Just one league win. That's all we're asking for. A win that might give us more. A win that kicks the bad habit of defeat. Here are five things we learnt from not winning, again.
1. Fullbacks are a problem
One of the frustrations we're really seeing currently is that players who have shown an inclination to doing the job that's expected of them have failed to do so for the past three months. While Pape Souare is likely to get most of the attention for the goal that lead to Palace's defeat against Leicester City, Joel Ward's form is also hugely concerning. Alan Pardew likes to play an attacking way - which is great so long as the strikers are doing the job of scoring goals and defenders are doing the job of defending - but the flaws in such a tactic are highlighted when a player or two lose focus, even for just a split second. Whether you're pointing the finger of blame at Ward for being caught out of position or Souare for switching off to allow Mahrez to drift unmarked into the area, it's clear that neither player is performing to the ability we know them to have. That's concerning at a time when we need them the most.
2. Adebayor needs to buck his ideas up
There's a concern when you hear of Emanuel Adebayor talking about wanting to enjoy the game and smile - as he did in an interview with the Premier League prior to the game against Leicester City - because it belies the attitude that is really needed at this time. We need to see effort and intent - a willingness to chase and disturb the opposition to the point of them making costly mistakes. Adebayor's input on Saturday was that of a player who didn't really fancy it - like it or not, we are in a relegation battle and with that comes some responsibility - which the Togo striker failed to show. It took him most of the first half to successfully win a header, and a similar amount of time to chase defenders down. You have to put in the hard work before you can talk of enjoying the game - that didn't happen, and he was rightly taken off.
3. Bolasie up front loses the quality of Bolasie on the wing
The reasoning behind bringing Bakary Sako on in a wing-role and shifting Yannick Bolasie into a striker role was, on the face of it, a logical one. By bringing Sako on, you introduce a greater goal threat - and the Malian winger stung the palms of Kasper Schmeichel a number of times - but in doing so, Palace subsequently moved Bolasie into the centre, a position in which he failed to influence the game. Yala is at his best when you allow him the opportunity to take on defenders one-on-one - and there were a couple of occasions where it worked. In the central position, Robert Huth and Wes Morgan found it all too easy to close him down. He also isn't an instinctive striker - so when Sako did produce some great crosses, there weren't any players capable of taking a chance. It's difficult to know what the solution is - but if Bolasie isn't effective on the wing, the answer probably isn't to put him in the centre.
4. The FA Cup won't give Palace a league incentive
For all the talk of using cup games to give the players an incentive to win in the league, the tactic has failed miserably. Palace have lost each match that follows a cup win - the third round defeat of Southampton was followed by the shoddy performance at Aston Villa, the win over Stoke was followed by an equally shambolic defeat to Bournemouth, Palace then lost to West Brom following the fifth round win over Tottenham, and the defeat to Leicester followed a quarter-final win over Reading. While the players have battled admirably against their FA Cup opponents, the league performances have at times looked laboured, tense and frustration-filled. If Palace are going to win in the league it can't be because we won in the FA Cup - it has to come inspite of that.
5. Izzard is a hero
When you see players talking about how hard they tried, how difficult a game was, how frustrated they are by the outcome, and you consider just how richly they're rewarded for it, you realise there's an imbalance to just how important their jobs are. A footballer's career is brief, but at the top level it is one of luxury and of being spoilt. They train hard - and there's no doubt that in most cases, they're truly dedicated to their profession. But then you look at what Palace fan Eddie Izzard did for Sports Relief, and you realise just how silly and inconsequential the comments are about 'hard work' and 'trying hard' following a defeat. Izzard ran 27 marathons in 27 days. Because of a visit to the hospital following one of those runs, he decided to do two marathons on his last day. He did it all for charity - raising £1.35m so far. Most folks who do the London Marathon train for months, conditioning their bodies and their brains to deal with the arduous process of completing the distance. Izzard did 27 of those. And he did his 25th wearing a Palace shirt. That's a heroic effort and it puts some of the struggles of watching Palace recently to shame.