Target 83 points!

Vera, you are picking one game in isolation, look at the overall picture. You know as well as everyone else that DF does not play a settled team.

If I had the inclination to go through all the games that DF has been in charge of, which I haven't, I would guess that he hasn't kept the same team more than twice, probably not even that.

To be honest, I don't know what you are getting at with that remark. Surely your not saying he knows his best team and plays them as regularly as he is able?

Err...not picking anything, SWIE.

Just asking if he rotated when he was Palace manager. I don't remember anyone mentioning it.

He did have a bit of a reputation for it. Palace fans were divided though on whether that was him or the influence of Lennie.

Thank you, WF.

That was easy, wasn't it?

There's no evidence to support that we will win any games at all ...let alone all of them.
We have the worst away record in the division ...that's a fact. At home we should win or draw most with the odd loss. That's the best you can hope for. So figure out the max points from that.

I am far more worried about staying up than I am about promotion for reasons I've already stated.

I don't think it matters WHO the manager is there's clearly an issue with quality and confidence in far too much of the playing staff.

Frankly this club needs a complete top down reorganisation and we need to lose the idea that we are a premiership team playing below our level fast.

I know that DF rotates a lot but I don't think that makes any real difference either. I would only keep a few of the current playing staff on and try to replace the rest ASAP either by promoting from the youth/reserve setup (if practical) or by buying/loaning new players as cheaply as possible.

I'm aware that can't be done in one fell swoop of course but I suspect we will need to do it over the next three years or so if we're ever going to be a genuinely competitive premier league side again.

I hope, truly hope that I am wrong and that I wind up with egg on my face come season's end but we're sixteenth now and in my opinion we won't be in the top twelve come May much less the top six.

Vera, yes there have been Palace fans on this board saying he tinkered with the team. The fact is they were and are in a good position, we aren't.

I'm sorry, I misunderstood the question, I thought you might have been referring to when we played Palace at Palace.

Thought I'd read that one of Freedman's first jobs at Palace was to stop them leaking goals and once he'd sorted that out he turned the attention to sorting the attack out which got them where they were when he arrived here.

I will therefore reserve Judgement on the merits of Dougo's system till this time next year.