Louis van Gaal has ruled out starting with Marouane Fellaini as a striker in a bid to end Manchester United's goal drought.
Under-fire Wayne Rooney began as United's main striker in Saturday's 0-0 draw with Palace, which was their third consecutive stalemate, but manager Van Gaal will not drop him to use Fellaini as a centre-forward.
The Belgian midfielder has previously been pressed into service in attack, but Van Gaal is adamant it is not part of his original gameplan.
"When I put him on as a striker, he is only a striker in Plan B, not Plan A," Van Gaal told reporters.
"He has played as a striker once, against Liverpool [in September], but that was because I had a problem [with injuries] and that is why I made him the striker from the beginning. However, that is not normal."
"He has to compete as a midfielder because he is more a midfielder than a striker."
Meanwhile, Crystal Palace manager Alan Pardew has revealed that the key to keeping United quiet was to stop Anthony Martial, rather than captain Rooney who has netted just twice in 10 Premier League games.
Pardew was pleased with how Palace defended against Martial on Saturday, even swapping full-backs during the match so Joel Ward could take over from Martin Kelly, who had already been booked for fouling the 19-year-old Frenchman.
"We didn't give Martial an inch," the former Newcastle manager said. "Not an inch."
Pardew felt United were much less incisive when their £36 million signing was nullified, explaining: "It was a big target for us to stop him and we felt that if we could stop him we could stop their creative angle. And when you take into account his age, that's some recommendation.
"With such a young player, he'll have to be very, very careful, the Manchester United manager, to keep his exuberance there. Because we're all looking to stop him."