I welcome the constructive approach and understand the way in which Vieira wants to play but from a personal perspective I am disappointed in the way in which we defend and get a tad nervous whenever we concede a corner or a free kick in wide areas.

Just for a bit of perspective:

Middlesborough are 8th in the Championship, just 3 points ahead of Millwall and took a lacklustre Tottenham side to school last night who are now out of the cup, after extra time.

We beat 'wall in the last round, put in a lethargic and uninspired performance against Stoke, on the proverbial wet Tuesday night, and still managed to go through despite the minimal effort.

I agree entirely with many of the negative comments on here however I am reluctant to read too much into it. I've seen many a very good Palace performance, especially in recent years, which have still left us languishing around the relegation zone and non-competitive in cup competitions.

I am at this stage unwilling to contribute to any criticisms or pessimism given the status quo. We ourselves are still far from the finished article and I would rather be a (working) work-in-progress than constantly changing managers or spending masses of money on players who appear to be failed mercenaries at best, take your pick: Watford, Everton, Man U, Spurs, Newcastle etc etc.

Cheer up fellas, tis not all doom and gloom at the Palace right now! I will always harbour anxiety around impending doom, whether imagined or realistic, however feel we are a lot further from this atm then seasons past. Posted similar sentiments recently so apologies for a repeat performance if that is the opinion.

COYP

Now Zaha's got a bit of green grass ahead of him here... and finds Ambrose... not a bad effort!!!!

Our main defensive problem is that we are too slow to play out from the back and this allows our defenders to be pressed which in turns leads to mistakes and like it or not this has cost us points this season. The passing success last night was woeful at times and we seem at best to get three quarters of the way up the pitch, then run out of ideas, ending up with us pushing the ball backwards, until it reaches our keeper, then for the process to re-start all over again. I do believe that we have now become more predictable making it easier for opposition coaches to counter our one dimensional game plan. Last night we did not have one shot on target in the first half and that is statistic that is repeated week on week much too often.