2 of the best DM's in years have been Kante & Makelele and they aren't big units.

It is odd that Luka has looked nothing like the player of last season, talking about defensive midst. I read somewhere before we bought him that his career has been very up and down. How did he play for Serbia?

Are you surprised when he's been playing out of position? He done alright for Serbia keeping their good form going. I'm sure Roy will get the best out of him no doubt.

Up I believe .

Suitable for the Palace rollercoaster then.:p

I actually think his form dipped towards the end of last season. Pretty awful against Burnley at SP last season, when he made errors for both their goals and also very poor, in the next game at the Etihad (TBF not the only one).
Perhaps he is a confidence player ?

Quality is the key. Luka was at his best with Sakho behind him and Cabaye in front of him. Sakho ran the defence with the safety of knowing that Luka would protect them. Cabaye was free to create because he knew he had Luka behind him. Luka did his best work because he could just get on with it, knowing the other areas were covered. It's no coincidence that his weaker performances at the end of the season and start of this have coincided with the absence of those two(as well as being played out of position this season)

This made me laugh!

Has done more in one minute of the game than what Puncheon done the 68.

Chose not to track Lukaku and allowed him a tap-in at the back post. Quality defending.

Waste of money.

Will be leaving in January.

we are desperate and so some are looking to riedewald to be the premier league level of player he is not currently

That's the spirit.

He was playing left midfield. It shouldn't be his job to track the best centre forward in the league.

Think Jairo Riedewald has a massive part to play this season. 100% passing accuracy after he came on, and looked to be positive too. I like him. I like him a lot as a midfielder.

You could see the ability he has on the ball even in his short cameo against Man Utd, however he (along with PVA) made no effort whatsoever to get back and pick up Lukaku for their 4th goal, despite clearly having the opportunity to do so. This is a problem in a team fighting against relegation, even if the game was decided at that point.

It reminded me a bit of Holloway after he left highlighting Campana for literally just not bothering to mark his defensive assignment on corners, which resulted in us conceding goals.

Riedewald will be a good player, just not for us.

Our defense was carved open at that point, of course it's the responsibility of anybody who is able to pick up a dangerous goalscorer free in the box. "Meh, not my responsibility" isn't a favourable attitude in a team fighting relegation.

He looks more than decent on the ball and always wants the ball

Still too early to say either way but aged 20 there is a lot of development still there, under a decent settled coaching structure he should progress... probably not with us though!

Should probably be starting in midfield. Composed on the ball.

Agreed, him Luka and Cabaye/RLC for me.

Got to grasp any positives at the moment.

Once Wilf returns we have a team albeit very vulnerable to injuries. I just can’t see why we keep buying players but cannot get to grips with providing adequate cover. Also, why the hell are all our players seemingly so vulnerable to injuries these past couple of years? Is it a new premier league tactic to try and injur opposition players?