There has been a lot of talk recently about Trevor Francis' tactics and his purchase of Ade Akinbiyi, writes Neil McSteen.

For many, including myself, the two subjects are inextricably linked.

A lot of things were against Ade on his debut against his former club Wolves, not least any form of service from the non-existent Palace midfield.

If there ever was a case of playing a striker from the bench, and keeping the existing, winning formation, this was it. But did Francis learn from this? Of course not.

In the battle of the Selhurst tenants (when is Jordan actually going to buy our ground?) the new shape is again duly trotted out.

Three up front, like Communism, is good on paper. In practice, Dougie Freedman will drop to left midfield, the long ball is deployed to "the target man" (but Akinbiyi is only an average header of the ball) to knock down to Clinton Morrison and the midfield spend their entire time watching the ball whiz over their heads.

All too predictably, Akinbyi's confidence is dealt a further blow when he is taken off; we go back to our 4-4-2 and Clinton scores within 10 minutes of this tactical switch. The point is then treated like three - but we hammered the sorry Wombles 4-0 in October.

So, to last Saturday. Dougie is supposedly out with flu - perfect chance to start Tommy Black and Julian Gray in wide roles which worked so well against Wimbledon. But no.

What seems like a starting formation of 4-4-2 seems at times like an ultra defensive 5-3-2, with Curtis Flemming and Jamie Smith dropping back to provide support for a back three of Austin, Berhalter and Mullins.

Needless to say we gift Sheffield United a win when the game had 0-0 written all over it.

I know we have injuries, but lack of personnel has been compounded by tactical ineptitude.