Spot on. I like Gakpo and he's a great goal scorer, but he's a striker with a wingers mentality.

Another CB is priority 1A and another attacker is 1B. Rio and Doak cannot be first off the bench.

I also thought we really missed Gravenberch today. As to the above post I think we'll see a different intensity in the team from here forward. It's so hard to manufacture stakes or want to from guys who play 9-1/2 months a year in a game that 100% is meaningless outside of the charity aspect. Last thing is Palace are the real deal and if they can hold that squad together they could finish top 8 or so. They have some serious guys.

Better team won for sure. Definitely not going to overreact to a Community Shield, but if I were, it would be based on trends that have continued from the end of last year up to today. Lack of effort/energy, sloppy D, meh chance making and attacking, Salah non existent too much, etc. Throw in a lot of turnover, changing of roles and adapting to a new style of play that will take a while to get used and actually work, and their is legit concern. And as Tksymm7 said, if you are going to attack that hard and up the pitch with your right and left backs, you are going to have drop a midfielder back somehow. They have been carved up on the counter or loss of possession all preseason and today. Teams will set back, force Salah to his right and Gakpo the left and strike on the counters.

As for today, Ekitike looked great on his goal, and then looked like Nunez on his misses. Losing Diaz, Jota (RIP), Nunez (all problems aside) and only replacing Ekitike so far isn't enough. Diaz could at least really create space and breakdown D and win one on ones while tracking back on D is going to be missed. I was hoping Rio would get in on some real competition today as we all know what his talents are. And again from Tksymm7, Virg was really sloppy and bad today for sure. But if he or Konate go down, big big trouble already on a shaky back.

I'm just glad no one gut hurt really, but there is real work to do.

I'm very worried about our opener this Friday. We are going to miss Gravy again due to that red card at the end of last year. Without him we have a big problem.

We brought in 2 very attacking full backs and we like to push both of them high up the field. In this situation, we really need our DM to 1) drop between both CBs to fortify the back and 2) cleanly move the ball up field to minimize risk in overloaded formations. Gravy is the only one who does both things at a high enough level to justify the approach.

Szobo and Jones were too sloppy today, often gifting the ball to palace in very dangerous situations. Macca was clearly rusty and to be honest, none of the 3 are big enough to compete in the air. Endo is strong enough defensively, but not skilled enough to help us control a game.

Playing conservatively/defensively is also quite dangerous given we aren't the biggest team anymore. Hopefully the attack can up their game on Friday and take the pressure off. If we score enough, it won't matter.

I think Maca can do Gravvys job, but not as well as him. I would start Maca and Szbo next week and tell Maca to sit back, clean up and distribute the ball. I agree Jones and Szbo were just too sloppy today and trying to be the same player. The can't do that with the way we play. One of them has to be responsible and sit back.

I think a full strength side is still elite and maybe the best team in the league, but we do have things to work on and areas to address before the window is out. Remember how concerned everyone was about the midfield going into last year? I think we'll be alright, but definitely need to lock in more across the squad.