I love reading the reports that you do
Deadbat
You always offer a balanced viewpoint although, as it should be, there are sometimes a differing of opinions. Some people see the games differently to others.
In general, I agree with your views on yesterday.
I thought that Wes was our best player and he definitely kept it interesting with some very good saves. This allowed for the possibility of us sneaking an (admittedly unlikely) equalizer.
Anel was reasonably steady but not at the levels of last season. He did get some good tackles in but at the same time made some questionable decisions. Was definitely at fault for the goal by getting totally on the wrong side if the attacker.
Egan and JLT looked wobbly but again made some good challenges. the forward line of palace did move them around a lot though with some positional play. One thing I noticed was that there was a lot of clearances made as opposed to winning the ball and trying to build an attack. it was very much safety first. I think Trusty will replace JLT in the next couple of games and from what i saw last season, will be an improvement (not being negative to JLT, just think that trusty is more agile/athletic).
Baldock was fairly strong defensively but didnt have much opportunity to get forward.
Lowe was mediocre. he is limited in defence and seems to have little confidence going forward. I'm not convinced that Larouci is the answer (happy to be proven wrong) so we really need RND to come back with the form he was in prior to injury.
Of the midfield 3, I have to disagree on your view of Norwood. Whilst not as influential as we would like, he was IMHO the calm head that was needed. He tried to get involved and put a foot on it and did try to start plays with some good passes. I agree that he was outmuscled at times and his set pieces left a lot to be desired.
Osborn did, as he always does, give 100% and tried to be involved at all times. His downfall is his size and ability to play attacking balls. Most of the time he chooses the safe option.
Bash, sadly looked lost on the pitch and was a passenger/spectator throughout. I love Bash, but he is not a Central Midfielder. He could play there as cover (and you would assume this is all that today was as we would hope that the likes of Hamer, Souza, Slimani, Norwood, any new signing (Doyle

would be my choice) would be picked in front of him for a starting midfield place with Bash being used as cover at CB.
Traore was busy all game without really being effective. He will improve with time playing with his new teammates. He kept their defence honest and chased a lot. Sadly he didnt receive anything like enough service and was isolated without any real attacking midfielders to offer support. His size will go against him but his pace will be an asset.
Osula for me was a close second to Wes for being our best player. He was constantly at their defence, didnt let them have too much time and was up for the physical battle. he looks strong and willing to mix it with defenders but has good speed and technical ability to run with the ball. He was unlucky a couple of times with chances going marginally wide. As said, he is still raw but given the right support, will be some player in a year or so. We definitely need to get him on a long contract to safeguard what I think will be a future star for us. If we can (and we definitely should be) add reinforcements to our Strikeforce (Archer

)and a return to fitness of McBurnie and Brewster (we can but dream) then I would think Osula would be good enough to move to the Championship to aid his development.
It is a sorry state of affairs that we are still developing what will be our strongest 11 on the first weekend of the new season after having months to plan. Ndiaye and Berge leaving at the last minute havent helped but we should have planned for this eventuality. We will get there, and hopefully sooner rather than later as we have shown with the Hamer deal that when we want to, we can make things happen quickly.