Of course we can dream - if we can beat the Foxes we’re still riding high but this is Palace I fully expect to slip into the mid table.

Thing is we’re not really firing up front so we’d have to continue grinding out wins rather than outplaying teams. Nowt wrong with that approach unless you’re a football purist.

Maybe the confidence from our league position will allow Roy to play a ball player in midfield or lift our attack- we could be a decent team if we had more balance.

I am of the same opinion.
I do believe that supporters who are thinking of Europe are getting a tad carried away.
Then again I am a bit of a doomster and often speak about our prospects in sepulchral tones.

With this statistical analysis I presume you are supporting my statement Willo?

Top 6 have a depth in squad and spend some money on players, we have neither of these attributes. I know our limitations and mid table is an achievement for us.

We could unearth 11 gems through our youth structure and we would sell the lot...

It was definitely a position based on few fixtures played and some 1-0 wins. The overall attacking possibility of both Palace and Sheffield is very low and they will not stay in those positions for long (see how much they've scored- much less than the others). It's no fluke that Leicester scores great goals the way it does, it's not an accident when you score 9 in a match. They have players like Vardy, Maddison, Tielemans, Ayoze Perez, Harvey Barnes, Demarai Grey ensuring at least 70 goals a season. That gets them points. They've successfully replaced the Title Generation with Mahrez, Okazaki, Albrighton, Kante, Drinkwater, Fuchs. Last mohican is Vardy. Good for them, we could learn something about doing transfers. Many of their players are even young and will further develop.

I'd put the following teams ahead of Palace:
Top tier level: Liverpool/ Man City

Champions League battle: Chelsea, Arsenal, Leicester, Tottenham

Assured mid-table: Man Utd, Everton, West Ham (because they have a lot of good players who WILL score eventually), Bournemouth, Brighton (awesome manager there, took a team with 30% possession last year and made it one of the best teams in the PL, also promoting strikers like Connolly and Maupay)

Relegation worries: the 3 newly promoted (Aston Villa, Norwich, Sheffield)+ 6 from the last PL season: Wolves (though most would say it's surprising that I nominate them, they'll probably be mid-table, they remind me of West Brom's playing style which eventually saw the get relegated), Watford (will certainly start gathering points cause they have a quality squad with Ismaila Sarr, Roberto Pereyra, Andre Gray, Welbeck) but it remains to be seen how many, Southampton, Burnley (hate their style), Newcastle (such a s*** display everytime) and Crystal Palace.

I would have thought that having Zaha one more year is a guarantee for staying up, but his head seems to be somewhere else. A disappointing season for him so far and the team doesn't have attacking players with the right mind condition to strive going forward. Only Jordan Ayew is a goalscorer in this start of the season and I'm not sure how long he can keep it up. Without goals, there will more 0-0 results rather than 1-0 wins. 1 point meanwhile other teams gather 3.

The danger has not passed yet, there is still a long time to go. Definitely a battle between 9 teams with 3 going to fall. The horrendous transfer windows in the last years are what brought kept the club stagnating and it's very difficult to envision a future in which the club will bring capable players after Zaha leaves. This year's Camarasa and McCarthy disasters are also not contributing at all. Multi-million salary Meyer and Benteke are not the right thing to take the club in the Top 10 either and Schlupp is still being used as midfielder even though his feats are questionable. That's about 6 attacking players that Palace uses, with Zaha and Townsend also out of form! Future looks grimm

Edited by mattteo (03 Nov 2019 6.54pm)

The flesh blood wont be Roy's replacement. PVA and Schlupp shouldnt be anywhere near a football pitch and that's the tip of the iceberg with our squad.

We have not one player that we can call a decent striker, yet it is still Roy's fault. If he didnt know how to organise the defence then we would be in the bottom 3 as we stand. With our current squad it will be a brilliant achievment just to stay in this division.