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With the price of just about everything going up during inflation, we thought we'd bring our prices down. So to help us, we brought in a reverse auctioneer, which is apparently a thing. Mid Mobile Unlimited, premium wireless! Get 30-30, get 30, get 30, get 20-20, get 20-20, get 20-20, get 15-15, 15-15, just 15 bucks a month. So, give it a try at midmobile.com/switch. $45 up from payment equivalent to $15 per month, new customers on first three month plan only, taxes and fees extra, speeds lower above 40 gigabytes of detail. At Sierra, discover great deals on top brand workout gear, like high quality bikes, which might lead to another discovery. Oh! Oh! Getting back in the saddle isn't always comfortable. Good news is, Sierra has massage guns. Ahhh! And shape wipes, too. Discover top brands at unexpectedly low prices. Sierra, let's get moving. [Music] Hello, and welcome to the five-year plan, Podgres. It's our second part of the week episode, question time. It's time to answer your questions on a range of Crystal Palace subjects. Joe Walker is here. Joe, happy Thursday, how you doing? Well, good thanks, JD, how are you? Not too bad, thank you, not too bad at all. And I'm delighted to say, after his return at the start of the week, Kevin Day is back again. Kevin, welcome to the question time part of the Pod, how are you? I'm surprisingly similar to how I was when we stopped recording the first part of the Pod, because that's not much. I've maintained my equilibrium in two days since we... That Wednesday flies by, doesn't it? Doesn't it just when you've got... When you're still on a high from the one before it, and you've got the anticipation of another one to come. It's just lovely. I'm in the same close, I've enjoyed it so much. It's just amazing. We've got questions on a range of subjects. The first one, though, Kevin, is for you. This is the earliest you've ever been asked. It's from Dudley Davenport. I think you know where this is going. Has Kevin got his piece of paper yet? Surely not. I mean, Dudley, you'll see in occasionally the old sitcoms when somebody says, "I have a little piece of paper in it." The big concertina comes out of it. That's what it would be like if I had my piece. I actually felt a bit guilty last season, because I thought I'd left it too late to do the piece of paper. And it was part of me that was thinking, "No, we don't need a piece of paper." "No, we do. We definitely need a piece of paper." But I can't tell you how much fun it was. It's just going win, win, win. And looking at my predictions again, when I'd got draw, win, win, I don't think, frustrating as the start has been, there's not one part of me that thinks will be involved in the race. And I'm not saying that Oliver Glasner will be our manager that keeps us up, because this is a club you can't predict what's going to happen on a daily basis. But I don't think we'll be involved in a relegation battle at all. The frustrating caveat to that is that I genuinely thought this season we would be, they laughed at me on talk sport. Andy Jacobs is arguably more of an e-or than I am. When he talked about my ambitions for the season, I said, "I just want to be safe in October rather than March." And he just said, "You'll be top eight top." So there is that frustration that I didn't think we'd be in this situation. But I generally, in the 70s and 80s, there were no clubs that were too good to go down. But I just think the way modern football is, we've got a better squad. We'll buy better players in January. We're better than three teams in that league. It's just frustrating that it's only just into October. And we're already having that conversation. - Yeah, the honeymoon period sort of ended really quickly. I think whatever happens, and we do have questions about the manager. I'm going to ask them now, and that's really early for that. But people are asking them, so it's only fair to ask you guys the questions. But whatever happens this season, we are a club that if they need to pull the trigger, they will pull the trigger. So we will stay up, but it might well be that we have a change of manager again, or we have a big transfer window. Whatever trigger needs pulling, they pull it. - Yeah, and I think as well, we'll all agree that this is, if you're a Rottsdale fan listening to this, or a Mansfield fan, or an AFC woman with a fan, we'll have the world's smallest violin out, because we are in the middle of our best period ever, as Palace fans, and I think that will continue. And we're wary of doing what other clubs have done, and demanding European football, but it just would be nice to have a season off where you win the first game. I mean, and who knows, as well, if that essay go on and been disallowed first game, we'll be played, again, we played really well in two spells either side of half-time against Brentford. If we'd won that, who know? The only game I think that we've been terrible pretty much all game is West Ham, which is disappointing, but we've shown some really good spells in every game. It's just that, you know, he hasn't found that right, that right combination yet, whereas the team was virtually picking itself last season. He's having to work a lot, and I think he will, and Kettie will start scoring goals. I think that's the big thing to resolve is where Commander plays, and he's got to pick one between him, then Kettie and Matetta to start. I don't think I was-- - Unsurprisingly, we did a lot of questions on Commander. But really quickly though, last season, that's the quickest your piece of paper has come out and gone back in your pocket, surely. - Last season was a record. - That was literally about a week, wasn't it? - Last season, at one stage, I generally, after two weeks, I was looking for something in my pocket, probably my senior person's real card. I don't know, JD, before you-- - It's your own punchline. - I was looking for something in my pocket, and I thought, what's this? And it's my piece of paper. I hadn't updated it, 'cause I didn't need to in the year-- - Oh, glorious. - In the euphoria, really, it was great, it's like, I don't care what the other teams have done, I don't have to write down what Lester have done, 'cause-- - It was a great 10 weeks for the first time, wasn't it? Do you know what, the only downside to finishing above Brighton was learning that Kieran Maguire, my partner on the price of football, he's a Brighton fan, I put a hundred quid on Palace to finish above Brighton in January. That just ruined it for me. I was just like-- - I get it, though. Emotional insurance. - It's wrong. Hedging bits are that, it's wrong, but the fact that we finished above Brighton in the end, which I don't think went that remarked upon outside our circle, that was fantastic at the end of last season, and I think they will get a spell like that again, this season, I'll change anything. - I believe so as well, I do think they will, and again, I mean, I remember Dom saying on the preseason pod class, and the team started the season slowly, we talked in early in the week, we started the season slowly, I can think it will, but having said that, Joe, Martin Sidwell says, "How long?" I'm Martin, "How long does Glasgow get?" Before you answer that question, I'll read Devon O'Mara's question. Hello, Devon. Just for argument's sake, who do we call in January, February, if we're looking at relegation trouble still, I hope that Roy has blocked the admin's phone number. (laughing) But he has put in brackets, I don't think we'll be in trouble by then, so it's purely hypothetical. What do you think, Joe? Are they likely to pull the trigger early? Do you think he gets more time because of last season? Just looking on historical precedent, it's normally around, if we're near the bottom three or in the bottom three around Christmas time, that tends to be where feet get itchy in the board of directors. I, it's anything before that, I think Glenn has earned a little bit of time. I'm looking at the fixtures ahead in the league, certainly, and you've got, obviously live for a home Saturday, then it's Forest of Way who are, have started okay, but, you know, that's, it's not, I'm not going to write off that game or something, we can't, they lost a home to Fulham at the weekend as well. - Yeah, yeah. - Exactly. Spurs at home after that, then it's Wolves of Way who are the sort of low form team of the Premier League this season, virus outbreak, really struggling, Fulham at home after that, Villa Away, Newcastle United, and then it's into December. There are fixtures there to pick up points, and it's not all of them, and you know, that's the Premier League, it doesn't really work like that. I'd be concerned if having, you know, it would, it might feel a lot worse than it is if we don't pick up points against Liverpool Forest and Spurs, and suddenly it's November, and we still haven't won, but, yeah. It's changed, the points we have got this season have been against some of the better sides in the division in Chelsea. - Yeah, yeah. - So, it's, who knows? I don't, there's not hopelessness in our performances across the games, so I trust in the manager to get it right eventually, but, you know, I can totally sympathise with fans that was just because of who we are as a club, Anakin, if we start heading into deep October, November, and it's more, more results that we're on the wrong side of. - The difficulty is, I mean, it's, again, cliche alert, it's a, it's a results business. There are, there are people we know in various WhatsApp groups, some of whom do it, for mischief, who do point out, that we are, we are 15% into the, into the season, yeah. But this is a conversation we wouldn't be having. If we had one win, you know, say if we'd be in Brentford's first day of the season, and then the results would have the same, we wouldn't be having this conversation. - We'd be 14th, Kevin, if we had one one. We had two extra points, it would be 13th. - Yeah, and we'd be, we'd be joking about, we'll, we'll finish 12th again, et cetera, et cetera. The only thing is, as, as we mentioned before, you know, Frank de Boore is the president. I think it depends on the performance. I don't think any of us are expecting three points against Liverpool, Albeit, Albeit, whatever we prefer, wolves really push them hard. And as Joe said, there's a struggling wolves team, they really push the Liverpool hard. I think it's the nature of the performance. I think it's the way we start against Liverpool, to tell us what makes the difference. My one worry is when it comes to second guessing what Steve Parrish will do, is that there's an international break. Because you kind of think if there's a time to panic, that might be the time when you go, actually that performance wasn't right. We can always say, well, he seems to have lost suggestion. I don't, I don't think this will happen, but an international break is the time to do it. And then the other worrying thing, as we said before, we always go in cycles. So you know, whatever happens, you know, if the new owners come in and sat Sean Deich, I would put money on Sean Deich being our next manager because that's how we go. We go continental, solid, safe pair. And that's why I think so many people over the weekend look around starting, you know, the two and two, had David Moyes, you know, people go, well, who's out of a job? Who fits the Palace profile? David Moyes and Roy Hudson. And I don't think even Steve Parrish would risk bringing Roy back for us, which is no disrespect to Roy. So I wouldn't be surprised if at some stage of the season we do have an international, you just, again, I hope that's not the case. And I hope they do look at it in a much more long term strategic way, but we need to stay in the Premier League. That's our priorities, always our priority, because the free clubs that get relegated aren't always coming back. - Yeah, no, I agree. I wouldn't be surprised, I don't think it would happen, but I wouldn't be surprised given the nature of the Premier League. Also, I'm trying to think, I can't think of anybody in any of my WhatsApp groups that wind people up for fun. I just can't. - It's amazing, isn't it? - I don't know, you don't think of any. - You'd think when they had a fairly high-powered job that takes them into court, and like you'd think they'd get enough of the-- - And like arguing, it's like, they like their job. - Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. - But I just can't, none to beat the mind, but maybe we're gonna pop up later. - I've never used the wind-up fish emoji as much as I use it. 'Cause certain people in various WhatsApp groups don't seem to realise that certain people are doing it just to annoy them, and it works. - Yeah. - It does the popcorn emoji, I think, I'd be in that one. - Just in the same way, you'd be amazed to find out on a podcast like yours. There are people that still think Roy Holton is the best manager in the world, and the worst thing we ever did was to get rid of him, and simply won't listen to any of it, but that wouldn't happen in his day, I think. - No, I mean, he's definitely the best podcast guest in the world, I would say. - He's great, wouldn't he? - Yeah, he was great. Let's, Joe, let's go on to Kamala then, and I would love one week for Kamala. This is a bit like Max Mayan back in the day. I'd love for one week for Kamala not to be a subject, but unfortunately, why he keeps getting picked in midfield, and the performances keep happening, he will be. My own personal opinion is that I think he's slightly being done dirty by the manager a little bit, 'cause I don't think it's a natural position for him. I think he's being set up to fail a little bit by the manager, but Joe, I'll put some questions to you from our listeners. Max made you grave, made you grave, oh my God, they're very wrong towards Matthew Gray. Kamala came not capital letters, play sentiment field, doesn't work, has surely got to play caliber and lerma in central midfield, I think we said that earlier in the week. Son John Rakhanov, Kamala needs to be off the bench, I'm not starting at all, would be an interesting option off the bench, actually. And Jackie Cole, all right, Jackie, I never thought I'd be wanting huge back in midfield from the start, but you can see Jackie's point, Joe, 'cause that would add more balance alongside a Wharton. - It must be very tempting, given the how results have panned out for the manager, despite the investment I imagine he's called upon and has, you know, players that he's brought in, to try and revert to as close as that's starting 11 that we had at the end of the season as possible, you know? So that's, that's, if I'm your client, there's the first center half as the, and then you've got, you know, and that would be Will Hughes alongside Adam Wharton in midfield, played very regularly in that running and didn't let us down at all, can count himself quite unlucky, sitting on the bench, watching, quite disorganized, not quite settled, midfield pairing over the last couple of games now. Commoders, without the context of an existing relationship and trust from Glasgow and Commada from previous work together, you know, I think most other managers without that context may have taken them out by now, whether that is just out for tactical reasons or as because of the growing support or opinions on him and the debates that we're having, may we take them out of the firing line almost? We're approaching that point already, which can't be good for him as a player of any way. I don't think his performances in midfield have been marked to be better than they were on the right of the, you know, alongside Ezra. Equally and Kettir, yes, a lot more money spent on him has played about the same there for, for, for Palace, just, you know, equally both of them I'd rather see elsewhere. For me, I'm still, maybe I'm holding on to just this idea that I think Commada is ideal player, position on the pitches where Edward Chezer is. And, you know, we're not very likely to see that unless there's a knock or a glazna makes a big call in dropping a forward player. Currently all the big calls I feel like from glazna have been back in Commada and starting in midfield. And if he does it again on Saturday, you know, it's a major, major call, one that camera that Commada is going to have to back with a sort of very strong performance without these caveats of, gave the, you know, a bit sloppy in possession, but there were moments, I think most people can agree, it's quite technical. He's decent on the ball, but there's a lot more going on in a Premier League midfield battle across 90 minutes. And he only has to have a hiccup once and he has got one in him and we're getting caught. The idea of him coming on as a substitute, it's interesting, I think the West Ham game he started from the bench and sadly it's him coming on and then we look a lot loose in midfield and we could see the goal. So maybe glazna doesn't see him as that option where perhaps that might be for now the best place for him. You know, in terms of general squad depth, that's a pretty good player to have to bring on in the number of positions in theory. But given the other midfield options that we have, a Will Hughes or even a Jefferson lemma, I think compliment Adam Water much more, particularly the water we're seeing so far. So, yeah, that's where I'd be wanting to see the change in the short term, certainly ahead of Saturday. Shaleva was mentioned by one of those questions and I think with an extra week, you will see, I think you will see him coming to the team sooner rather than later. I think Saturday maybe just came a few days too early, but after that Liverpool game, as you said, Kevin, the international break, there's something like 16 games, 16 days until our following fixture after that, because Forest was a Monday night. So, I think we'll see a very different team after international break, presumably still, with class and a charge, but I think you'll see a lot more. That, I think almost a day of sake, the season starts there in quotations, you know, that's a cliche, but. - There's a couple of things I'd like to pick up. I think Chelsea fans see Shaleva more as a centre back than a midfield. I mean, he's got the versatility to play in both roles. I doubt conversation, J.D., we heard about how he's saying, "Don't sense bollocks to say hard, disagree." I don't think Glasgow's setting up to fail. I think Glasgow likes him too much. I think if anything, he's putting him in centre midfield to protect him, because whoever plays wide on the right is just going to get 90 minutes of what he's not a lise, is he? - Yeah. - It's as simple as that. And whoever that is, you could bring in the second best player in the world, and he still wouldn't be as good as a lise, the way he played last season. I think Glazner just clearly loves him. I just think he wants to find a space for him in the side, and if he's got to start in Kettia, as he seems to want to start in Kettia, and he wants to start as in, then where else is there for Kamala to play? It's as simple as that, but I think the experience has shown us. It's got to be huge. I mean, it's like, that's where Wartan played so well. I just think against any opposition in the Premier League, only having one out-and-out defensive midfielder, no matter how good he is, you're making yourself hostage to fortune and against Liverpool with the midfield they've got. And with the way they play much more possession in football now Liverpool, they don't get the ball as quickly forward as quickly as they used to. And I think people underestimate how quickly they got it forward. So you didn't always need that extra man in midfield. I think the way they play, the way they're holdable, we've got to have a second defensive midfielder in there. I think we just have to accept, and might work in our favour, that this is going to be a game where we don't have the ball as much as we, as we have done in other games that sell us this season, and that it might be that we need a 30% possession game, where we can hit teams on the break, where we clearly still have that ability with Munoz in particular, down the right, Tariq's not getting forward nearly as much down the left as Munoz is down the right, but we, I just think we're in massive trouble if he starts commander. And I don't think it's commander sort. I think commander's clearly a good, creative, skillful player, but again, cliche, look, the Premier League, he's too slight. He's too, you can't give the ball away like he did against Everton. He's going to get punished against bad teams in the Premier League. It's simple, even the boys' teams are going to punish you in those situations. Well, I, I, I'd be interested to see what, what Clasmer does. I think he's slightly in that situation where if he does now, and I agree, he loves commander and in a way, you kind of respect him backing him so much. But if he changes it for Hughes, people will say, oh, he doesn't know what he's doing. And if he backs commander, people say, oh, he's only got one player. I actually think it'll be a very bold, un, I'd respect it, move. If he did play Hughes, I hold his hand up like a rocket. This isn't working with commander. And I do think actually, the San John's question, I think commander would make an excellent sub actually or finisher, as they're now called, not substitutes. And, you know, that, that energy and that ability on the ball for the last half an hour to come, actually could be, could be very, very useful. Well, especially if you've got, I mean, I, I'd like to see Saa start somewhere, I have to say, but if you've got commander coming off the bench and Saa coming off the bench, we haven't had impact subs like that for a, for a long time. I mean, Saa is so strong and he's so physical and he's so fast. I mean, the way he won that penalty against Lester was, was fantastic. And if you're winding up or one deal down, bringing commander and Saa on, it's going to cause people a lot of problems, especially if Esse, Esse looks like he's tiring at the end of games. Anyway, so I, yeah, we still haven't got commander. I wonder if classified as the midfield player controls the midfield that we haven't, that we haven't had, who's got the time and the school. But Wharton's that player for me. Wharton's, I don't think you can afford to have Wharton and somebody else trying to do that. I think you need to trust Wharton to do that. Have Hughes in there to protect Wharton and then involve Esse more. That's something we haven't really spoke about. We've got to get Esse involved or play commander in that number ten role or play somebody off, actually play somebody off in the text. I don't know, but whatever happens. And I think you're right. I mean, commanders are much better player than Max Mayer was given the chance to show, but you do worry that history, he might go down as one of the big, what ifs in palace history, you wonder that, you know, come generally, he goes back on loan to a German team and we never see him again. Well, he won't if class keeps playing. He'll never leave the club until Glasgow does. I think we know that Wharton can't finish games at the moment because of this injury he's carrying. So actually, commander coming on for Wharton, I know this is very much like, you know, pub punditry, but like sometimes as fans, you can see stuff happening from, you know, wider view of the pit. I don't know, it's an obvious one to me. How many more times have we? Pub punditry is exactly what people listen to this one. Yeah, true, true. They don't want Mika Richards laughing for no apparent reason, or Jamie Rednut looking like he's struggling to do a sudoku. They want top class pub punditry like we're giving them. Do you know what? I like what we're giving them. Like what we do. I am, I thought listening to the rest is football. So Linek has pod with the share at Mika Richards. I've never appreciated how funny Alan Sheer is. And he's never obviously never allowed himself to be like that on TV. But with the reigns off of it, he's actually really funny. I really like him. He's actually a really good pundit. Chris Sutton's the one I really like. Chris Sutton is a comedy miserable in terms of his actual punditry. Yeah, I think he's great. Sheer is incredibly, he's never had a reputation for me in the last minute that he clearly enjoys himself in the company of Linekka. And yeah, I think just having so many X football, you know this, Jamie, as you played football to a level. So many X footballers are only really comfortable in the company of X footballers and particularly of their generation. That's where they feel they could, I was going to say, let their head down, which would be wrong for Sheer, obviously. You know, they're always very guarded in what they say. But in that scenario, and that whole sheer of the hood is great. Like those match the day two extras that they did, some of the top 10s, that they're really entertaining, really entertaining. Yeah, sorry to go face that, but I do enjoy them. [MUSIC] This episode is brought to you by State Farm. You might say all kinds of stuff when things go wrong, but these are the words you really need to remember. Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there. They've got options to fit your unique insurance needs, meaning you can talk to your agent to choose the coverage you need, have coverage options to protect the things you value most. File a claim right on the State Farm mobile app, and even reach a real person when you need to talk to someone. Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there. So, you want to be a marketer. It's easy. You just have to score a ton of leads and figure out a way to turn them all into customers. Plus, manage a dozen channels, write a million blogs, and launch a hundred campaigns all at once. When that's done, simply make your socials go viral and bring in record profits. No sweat. Okay, fine. It's a lot of sweat. But with HubSpot's AI-powered marketing tools, launching benchmark breaking campaigns is easier than ever. Get started at HubSpot.com/marketers. Oh, it's such a clutch off-season pickup, Dave. I was worried we'd be bringing back the same team. I meant those blackout motorized shades. Lines.com made it crazy affordable to replace our old blinds. Hard to install? No, it was easy. I installed these and then got some from my mom. She talked to a design consultant for free and scheduled a professional measure and install. Hall of Fame Sun. They're the number one online retailer of custom window coverings in the world. Blinds.com is the GOAT. ShopBlinds.com right now. And get up to 45% off select styles. Rules and restrictions may apply. So we talked about the murder. And of course, that brings us on to Ebbs and Encettia. And we do have a question, Joe, from Steve Michael. I think we can answer this one pretty quickly. He says, "Why do we keep subbing Encettia? "He's our best natural finisher. "Sometimes you need to sub Ebbs. "He slowed us down." I think to answer the Encettia bit is, 'cause he hasn't got the fitness to finish games at the moment. I'd imagine that's pretty straightforward. Yes, not somebody that in his many years at Arsenal has probably played 90 minutes that often. And I guess over time, that shows itself in when a player like that moves that they aren't able to finish games because they're just not used to it. So that will come in time as we'll... I imagine maybe a different role for Encettia. Ebbs staying on as long as he has in some games has been, I guess, off reputation, but also despite some of the performances that we've had this season from him, there is always still a moment that where something might happen and the goals that we've seen or hits the bar. Even in a bad game, there is still something like that. I always go back to that QPR fan you had on JD who described, you know, there'll be games in the championship where today, Eberichie has decided to win the game with quite a lot of Rangers. And there are definitely moments like that for us too that feel very similar. And I just feel lately, particularly certainly the good of some part performance, Ebbs did not necessarily decide he was going to win the game for Crystal Palace. And those sort of more cynical accusations to him that he is maybe just, is he without deck? Is he, you know, this is a player that really flourishes without, with somebody else that's equally bright and creative alongside, whether that's at least A, or whether that is Wolf of Zaha prior. Actually, there is somebody else freeing up space and doing stuff as excited to him, ignite something in him. And at the moment, we're not getting that. And, you know, we're all worse off for it. - I thought there were a couple of times in the Leicester and Manu Games, particular where you could see Matetta getting frustrated with him. Because Ebbs was playing the ball into Matetta. Matetta was playing little knots the last season either Ebbs or Lisa or somebody else would have been onto. And Ebbs just hasn't, he just has an IER, hasn't read it, or he hasn't got the energy. And then that makes Matetta look, because Matetta doesn't look anywhere near as good as he's the last season. But I think, as we said right at the top, that's due to the players around him. It's the way we're playing football now. He's clearly still. And, you know, it's amazing that we're actually having a conversation about dropping Matetta when he was so good at the end of last season. But again, there has to be a choice made between Matetta and Mackettia. But Ebbs is just, it just seems, the QPR game, the away game at QPR. Oddly enough, I was at QPR on my walk the next day and talking to the people at the club, they all said that they love him so much, they didn't mind losing. And then afterwards he was so brilliant with the QPR fans and before the game, he made a point of meeting all the old QPR staff. So he's cleared up, but the goal, he's good. That's the first time this season that I've seen him run 30, 40, 50 yards with the ball. And it ended up in a deflected shot. He simply hasn't done that. He hasn't carried the ball for us. He tends to be playing in a little circle where the ball will come to him, he will move it forward. And again, there's so many, I think one of our other issues this season is with Munoz. And the man, you know, the game in particular, it's so frustrating because so many passes, we use Munoz as an outlet all the time and as an attacking outlet, but so many times we're playing the ball to him and not in front of him. So the, and the Eze was doing it, so he would get the ball and he'd pass to Munoz and it stops because Munoz from a standing start hasn't got the pace to be anyone, but he put the ball in front of him. He'll get on to it and do something. So it's just Eze's not firing or not, or it's just little things added all over the pitch and not quite adding up, which is, which is leading to us not winning the games, we should be winning, but, and, you know, commander, that's it. End of every sentence comes back to commander, doesn't it, does all you can think of to finish it? And without a dig is definitely the title of this podcast, that's great and it's superb. And actually, you're right, that QPR game, he decided to win that game for that. Absolutely, absolutely. And that's exactly what happened. And we need to get away from that and more to Eze being in the rhythm of winning game for Palace, rather than this, this does he feel like winning a game today? Because he's got the ability. He's such a nice guy. Well, we weren't in to do well. Maybe he feels that pressure, J.D. Maybe he's getting that pressure in training that he feels that, now, at least he's gone, that he has to be the one to step up. And, you know, there are other good, creative players out there. There's no harm in giving them a risk. There's no harm in trying ebbs off the bench. There's no harm in trying him in a different part of the, of the pitch even, even during the game. I agree, but I just don't think that will happen. Yeah, I agree. Yeah, he may well benefit from, because at the moment, there is a bit of an imbalance with that position that Encettio currently occupies and Kamada was tried there for the first couple of games. I found particularly a good person as well. Munoz is so isolated. There were some openings on the break and the ball was in front of him, which was certainly a better change than we saw in the United game. And yet there was just nobody within sort of 20, 30 meters of him in a palisher. And that's so different to the build up play that we saw back end of last season, which I know players have changed. I know, you know, it's not the same team. We cannot help that being a reference for what a lot of these players can do in the right system. So, and the same manager. And yeah, perhaps, you know, Encettio is involved, but seems to be quite keen to get as close to Ebs as possible over on the other side of the pitch. Kamada did the same in the Brentford game, I remember, when he started there. And it just leaves the right side very quiet and still very far away. And maybe that balance being fixed, perhaps with Ismaelah Saag getting a start, it's getting a little overdue now. Maybe that actually improves whatever it shares is able to do on his side. Maybe that, you know, that's be fishing for things to be optimistic for for him. - I think Joe makes a really good point about how weighted down the left we have been. And also what's happening on the right hand side. I don't know whether this is where the teams have sussed it out or whether it's coincidental, but when Munoz does get forward, the space between him and behind him and the right-sided center back is acres of space behind him. And again, when you've only got two in midfields, they can't cover that. And luckily Munoz is fast enough to recover quite a lot of the time, but we're really getting exposed down. We're not on the left because we've got so many more bodies on the left. So when Mitchell does go forward, there seems to be the two center backs, the middle one and the left ones into shunt over much more reason than they do to the right. But Liverpool will have seen that. We can get picked off that good, which is another reason why I think we need to change the midfield on Saturday in a way that gives us more, more ability to defend that right-hand side. Which again comes back to the fact that we will have to spend more time defending again. The Man United game is interesting because Man United were atrocious on Sunday. But Man United were brilliant against us in the first half. We were just so passive and so low that we allowed them to look like a good team. And when we fixed that in the second half, it was much more level, we arguably deserve to win. But Liverpool are a genuinely good team. Liverpool are the best team we played this season by a country mile with the, like I said, but the fact that they don't look like, I shouldn't say this out loud, they don't look like, they're going to blow teams away at score five or six. You know what I mean? Also, I don't see any reason why we can't get a point off them. I don't think we should be going into the game thinking we can't win it or get a point. I just think we should be aware that we are playing, this is the first really good team. And that might play into our hands. That might be exactly what we need, to be perfectly honest. That is one of the things I do like about Clazna, is he does go into every game thinking that Palace can win. And never sacrifices anything, which makes me think he probably will play a similar system and probably the same team that we can possibly chalera and lirma, tell them coming in lirma into midfield. We're starting to, Kevin, get a few questions about Francis, because obviously the glass has had last week that he's back, he's training, he's not ready to play, but because of our lack of options up front, he then suddenly becomes almost like this silver bullet that like, oh, Francis back. So he'll be, you know, he hasn't actually had that much, that much game time, really. Had that cameo against Burnley, he looked really good. Pete Coombs has sent us a question saying, can Francis ever get fit enough to fill the gap, at least they left? Well, firstly, no. But do you think he could be an option? Are you excited to see Francis back? Or do you think maybe we should be really treating him as sort of kick gloves and not expecting too much? - I would be, I think if we start thinking that he's the next to Lisa, then the poor sod's got no chance. - Yeah. - We basically, we have to balance our expectations. I still think the circumstances by which he came to us, I think it was kind of a, alright, John Txtill, you've seen some Brazilian football, we'll take one of your recommendations. Because yes, he's had a couple of good cameos, but to me, he doesn't look like he's ready to step into a Premier League side and make a huge difference. But off the bench, you want as many options as you can. He needs to fill out, he needs to, I mean, clearly he's a good player. He already strikes me as one of those players that's, he'll come in, pay half a game, get injured again. And again, that's down to even the training. I'm guessing that the training is much more intense than anything he would have come across before. I think it's interesting that we've, this is one of the criticisms I leveled at Roy Holton, and I'm quite happy to admit this, we were forever having players out for two weeks here, three weeks here. And I was always saying, what's going on on the training ground that we're missing players? But it's already happening already. Each other bar comes in, he's out for two weeks here. Somebody else is out for two weeks through. It's, that's a worrying development and that hasn't been, yeah, Ria, it's different. I mean, that was just a really unfortunate, really unfortunate injury. But yeah, Richard is out, we don't, there might be a virus, we don't know what, Warton's clearly not fully fit. So it's, it seems to me that it's been a long time under several managers since we've had, and it's great to say, as Joseph's, the squad is improving every season, but not if four of them are out there any given time. You know, I can't remember the last time we'd probably be able to say, yeah, we've got a completely full squad. I'm honest enough to admit that, you know, couple of the younger lads in the Porton's arm showed me the team at Porton's two, and I have to ask you the last three people on the subsequent bench arm, and because they follow the club at every level, they can tell me about them, but you just go, who's that? Yeah, and that's, that really shouldn't be happening at this stage, you know, in a 12th, 13th season or whatever is in, in the Premier League. Now you want those young, you want those young players, like almost too ready to get in the first team, like banging on the door and not just an option, but like we have to play this kid because he's playing so well, wherever. But at the moment, it is kind of like filling spaces. What do you think, Joe? The thing about, the thing about Franco, Franco does get on the bench, and again, this week probably comes too soon. And if, you know, Kamala does get dropped, then you are looking at Sa Kamala, Franco, and you are starting to build up a couple of subs that can make a difference. Couple of ball carriers there, you know, but again, I guess it comes down to availability from injuries and whether the manager's brave enough to drop, drop Kamala. Yeah, what's that saying? The best ability is availability. I feel like, frankly, you're chucking it all in for the same episode. I can't use more time. I have apologies. France is one of those, you know, quite a big speed paid in the context of the club for our size. And so there was a lot of excitement that came with that. Roy certainly was cautious to bring him in at a time when we were also quite stretched, but he came in, injured, and then got injured again straight away. It's been a while now. We're over a year since he's been here, and we're clinging on to real four substitute appearances. I think it's a chill seaway city. And then the Burnley at Home game is where he makes a real sort of tangible impact. Never does a player's kind of ability improve them when he's out for a long period of time. It's always, when you're not doing well, it's that player that you haven't seen for a while that is going to save everyone, is going to take the club up the table. And I'm slightly worried that he might actually fix him to that because suddenly it's on him to deliver quite a lot. But I haven't at least seen that come from the club. That's all come from the fan base to be fair to the club. I think that the hierarchy, the management, have all tried to handle that bit more delicately. And perhaps you see that with the fact that French wasn't on the bench on Saturday despite returning to training. I think that being a little bit more careful than the fans would like, but I think that's the right thing to do. However, if I'm going to be optimistic and excited based on what we have seen, he can play in one of those problem positions that we've got at the moment. You know, there's certainly higher paid players in front of him there and in Kettill or someone that's more favored by the manager generally in Kamada. But given the uncertainty there and some of the issues we've seen with the squad balance and how we play at the moment, perhaps there's an opportunity for France to really stake a claim in the sort of attacking areas of our starting line. I've never mind on the bench. If he can take the opportunity, if he can stay fit and you can't discount how big those ifs are given, how long he's been here and how much of that has been as an injured player. - It's hard to imagine, even if he were fully fit, sadly, who he would replace. I mean, I'm still not sure. I don't think any of us are sure whether he's an out and out winger, whether he's another one who's a tech. 'Cause we seem to buy a lot of players who are quite good in several situations rather than actual specialists. You know, I mean, it's again the same with, the same with Saar. I mean, I wouldn't be unhappy with seeing Saar play down the middle, but is Saar out and out right? I mean, what is he? Kamada, what is he? Do you know what I mean? It's like, and I'm not sure whether, and Ketchy is a center forward. He's got to be. And I know people look at him and go, well, he's not built like a center forward. He's not built like a 70 center forward, or an 80 center forward. No, but that's where he does. Every Arsenal fan, as we said, will tell you that. That's where he does his best work. And it may be, as Joe said about his fitness issue, maybe not just that he hasn't played that many four games for Arsenal, but when he does play for Arsenal, it's in the role where he doesn't have to cover that much of the pitch that he's been asked to cover at Palace. I mean, he's probably been asked to work harder and off the ball than he ever was at Arsenal, where he tended to see him not tracking back that much. And he was, and he's got, 'cause he's not a kid, he's 25, is he? I think so, yeah. Yeah, we need him. I mean, for us, it's a fortune that we paid for him for our standards. And he clearly is potentially a great goalscorer, but not where he's playing at the moment. Yeah. Guys, we're gonna wrap up questions there, I think. We've pretty much covered. Apart from Mulan Stan, Mulan Stan has said, can we rescue Elisa from Bayern? He must be fed up playing for a top German team by now and yearning for South London. I'll tell you what he is fed up. We've posing for photographs in later hoes and ends. I'm doing signs. I've been blessing him. He's never that comfortable with media opportunities at the best of times at Palace, was he? I mean, he used to look daggers at Chris Greerson when he asked him questions of various things. He and Harry Kane in later. Oh my gosh. He's the most awkward situation he could have been. You could just imagine the Lee Sakes. He's not a big lad girl, and I can't hold this up any longer. It's true, it's got two gallons of beer in it. Look, why are we even doing this? He'd have known, he'd have known. It's called October 1st Michael. Yeah. Don't make a Frenchman on an Englishman dress up like that. It's like, let's just gain a revenge with Jim. But I mean, the thing is, I think you can't underestimate what a loss, the Lee Sakes was. One of a kind, one of a kind, generational time. And also just not just the impact he had as a player, but just the funny brought us the joy, basically, the stuff. And I think, again, that availability quo is a great one. He's had three podcast episode titles, Joe. I know. This one. But I think that Ann without deck is, I think that's a really interesting, we could talk about that for much longer, but it's slightly depressing to do so. But you just, and Lee Sakes, I think there's such different players, but Blassey had the same thing for me, but I just, I used to so, I mean, at least it's 25 times better player than Blassey was, but they just had that same bit of, I don't know, that you paid, you were happy to pay your money to watch them. You never knew what's going to happen. It's just, we can't replace him. And I think, I think that's been part of Blassey's problem is that people have been saying, we've got to replace the Lee Sakes, we've got, and whoever plays out there, if we keep playing that system is not a Lee Sakes. Full stop. Yeah. Yeah. I agree. And also just to round it off. Commander. The Palace Full stop. David, speaking of generational talent, it's been amazing having you back on. Thank you. I keep telling you, the first five yards is up here, JD. Exactly. Yeah. You never lose that. You never lose it. It's been, I can't tell you how much it's ever pleasure it's been to come back on. It's lovely to see Joe as well. Brilliant. Well, hopefully we'll catch up with you again soon. We'd great to have you back on, because I had a lot of requests, and it's been, been like all times, which has been great. And Joe, thank you as well, obviously, from the new class, but it's been lovely to feed you as well, and well done for making it to Everton. And back again. That's what I've just about recovered now, now that it's Thursday. Did you say? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's tomorrow morning, you'll get the warm up if you're on the top two tiers with Alex, and then obviously we're cracking on with the post-match time for the weekend. But that's it. Thanks for listening, and we'll see you all again very soon. Goodbye. This podcast is part of the Sports Social Podcast Network. After investing billions to light up our network, T-Mobile is America's largest 5G network. Plus, right now, you can switch, keep your phone, and we'll pay it off up to $800. 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