Liverpool and City do it - that's what we have to aim for. We won't get anywhere if our structure keeps collapsing any time a team starts kicking it long and sticking it on us.
We had Saliba, White, Zinchencko, Partey, Ødegaard, Martinelli, Saka and Jesus on the pitch yesterday - these guys can handle the ball and pass under pressure. Yet we still dropped back and the structure collapsed as a result. Once that happens everyone's passing goes to pot because chaos rules, players are not where they're coached to be.
I think Gabriel and Xhaka are also probably a bit to do with why we faultered in the first place. If there are weak links in the team then it's not hard for most teams to force the ball toward those weak players, especially if they're right next to each other on one side of the pitch, and then swarm them when they get the ball. They'll usually either panic and kick it long, play a bad pass to a team mate and put him under pressure or give it away all together.
It's hard to say how much those vulnerabilites lead to Palace going harder because it's working leading to us dropping deeper versus the effects of the long ball hurting us, and a drop in intensity because we just can't maintain that high energy and focus for longer than 20-minute bursts. Regardless of how much exactly each issue is effecting us, all those things were hurting us.
White coming in for Gabriel and Tomiyasu at right back can and will help in lots of games, and Xhaka switched out for a Smith Rowe or Vieira will help too, but, as I said, the problems are more than just our technical weak links, and we've got to find a way to fix issues too so we can stay up the pitch and maintain intensity. Every single player is better when we do that. We'll never do it for 90 minutes every game, but we have to do it for 60/70 minutes most weeks or there will be loads more games like last night, only we won't get so lucky in the big moments.
