Speaking in his pre-match press conference, the manager was asked about the specific example of Chris Richards, who made just his sixth Premier League for Palace in the 1-1 draw at West Ham United – but in a new role as a defensive midfielder.
The manager explained: “I haven't had any chances to prove his versatility or adaptability, because all the time I've been here, he's been a centre-back trying to get into the team in place of [Joachim] Andersen and [Marc] Guéhi and that's been a tough nut for him to crack.
“But it was an interesting experiment, if you like, or a thought we had about him as a player. We like him as a player. We think he’s got a lot of qualities. It seemed to us that he could play in that position, but it was an unknown. But it was lucky we took the chance, because he did extremely well and, as a result, I would think that has definitely added another string to his bow.
“He must be feeling pretty good about the fact that he found out late he was going to play, and then he was going to play in a position which he hadn't actually played for this club before, and he did it very well.”
On how he and his coaching staff – Paddy McCarthy, Ray Lewington and Dean Kiely – choose where to deploy their players, the manager expanded: “Before every game, in every situation, we discuss very carefully the options available to us and what we think is going to be the best team to confront the situation that we're going to have, and then we work on it on the training field.
“Between myself, Paddy, Ray and Dean Kiely… we speak to the players all the time. We speak to them in training, during training, about their training, and… I, perhaps more even so than the others, talk to them about where we see them in the grand scheme of things and how they're doing because I think that's part of the job.
“We try very hard to make certain that every player in this squad feels valuable. Every player in this squad has a clear idea of our thinking. And if we're going to send players out on the field to start matches, or to sit on the bench and maybe come in and play positions, we want to be 100 percent certain that the player understands exactly what we want from him, what we expect from him, and what his teammates expect from him.
“It's not just a question of what the coaches expect, it's what the teammates expect. When we coach a team… when you go into that team as one of the 11 players, you've not only got to satisfy the coaches, you've got to satisfy the other 10 players who are playing with you. They know what you're expected to do as well.”