Heavy Defeat Was Coming Amid Several Concerning Trends

I’m not sure it’s an exaggeration to say that Saturday was one of Palace’s worst performances under Patrick Vieira. The Eagles looked slow, lethargic and disjointed at Goodison Park, where they got exactly what they deserved for a display devoid of any real positives.This should have been an opportunity to build on our recent unbeaten run against a side who had lost their last three games. Instead, it only ever looked like one team was desperate to win. I spent most of the game with my view obstructed by a pillar and was most grateful for it.

You knew this already, but Saturday illustrated just how important Cheick Doucouré already is to this side just ten games into his Palace career. With no Doucouré, the Eagles effectively had no midfield.

Any hope that Luka Milivojevic might roll back the years was promptly extinguished after ten minutes, when the Palace captain was dispossessed in the build-up to Everton’s opening goal. In fairness to the Serbian, he was done no favours by his manager, who should have started another holding midfielder alongside him. The decision not to do so left him incredibly exposed and allowed Amadou Onana and Idrissa Gueye to control the game. When the 31-year-old was eventually hooked, Palace’s midfield looked even more open and was promptly sliced through for the second goal.

With that being said, Vieira could rightly argue that he didn’t have much to choose from. The Frenchman clearly doesn’t have huge faith in Jairo Riedewald or Will Hughes, the latter of whom was returning from a few games out of the squad. And with every passing game it becomes clearer that Palace let Vieira down by not bringing in at least one more midfielder over the summer.

Palace’s failure to replace Conor Gallagher has been well documented, but the departed Cheikhou Kouyate and injured James McArthur were also key parts of the Palace midfield during Vieira’s first season in charge. The manager has tried different combinations but it’s becoming increasingly clear that it’s going to be a case of square pegs in round holes until reinforcements are brought in – hopefully in January.

As well as the issues in midfield, the form of Palace’s full backs is becoming a concern. Neither Tyrick Mitchell or Joel Ward are as accomplished on the ball as Marc Guehi or Joachim Andersen, which is having a negative impact on how Vieira wants the team to play out from the back.

What was noticeable against Everton was just how much Palace’s play slowed down when the ball went out to the full backs, who both struggled with the home side’s press and regularly turned the ball over in our own third.

It also feels as though this team would benefit greatly from overlapping full backs, something that doesn’t come naturally to Ward or Mitchell. The former also didn’t cover himself in glory for the third goal, when Dwight McNeil was allowed to waltz his way into the Palace penalty area before tapping into an open goal.

It might seem harsh to say but there is a nagging feeling that having two more defensive-minded full backs is holding Palace back. At the very least the club needs to consider bringing in alternative options in those positions who can challenge the incumbents for their place.

It would be easy to put Saturday down as a bad day at the office, but a result like that has been coming. In many ways it brought together some of the more worrying trends from this season: a slow start, a general lack of urgency and a dysfunctional midfield.Palace haven’t quite hit the form they were able to keep up for much of last season and seem to only be having spells of playing well in games, rather than maintaining a consistent level of performance throughout.

Perhaps that is just the nature of being a mid-table Premier League side, but Saturday was a reminder that there are issues for the club and Vieira to address if they want to build on the positives of last season. And that starts with what feels like an important game against Southampton on Saturday.