Not necessarily. If he did, he should have done the same in the last 2 games. My guess is players like Dann and Ward 'explained' to the team what this game means to the fans.

I would not be averse to this.

Despite my comments on here of late, I was the 'Roy-in' person getting all the flak amongst my matchday clique for the first couple of years.

I don't mind sitting quite defensively and playing on the counter attack, I am quite accustom to this with Palace and I'd like to think realistic of what we could expect and what I did like about the Roy early years is that sometimes that plan worked and happy days, some days it did not and c'est la vie - but you knew what to expect from the team and invariably saw anything other than BAU.

My concern of late has been that is has not been working so well for us and we've seen a few number of 'cave ins' as you say but more to the point games we are not even competitive in, that's hard to take. When Royball previously worked it was worthy of a villainous cackle but more recently it has looked more like dumb luck if anything, last night being a prime example.

Of course I would like to see a more 'progressive' style of football but I don't think that is on the cards. We need to improve our squad however we move forward that is surely unquestionable but the last year or so, in spite of being OK on paper, has been worrying for me in terms of performances with us looking unstable at the back, uninformed going forward with less and less surety about what we to expect from the team.

At our worst we've been awful and there has been something uneasy about most our wins and to take football to its most purest form for me, I rarely look forward to our games, which I had always done previously including with Roy.

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

I'm not sure if I buy that. I mean look at West Ham this season. Pragmatic manager, who has given the cold shoulder to most of their flair players, got some old bruisers down the spine and plays pretty direct, but are flying, and I doubt any West Ham fans would be complaining about the style.

They've benefitted IMO though by a lot of luck in not having serious injuries to key players. We on the other hand have been ridiculously unlucky with injuries in every season Roy has been here. It seems there isn't a month where half our squad isn't on the treatment table.

I also think we did try and play more progressively this season by having two up top and buying Eze and the Bat. We took a risk in being lighter in the middle and having someone who doesn't track back, but it's left us so open that we've been battered regularly in games. We played 3 in the middle yesterday and looked a lot more solid, certainly first half.

I'm on the fence with Roy, but I would like to see what he could do in a season if half our team wasn't crocked. If we could put out a regular 11 for the majority of the season I think we could push for Europe, but with this squad, it's a fantasy to think some of them could play more than two games in a row!

If punk ever happened I'd be preaching the law, instead of listenin to Lydon lecture BBC4

There is a huge amount to be said for seeing what Roy can do with everyone fit (or better players available, same thing really), and I agree that he hasn't had that.

Even if we didn't get better players than this lot, I accept there might be a bit more that can be done within the envelope of 'anti-football' than we are doing at present, but not much. I reckon that if we had a different conservative coach then, even if he made some improvements without making major changes, given time the same complaints would arise. Allardyce and Pulis didn't stick around long enough for us to test that here, but we know from Stoke, Middlesbrough, Newcastle, Everton and West Ham that both always end up facing the same criticism from their own fans as Roy gets from ours. I think anti-football, regardless of its brand, is much of a muchness in the end.

Moyes West Ham team last year (and in his first time at the club) were very dour, hence West Ham letting him leave and the discontent of their fans when he returned.

This year they have changed style rather than refined it I think. That's a difficult thing for many clubs to do once they get set in a certain way of playing, but West Ham have are much more of a pressing side now I think, much more on the front foot. When he fist came back, Moyes spoke at length about needing to get not necessarily better players in, but certainly more athletic ones so they could break faster but also press, which they haven't had the players to do in years. His logic was that you only need two or three who aren't up to it and you just can't play that way. He obviously had the plan in mind to make the change in style, and the club bought Soucek who is brilliant, and Coufal, and Benerahma, but as you say, it's more who he been able to leave out that has made the change possible I think. Lanzini was highly rated but doesn't get a game now, Fornals plays sometimes but is now replaced by Lingard. Anderson was massively expensive but Moyes binned him, Yarmolenko and Haller too.

I'd put West Ham in the category of having changed their ways more than a subtle evolution, and they could only do that once they had the players in every position to do it.

Could we do that? Apparently the Telegraph thinks we are only retaining four of the out of contracts, will buy four new players, and loan two. WHio exactly, and what style that might facilitate is not speculated upon!

Our lack of speed at the back and in midfield dictate the limits of what we can do. We aren't able to press the opponents in the same way as many of the teams in our league, nor can we afford to play a high line because the balls over the top would destroy us.

I think that to be fair to Hodgson, these limitations allied to his natural cautious approach dictate how he can set us up. Each year our players have got slower and slower and so we find ourselves defending deeper and deeper. This is not going to change until we get some younger, quicker players in those areas.

Are you sure? Read it again!

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