Oliver Glasner and his Crystal Palace side are winless after their opening six league games with the task of overcoming top of the table Liverpool Saturday lunchtime.
Last time out Palace lost 2-1 to the blue half of Merseyside at Goodison Park. After a strong first half performance they faded, as Everton scored two early second half goals which turned the game on its head. They will need to be at their very best to get even a point against a new look Liverpool team under Dutchman Arne Slot who have conceded only two goals in the league all season.
Glasner has a few problems to sort out in his team such as the best eleven to start the game, along with the correct tactics in which his team are set up to win the match. So far this season both of these have been issues for the Austrian manager and the quicker he finds a solution the better. Palace fans will be hoping for a response after the manner in which they lost last time out.
If history is to have any bearing on the outcome of this game, then Crystal Palace's shock 1-0 victory at Anfield back in April is where it all changed for Glasner and his team. Palace travelled to title chasing Liverpool who were then managed by Jurgen Klopp and came away with a brilliant win against the odds which set Palace up for six wins in their last seven games.
How many in SE25 would like a repeat of that this weekend, but it is easier said than done.
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Is it time to drop Mateta?
Jean-Philippe Mateta was one of the highlight stories in the whole of the Premier League last season and rightly so, he was a flashback to the retro stickers in the Premier League. With his shirt tucked in, a big physical presence and an iconic celebration, coupled with the fact he scored nine in his last six games for Palace and looked a threat every time his team went forward, Mateta became a cult hero.
Looking at this campaign it has been significantly different, but there are good reasons as to why. First of all Mateta did not have a significant summer break since he was called up to the Olympics with France who went on to reach the final. Glasner had to manage the strikers minutes in the opening weeks of the season.
Combined with the departure of Michael Olise, who was one of Palace's main creators, you could have expected Mateta's output to dip.
What has disappointed fans is that Mateta seems to have gone back to how he was pre-Glasner. Almost just a body up top who does not look like scoring and fails to impact play, which is how a lot of his Crystal Palace career has played out.
At the back end of last season you would often see Mateta and Ebere Eze link up and play in tandem with each other, Eze would fire a ball into the strikers feet, Mateta would perform a cute flick or pass back to Eze and Palace would get a chance on goal. That has not been there for large parts this season and it is negatively impacting Palace as a result.
In the summer Palace did bring in a new striker in the form of Eddie Nketiah who has been shoehorned into the team as a right sided 'ten'. While the former Arsenal man has played well here and looked bright, he is not a natural 'ten', and as a result him playing there has nullified his in the box play and ability as a striker.
So is it time to give Nketiah a chance as the striker, allow Mateta to rest and play one of Daichi Kamada or Ismaila Sarr as the 'ten', after all that is why these two players were brought in.
There are options for Glasner but he cannot continue to be stubborn with his forwards. Palace have lacked so much in attack this season that a change like this is needed.
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How do Palace stop a patient Liverpool?
Anyone who has watched Liverpool this season will say they look like a new team to the one Jurgen Klopp managed, but the personnel is the same. Arne Slot has come in to a team which used to bring chaos to games and given them a new way to play, Liverpool now have a new found control of games and look more like a Manchester City or Arsenal rather than the heavy metal football Klopp used to endorse.
What this new system and Klopp's tactics have in common are, Liverpool still win football matches. That's where the similarities stop. Slot has changed the style of this Liverpool team in many ways, they are no longer looking to go from one end to the other as quickly as possible. Many times under Klopp it looked like a basketball game and the opposition knew they would get chances it was about just about taking them.
So how will Glasner set up his side to cause Liverpool problems? The perfect blueprint would be to look at what Nottingham Forrest did not long ago as they won 1-0 at Anfield resulting in Slot's first defeat in charge, but Liverpool also had an off-day.
Palace will need to be patient and bide their time, they may need to sit deep and soak up pressure for large parts of the game and use their quality in attack to counter Liverpool. This could be the perfect game to use Sarr to attack in transition.
The former Watford man has blistering pace and will be able to cause all sorts of problems to Liverpool in this game, much like he has in the past against the same opponents. If Palace are to be sitting back for majority of the game they will need pace like Sarr's to exploit Liverpool, then once they are up the pitch they can use the quality of Eze and Nketiah to find an opening.
There will be space in behind the Liverpool back line for Palace to take advantage of so bringing Sarr in for this one seems a no brainer considering the current front line Palace use lacks pace.
There is no game plan which will make this an easy game for Palace but there are solutions to make it a harder one for Liverpool, who for all their quality still have weaknesses. It is Glasner's job to find where they are weakest and set up his team to really test the league leaders.
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Is it time to move on with the Kamada experiment?
Daichi Kamada was the first player brought in over the summer, and it was welcomed by many inside and out of Palace. The Japanese has previously worked with Glasner, he was something different to what Palace currently had and came in with a degree of pedigree while costing the club nothing in terms of transfer fee.
The way it has played out however, has been close to disastrous. It was always going to take time for Kamada to settle in but everyone expected him to be playing as the right sided 'ten', after doing so for the majority of pre-season and looking bright. Instead he was utilised against West Ham United in the second game of the season, as one of the two holding midfielders as a substitute, and alarm bells started to ring.
Kamada was bullied in midfield and got ran through for the first goal against the Hammers, showing he lacks the physical presence to play as a holding midfielder in the Premier League. Palace went on to lose 2-0, but since then he has started two games in this position against Man United and Everton.
There were signs of improvement in the game against Man United and during the first half against Everton, but the bar was considerably low. Then a minute into the second half at Goodison Park saw Kamada play a pass out to Eze which was very under hit and intercepted which lead to the Toffees equaliser. Some would argue Eze could have come to the ball but had the pass been stronger the issue would not have been there as it would have seen Palace on the attack.
The former Lazio man was subbed just after the hour mark as he continued to struggle to make simple passes and many would hope that is the last time they see him in the position.
Kamada is a good player and has proven that on many occasions in his career even if his start at Palace has been underwhelming. Being played in his correct position would benefit him a lot, but also playing with different personal would help. If he was to play with Nketiah who is a more technical player than Mateta, it is likely his performances would improve as he would be able to link up and play quicker with the England international.
It is another problem Glasner has but there are solutions and ways to get the best out of certain players, but he needs to change certain parts for it to work because what he has tried so far is not the formula needed.
