'winnable games' ??

We don't score or even shoot under Viera !!!

Seems to be two arguments for keeping Vieira in: the board are more to blame and we have ‘winnable’ fixtures coming up.

On the first point I totally agree however changing the manager when things are this awful is a lot easier than changing the board. It is football at the end of the day and we are in a relegation fight. Board backing or not we need to be winning, or at least show some evidence of being capable of winning football games, and for months now we have not.

On the second I am struggling to relax with the thought that the games we have played are a complete anomaly and all of a sudden we’ll start beating everybody else therefore come the end of season everything will be fine. You can’t just write of x proportion of games and shrink our season down to the playing of the bottom 8. It’s the PL every game has its own challenges.

PV does not seem to have any solutions to the problems we are seeing. We’re not even laying a glove on teams. He isn’t showing any signs of fight or aggression whatsoever and therefore the team are not either. We’re not getting near the opposition goal, constantly rotating players, bizarre starting XIs and most importantly losing games of football. Not a ‘wartime’ manager. If we’d of lost, I don’t know, 1-4 yesterday but gave it a real go and just succumbed to city’s trillionaire bought quality I’d of seen that more positively. To bring a manager in to revolutionise the Royball existence only to play an inferior version of it seems insane.

It’s a grim grim time to be a palace fan. There’s literally nothing to cheer about. I don’t see the point in saying ‘tough run’ and ‘we need to/ should have spent £500mil on players’. True or not I want to go each weekend with some belief and for us to stay in the PL, I’m not and I can’t see where the argument for PV being the man is coming from? It almost seems dogmatic and delusional to keep holding a candle to a manager who is breaking records with our terrible performances. The players also look to have lost all belief too and that for me is most damning as our fate lies in their hands.

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

Assuming we don't get more than a point out of the next two, which is incredibly likely given we haven't beaten any of the top 10 in our 16 games against them so far this season, the Leicester game feels like the pivotal one.

If we lose to Leicester, we would then have two away games against the current bottom 2 - Leeds away is the kind of atmosphere we'd absolutely fold in. We have won away ONCE this season. By the time he's back at Selhurst on the 22nd we could be the favourites to drop.

Lose to Leicester, especially with our recent pathetic lack of intent, I think the crowd vocally turns. If the club don't already have someone lined up as a plan B then we are even more mismanaged than I thought.

26th January 2010 - Enter Administration
2nd May 2010 - D-Day 1 - Survival at Hillsborough
1st June 2010 - D-Day 2 - Survival at Lloyds
7th June 2010 - CPFC2010 exchange contracts.

At risk of repeating myself Re other Viera threads, he couldn't do it with NYCFC in a league where he had the likes of Pirlo, Lampard & Villa at his disposal & the bonus of not having to worry about the threat of relegation.

Pro USA & Israel

Good points. Have to say I’ve not been impressed by PV since the start of this season and I’ve said many a time he needs replacing. The balance of the team due to his selections have been awful. But until the World Cup stoppage we picked up enough points somehow to look safe. However, since the restart and perhaps the Forrest match before the WC our performances have been even worse and team selections plus subs coming on has left me confused. And I do agree with you, it would be mad to sack PV after the Leicester match if all goes wrong. It should have been weeks ago in my opinion like Everton have done. Now we stick with him and hope that finally having two central midfielders in Dacoure and Lakonga that the balance will give us enough points to stay up. It again relies on PV getting the team selection correct and this worries me greatly :-(

Great post Mate..

For me it’s the constant rotation and the baffling starting XI’s.

It’s a bit like a Sunday kids team - he hasn’t played for a few weeks so I’ll give him a game - yesterdays example Milo who I noticed was even given the captains armband - what’s that all about..?? Noticed PV does the same with Ward when he’s on the pitch..!!

Make Guehi captain and stick with it..!!

Carrying on the Sunday kids XI analogy - Schlupp and Ayew are like the Managers son’s - neither good enough but every time they’re fit and available they play to the bewilderment of everyone else..!!

All joking/tongue in cheek aside - this ain’t no laughing matter - it’s getting serious and things have got to change and change quickly starting with Brighton away on Wednesday - this could be the perfect fixture/catalyst for us - if you’re a Palace Manager/Player and you can’t get up for Brighton away you shouldn’t be wearing the shirt..!!

Look defensively we look fairLy solid - midfield prior to yesterday was showing signs of looking much better - Doucoure back for Brighton I’d go Doucoure, Lakonga and Hughes if fit.

Up front it’s Olise and Zaha plus one - I’d probably go Edouard - but again stick with it don’t keep rotating..!!

I know I was calling for a fluid front 3 including Eze with Zaha and Olise - but that didn’t seem to work to well last time - but maybe worth revisiting/trying again.

I watched Bournemouth vs Liverpool yesterday and Bournemouth were up for it full of energy, endeavour and running - everyone knew/understood their role..!! Billing looks a player BTW..!!

That’s what Palace need from now until the end of the season desire, commitment and organisation from “1 to 11” ..!!

To achieve that get your/our best players on the pitch, playing to a plan and structure and stick with it..!! I’m sure if we do that the results will come and with the remaining fixtures allied to the quality in our squad compared to others around us we’ll be fine..!!

Keep tinkering, chopping and changing there could be trouble ahead..!!

On PV - there is an argument he should go - after all he’s responsible for selection, formation, tactics etc.. And there is many a Club/Chatman out there that would’ve pulled the trigger by now..!!

But realistically who else is out there to replace him with Lampard, Gerrard - an older head as a stop gap..??

Or do we do as Arsenal did, stick with it, get through the bad times and reap the benefit of/for perseverance further down the line..!!

Here’s to things improving - and what better way to start than a win at Amex.!!

COYP

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