As has been said, not having Mahrez, Gundo or KDB (and I’d say Palmer too) and the fact that Phillips, Kovacic, Nunes are not good enough or are not trusted by Pep is one major reason for our current issues.
Doku is clearly much better on the left than the right (Pep thinks so anyway) so we now have two players for that position and so we have not replaced Mahrez or Palmer. We have Silva or Foden who can play on the right which means one of them is not available in the middle.
Consequently central midfield is not packed with quality options after the automatic pick of Rodri. Kovacic has been pretty bad in my opinion, Nunes isn’t solid enough or disciplined enough. Foden is exceptional except that he loses the ball too much in midfield (like the other two do as well) and isn’t strong enough so bigger players bounce him off balance.
Alvarez is a great player but this system and opposition who park the bus doesn’t suit his style of play.
The managers game management wasn’t up to it against Palace. He didn’t trust the bench and made the sub too late. He really should have had a plan to control
Possession after going up 2 nil and should have strengthened midfield with JS earlier.