Today seemed to me to be about the possible 1st team against Arsenal playing the first 60 minutes or so and the rest of the squad getting some minutes in the latter part of the game.

Unfortunately Tyrick does get caught out a bit tucking in too narrow and leaving a man wide on the right. Happened quite a bit at the end of last season too.

We looked good going forward for the first 60 minutes, but I would not like to play the likes of Arsenal, Man City and Liverpool with that midfield.
Eze is a real talent but doesn’t track runners , Schlupp has a tendency to switch off and leave gaps which leaves us with Doucoure solely to provide the shield for the back four.
With that midfield a mobile opposition with runners could leave us very exposed.
To a certain extent this is down to Vieira wanting to play, in his words, with one number 6 and two number 8s in midfield.
This is commendable and adventurous and City and Liverpool play that way with Rodri and Fabhino in in the number 6 role , but these teams are at a different level to us.
I could see merit in us playing 2 holding midfield players which could really allow the likes of Zaha, Eze and Olise off the leash.

Its definitely surprised me that Luka has been as involved as he has been during pre season - he seems to have been included on pretty much every game in the squad that he travelled with -
I wondered at first if it was just shop window stuff to encourage a move for him but if that was the case as the start of the season approached surely he would have drifted out of sight to make way for someone that we were actually going to start the season with in that position - perhaps Luka has convinced PV that with a full preseason & any family issues behind him he is worth retaining his place in the squad even if he dosent continue as club captain (Mark was Captain yesterday which I thought was a solid move)

Worth noting that the friendlies are not played with the speed and intensity of a PL game. Luka has demonstrated that those games are a bit beyond him these days. Hughes alas is nothing special, a mere gap filler for McArthur who himself is in the twilight of his PL career.
I'm concerned about the options in midfield.

I doubt very much we'll get any points against Arsenal although I'm confident we'll do better this season. The elephant in the room in our preseason games especially against Millwall and Montpelier is our defence. I watched the game live in Australia against Montpelier and twice their goalscorer was left to himself. If we don't fix the defence we'll get butchered by Arsenal and many EPL teams. Having said that, I think PV had the preseason players more attack-minded for practice reasons and I expect things will be tighter in the true season. Positives: Doucoure looks good and Zaha and Eze are running on all cylinders. As we know, Palace can always surprise, and whilst the odds of beating Arse are very low, it is Palace! Arsenal feeling too confident about themselves and going gung-ho for goals suits Palace and the Arse could well end up with egg on their faces. Go Palace! Negatives: Oh and about Milo, as someone posted about him looking good, I didn't see any improvement. He consistently fouls, gets out-dribbled, loses challenges, and even if he manages not to stuff up, which he seldom does, he NEVER creates anything going forward. Not like Schlupp has, or even Ayew on occasions, and for Zaha's goal Eze created that chance. Hughes too: never creates, but just gets quick little passes in, never takes on and beats players, and while more skilful than Milo he gets knocked off the ball annoyingly a bit like little Johnny. Hughes looks like a primary kid playing with seniors. I was hoping he'd go to the gym this off-season and bulk-up but he looks as flimsy as ever. Aren't I cruel? Poor old Milo though - just too slow.

Edited by Oddball2021 (31 Jul 2022 11.24am)