Friday 10 February 2017 12:36, UK
Crystal Palace boss Sam Allardyce is hoping for defensive improvements as Mamadou Sakho and Luka Milivojevic are available to face Stoke on Saturday.
On-loan Liverpool defender Sakho and Milivojevic are yet to make their debuts for the club, while Patrick van Aanholt and Jeffrey Schlupp have played since moving from Sunderland and Leicester respectively.
Three of this quartet are defenders and Allardyce realises his defence will have a major part to play if Palace are to avoid relegation to the Championship, with 19th-placed Palace conceding 45 goals in 24 Premier League games this season.
"I thought we turned the corner at Bournemouth," Allardyce said. "But last Saturday at home (lost 4-0 to Sunderland), it was like a hot knife through butter - wide open. No defensive solidarity.
"We have to be good and we have to be tactically efficient. It's like what Swansea and Hull are doing - particularly against Liverpool.
"We have to rectify our home form and I keep preaching the same thing: If you can't win, don't lose. But we keep losing! We need to get a result, got to pick points up.
"We've got to look at the Bournemouth performance and look to try to repeat that. Solid with no errors. There were so many against Sunderland."
As for January's four signings, Allardyce confirmed: "Three new boys have played in the Premier League - only Luka hasn't.
"So there's a decision to take on whether to throw him in. Some new players will play. Certainly all are in the squad. There's a two week period coming up to integrate them all properly.
"All four new signings are available. Luka's finally in with his visa, now we'll see if we risk throwing him in. Luka got back here Wednesday, but he'd been following the programme back at home."
Regarding the game against the Potters, Allardyce added: "Stoke is always difficult to play against. They are a little bit more direct than they used to be, now that Peter Crouch is back in.
"We've got the fans travelling away for free on Saturday, so we'll have a big crowd to get behind the team and we need to perform.
"We've got a reasonably good record in the league away from home, hopefully that will continue at Stoke."
The former West Ham and Bolton boss also confirmed reports that chairman Steve Parish had visited the dressing room following the home defeat to Sunderland.
"That was him releasing his frustration on the basis that he is a Palace fan and he wanted to talk to the players," he said.
"By the end it was all clear what we'd been through and how we'd let ourselves down. We've got to bounce back and show some fighting spirit now."
