I always have wondered if he had indeed turned the ship, we certainly battered Burnley that day

I have no obsession with Derry, and certainly would not give him the managers job full time, But, with the players we have, in my opinion, would have done a better job than PV in the short term, dont misunderstand me, i think PV is utterly hopeless at a club our size.

“That’s a joke son, I say, that’s a joke.” “Nice boy, but he’s sharp as a throw pillow.” “He’s so dumb he thinks a Mexican border pays rent” “ “Son… I say, son, some people are so narrow minded they can look through a keyhole with both eyes.”__ Forhorn Leghorn

His managerial career after us showed he deserved no more games. Woeful manager.

This perfectly sums up the current situation with PV. His experiences as a player naturally lead him to want to play the game in a flowing, stylish passing style and with the teammates he had that was possible. The current Palace squad doesn’t have that amount of quality. A few players are capable of it, but not enough.

The board will not or cannot recruit enough high quality players as yet. Arguably it’s unfair of them to employ PV with instructions to completely change the way of playing without providing him sufficient resources to do so. Until they can or enough high standard young players graduate from the academy to add to the squad then surely a more realistic and pragmatic approach needs to be adopted, at least until safety from relegation is assured each year. Nobody wants to see a return to full Royball with 11 men behind the ball all game, even when at home to the bottom club. But then trying to play like Barcelona at their peak when you have players constantly mis-placing passes and losing possession while trying to walk the ball into the net is also not feasible, especially attempting to do so against the top teams. But the big question is does PV have that amount of tactical flexibility in his repertoire and how long is he given before the panic button is pressed and yet another short-term ‘firefighter’ manager is brought in to save the day and the club is back to square one yet again?

Ideally yes. But to reach the level required you need to ram home one tactic for each player so their acutely honed muscle memory gets them through. Deviations from that mean more flexibility but the quality falls below that required at elite sport level.

American football has a solution. A cast of thousands and effectively different specialist team for each scenario within the same game. Football does not have that luxury.

Yet.

He brought in Riedewald with the intention of either playing him in a back three or in midfield.

He played in over 90 games, in all competitions, for Ajax, before joining our club.

Edited by Willo (07 Feb 2023 2.24pm)