Wharton and Ndoye Start as Palace Host Forest at Selhurst Park

Crystal Palace and Nottingham Forest have confirmed their starting XIs for their Premier League meeting at Selhurst Park. Adam Wharton starts for the hosts. Dan Ndoye starts for the visitors. Anan Khalaili, Chris Richards and Daichi Kamada are also in the confirmed lineups.

Wharton's inclusion gives Palace their primary progressive passer in central midfield. In the hosts' setup, the central pair carries the ball through the first line of pressure, and Wharton's role decides whether Palace's back three can play out or whether they go long toward the front line.

Ndoye gives Forest a runner between the lines and a direct carrier who can attack the space behind Palace's wing-backs. Forest's shape asks their two attacking midfielders to receive in the half-spaces, and Ndoye is the profile that fits that brief.

Chris Richards anchors the Palace back line, and Daichi Kamada takes one of the two attacking midfield slots. Those four names, plus Wharton, form the spine of the confirmed XIs.

Both teams line up with a back three and wing-backs, which makes the match a question of who wins the middle four. Each side fields two central midfielders against the other's two, leaving the wing-backs as the free men in build-up and the attacking midfielders as the players who must find pockets between the opposition's midfield and back line.

Palace's mechanics run through Wharton and Kamada: Wharton to progress, Kamada to combine. Forest's run through Ndoye and their second attacking midfielder, with the wing-backs stretching the pitch to open the inside channels. Neither team has a spare body in central midfield, so the first side to break the other's press gets a clean run at a back three that can be pulled apart by quick switches.

Richards' presence in the Palace back three matters for the aerial duels and for stepping into midfield when Wharton is marked out. The same logic applies at the other end, where Forest's back three must decide how aggressively to follow Ndoye's runs or hold their line.

Kick-off at Selhurst Park has not produced in-play attacking totals, so the pre-match read is structural rather than statistical. The confirmed shapes tell you where the game will be won: the central four, the half-spaces, and the space behind each wing-back.

Palace will look to Wharton to set the tempo and Kamada to link with the front line. Forest will look to Ndoye to carry them up the pitch and to their second attacking midfielder to arrive in the box. With mirrored setups, the match is decided by which set of wing-backs and attacking midfielders executes better.

Both managers have their preferred structure on the pitch. The selections confirm it. What happens inside those shapes starts now.