Eddie Howe got it wrong

I am a big fan of Eddie Howe. He deserves so much credit for taking us to Wembley, bringing Champions League football back to St James' Park and keeping us in with a real chance of European football despite a season from hell on the injury and suspension front.

For all the praise he rightfully received after that 4-0 win over Spurs, I feel criticism is only fair based on the selection and tactics we saw at Crystal Palace last night.

His game plan worked a treat against Tottenham. The man-for-man marking and bold approach with such a makeshift defence created one of our performances of the season, but a trip to Selhurst Park against a Palace side who set up completely differently to Spurs posed a very different set of problems.

After the match, Howe defended his approach, saying: "It’s always about the attitude of the group, first and foremost. If you’re not quite where you need to be mentally, for whatever reason, then it doesn’t matter what you do tactically, you’re going to fall down. And I think that’s probably where we were.”

Don't get me wrong, the players didn't turn up - technically we were way off it and Palace wanted it more too - but Howe's decision to stay loyal to the same defence, full of square pegs in round holes, and system that worked against Spurs felt naive and slightly lazy against a Palace team who don't play a high line and operate with an entirely different system. He has to take some responsibility for that.

Dan Burn has looked far better at centre-back of late and was superb alongside Schar in our last away game; a 1-0 win at Fulham. Moving him inside made sense now fit-again left-back Lewis Hall was available.

The same could be said about Emil Krafth. He's a right-back, but his inclusion at centre-back added to our lack of balance and meant Jacob Murphy down the right against Eze, who he didn't get close to all night. It's emerged that Tino Livramento was not fully fit, which explains why he stayed on the bench, but a back four of Krafth, Schar, Burn and Hall felt like the way to go.

Instead, it felt naive of Howe to stick with the same 11 and makeshift defence. We had 10 days off, a much-improved Hall fit again and a huge chance to maintain our Europa League push in sixth. The players deserve plenty of criticism for being off it in all departments, but so does Howe on this occasion.

Hopefully we put it right on Saturday against Sheffield United. I'm confident we will, but a plan B must be found away from home. We've now lost 10 on the road this season and won't have home comforts in three of our final five fixtures, with trips to Burnley, Man Utd and Brentford still to come.