Stability is a word that is commonly used all around the world, in all jobs and in the life of all people. In football is no different, and Crystal Palace have been in the search for this in many years. It may sound boring to be stuck in the same mid-table place, but it’s also not pleasant to see your team fighting against relegation every season. Stability is something that the majority of Crystal Palace fans are crying for.
Since the club got promoted back to the Premier League in 2012/13, Palace have had six permanent managers, including the likes of Sam Allardyce, Alan Pardew and most recently, Frank De Boer. We all know that changes of managers can help players, but this is not a guarantee. Changing managers most of the times means changing ideas and players usually take time to adapt to a different style of play.
The closest Palace came from the so-wanted consistency was under Alan Pardew. Before the former Newcastle man took over in 2014/15, Palace only managed to win three league games in 20. At the end of the season, Pardew guided Palace to a 10th placed finish, their best in the Premier League era. After a disastrous 2016, Pardew left the club after almost two years.
This season, Frank De Boer was sent packing from Selhurst Park after just five games, four of them in the Premier League. Crystal Palace at that point were not able to win a single point and also unable to score a goal, but it was understandable. For a team used to play a direct, physical and counter-attacking football, the transition to a complete different style can take time but, at some point, pays off.
De Boer showed in his first few games in the dugout what he had in mind for Palace. Some people say he tried to turn Palace into the Dutch Total Football team. At Ajax, De Boer played a fluid and possession based style that clearly worked out, winning four league titles in row in six seasons.
Something to keep in mind when speaking of De Boer’s tenure at Crystal Palace is that the squad was basically built by former managers, players that on paper, are suited to a different footballing approach. One transfer window isn’t enough to build a squad with players of choice, although Palace already had good technicians in Yohan Cabaye and Luka Milivojevic.
I spoke to Jim Daly, formerly of football.london and ESPN, and host of the Five Year Plan, a Palace podcast which is one of the biggest club podcasts in England. Jim told:
I think Frank De Boer needed to learn about the Premier League, needed to learn how to manage games in the Premier League, needed to become tactically a bit more aware. I think that would’ve come, he would’ve learn those things through more games.
Obviously four league games and one cup game is not a lot of time at all and actually, at his last game at Burnley when we lost 1-0, we really should’ve won, we were all over them. I remember coming away from that game thinking: “Okay, I think he is starting to learn now”. We played much better, a lot more organised and I thought he might have been turning the corner at that point. Of course, the next day, he was fired.
When the dutchman got the sack, Palace made it clear they wanted one man and one man only. Born in Croydon, a Palace fan and experienced manager who did the trick of saving a club from relegation previously. A perfect match isn’t it? One day after De Boer’s departure, the club announced Roy Hodgson.
Being involved with the managerial scenario since 1976, Roy is often remembered for his rather unsuccessful spell as England manager, which lasted four years. With The Three Lions, Roy’s side got knocked out on the group stage in Brazil and later followed a disappointing elimination to Iceland in the Euros.
He is way to long in the tooth, he is too experienced, he has been through all this too many times to care about what happened with England, Jim said.
If anything, everytime he talks about England, he is very proud about the fact he got to manage his country.
I think that in football, managers and players, mostly, they look forward. They never look back. Because they can get bogged down in nostalgia and it can stop you from pushing forward.
This was the main thing for Roy: Look forward. Palace came knocking on his door knowing that he was unsuccessful with England, but that was Crystal Palace not England. Jim said that Roy felt Palace was the place for him to be, and this is exactly the case.
I’ve said it before, it’s the perfect match. Roy Hodgson started his lackluster playing career at Palace, before going down the leagues. If anything, Roy sees this jobs as an opportunity to getting back to the roots, helping a club that have always had a meaning to him. Palace was the right place to him move forward and this is proving to be right.
Since his arrival at South London, Palace are 8th in the Premier League by recent form, including a run of just one defeat in 13 games, with a great game against Manchester City that ended in a 0-0 draw. Making Roy’s impact even more clearer, since he took over, Palace’s defence is the 5th best in the league. Since his appointment, Palace have conceded 16 goals in as many games, a huge improvement compared to the 17 conceded under Frank De Boer.
Certainly that improvement on the defensive side has a touch of Roy’s player management. Talking with Jim, he said that one of the main changes made by Roy was getting players believing in themselves again, being more organised on the pitch and working hard on the training ground. Danny Murphy told on Match of the Day how Roy demands in the training. He pushes the players to their limits and as for Palace, it’s definitely playing off.
Players improving
Bakary Sako is arguably the player who took the most of Roy’s taking over. Signed from Wolves on a free transfer in 2015, the former Saint-Etienne man had a prolific season in the Championship and appeared to be a player that would improve Palace with pace and strength.
Despite dealing with injuries in his time at Croydon, missing 20 games in total, Sako wasn’t given a chance to prove himself under previous managers. Last season, the Mali international played only seven times in the Premier League, a tally he has doubled this season.
Another number that stands out are his goals. In the seven games he’s played in the Premier League under Roy Hodgson, Bakary Sako matched his goal total for Palace in the whole of the two previous seasons. Despite starting just five games, Sako is Palace’s top scorer this season in all competitions.
This recent and big improvement by Sako is not an accident. Here is what Jim had to say about him:
Sako is the perfect example of a Roy player getting confidence. He kinda believes he is better than he is, he is a sort of decent Championship winger/striker, but he plays like he thinks he is Ronaldinho and it works. He has scored in the last few games, was brilliant against Burnley in the weekend and it all comes from this big self-confidence and clearly Roy helped getting it into him.
Yes, Sako may not be the best winger in the Premier League and not even in the Championship but, as Jim said, this is what Roy does with players. He gets them believing in themselves and as an attacking player, if he gets a bit confidence, he can get going and have a big impact.
On Palace’s last game against Burnley, which ended in a 1-0 for Roy’s side, Sako gave Palace the winner, taking the ball on the left and making a great run inside before putting it away. Despite from scoring the goal, Sako helped Palace pressure Burnley from the front and pay back the trust given by Roy.
Embed from Getty ImagesAnother thing that stands out for Palace in this recent run is their defence. I’ve already said it, they are the 5th best defence in the Premier League since Roy came in. Maybe the biggest answer for this is that Roy got his players ready, do the job whenever they are called upon. That’s been the case with Crystal Palace’s defenders.
Palace have the second most injuries in the Premier League, with eight. From these eight, four of them are defenders, most notably Scott Dann and Mamadou Sakho, probably Palace’s best centre-back duo. With Dann out indefinetely and Sakho only scheduled to return in February, the injuries left Roy with James Tomkins, Martin Kelly and Damien Delaney as centre-back options.
Despite not being starters by any means, these players are doing a great job. Tomkins and Kelly started together in the last two games and Palace ended up winning both, games that considering the league table, Palace were underdogs.
Wilfried Zaha didn’t get to see much of De Boer, being injured in the whole tenure of the dutchman. However, Zaha has been one of the most influential players under Roy Hodgson.
So far this season, Zaha have scored four goals, including an important one against Chelsea at Selhurst Park, Palace’s first Premier League win of the season back in October. With his goals this season, Zaha bettered all of his Palace seasons since rejoining the club from Manchester United, apart from the last, where he scored seven times.
With pretty much half of the season left, Zaha can have is best goalscoring season in his career at Palace, being the main attacking threat in the team. With pace, skill and physicality, Zaha can lead Palace to their best times in recent history. Also, Zaha is adored by the fans, another reason why he’s always been brilliant in South London.
What Palace expect moving forward?
After turning Palace’s fortunes around, all Roy needs to do is keep going. Keep growing the confidence of the players and working hard, then all will come.
Injuries have been a thorn in the side for Palace this season and it won’t be surprising to see Palace active in the rest of the transfer window. Recently, Roy Hodgson said the club would be ideally looking at signing four players and according to reports, a striker and goalkeepers are the priority.
Steve Parish was in the last episode of Jim’s podcast and told what was the plan for the club in the transfer window:
The striker thing is well documented, but the striker market is unbelievably difficult. Everybody is out there looking for one. It isn’t the force of your will that gets these things done, and we have to bring the right characters as well.
Everyone is looking for first-teamers in January. If we’re sitting in our boardroom then Swansea and Southampton will be talking about the same players in many respects.
People know about the odd player we’re linked to, and you pretty much get offered every player.
Jim also told me that Palace planned to do a major shake-up in the squad, but the club changed their stance due to Roy’s incredible turnaround. But we still can expect the club to make some bussiness due to high number of injuries to important players, with Scott Dann, Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Jeffrey Schlupp as examples.
The main name linked with Crystal Palace is West Ham forward Diafra Sakho, who saw game time limited recently. Other forward names that are being discussed by the media are Kouma Babacar, playing his trade in Fiorentina, and there is rumoured interest in Liverpool’s Danny Ings.
The goalkeeper is another position that Palace may be looking to strength, with only Wayne Hennessey and Julian Speroni as first-teamers. According to swedish paper Expressen, Palace are interest in Copenhagen’s goalkeeper and Sweden international Robin Olsen.
As for the expectations from the fans, Jim told me that all Palace supporters want is stability.
As Roy not being a long-term prospect, all he can do is put Palace in confortable situation to his successor. With Palace now in 12th, keep the good run going is vital to stay up in a season that they looked to be destined for the Championship. Stability is the key word for Palace fans and what Roy has been able to do so far gives them big hopes of that.
Gabriel Coelho
PS: Huge shout-out to Jim Daly for helping me with this piece. His insight on Crystal Palace and Roy Hodgson was vital to give life into this. I’ll leave his links down below:
Five Year Plan podcast
The Final Whistle 