When Pope was in goal, he made many fantastic saves and kept us in games. There was much more to his game than organising the defence. Hart is a very good keeper, but Pope was so much better at snuffing out corners as I remember. Mondays goals for Newcastle came as a result of not snuffing out corners. Had we prevented that our performance would have looked very much like most of our performances last season but with more possession for us.

Until Pope is ready I wold go
Hart
Lowton
Mee
Gibson
Taylor
Lennon
Defour
Cork
JBG
Vydra
Vokes

Vokes is playing well so he retains his place. Lennon played far better than Brady the other night so it's also harsh to drop him. Bringing Heaton back in might also see an upturn in Mee's form. We also look better with Hendrick in the team this season. It's just where we play him.

Heaton
Lowton Long Mee Taylor
Defour Cork
Lennon Hendrick JBG
Vokes

Anyone but Hart
Anyone but Mee x4
Anyone but Hendrick x4
Vydra Barnes

That should keep quite a lot of people happy.

Jamesy wrote:It’s similar to a game of cards really. If you are dealt a bad hand, you can shuffle them around all you like but the outcome will still be the same.

But what if you've chosen the cards yourself?

boatshed bill wrote:But what if you've chosen the cards yourself?

Good point. He has got a few random low denominations but not enough to make a flush or full house.

Mala591 wrote:4-1-4-1

Westwood to stay deep in front of the back four

Cork or Hendrick to play alongside Defour

McNeil instead of Lennon

--------Heaton
Lowton Long Mee Taylor
-------Westwood
JBG Defour Cork McNeil
--------Vokes

I'm sticking with this formation (to bolster midfield) but really prefer two forwards on
the pitch. Vokes and
Wood didn't quite work out on Monday BUT there were some positive signs and Wood had a number of half chances so it might be worth sticking with Vokes and Wood for a couple more games.

Legzdins. Lindegaard. Heaton.
Hart


Defour & McNeil

Vokes. Barnes. Wood. Vydra. JBG.

Pope’s football knowledge on Question of Sport seemed good, so he’d manage the side.

Vydra and 10 others come on Dyche give him a go....please.

--------Hart
Lowton Long Mee Taylor
-------Westwood
JBG Defour Cork Brady
--------Vokes

Hart

Lowton
Long
Mee
Ward

Lennon
Cork
Defour
Brady

Vydra
Wood


I make that a total of 51 letters over all of the surnames (surely a record outside of S Korea or China)......and in order to keep the total down I can find no place for JBG, Hendrick and Westwood. It also explains why Wood keeps his place.

For what it is worth, Palace's starting line up last time was Hennessey; Wan-Bissaka, Tomkins, Sakho, Van Aanholt, McArthur, Milivojevic (c), Kouyate, Meyer; Townsend , Zaha ......a grand total of 84 letters.

UTC!

I think Nick Pope is looking to a new career on TV as one of the Chasers after his excellent performance last night on "A Question of Sport"