The second international window of the season is upon us and Oliver Glasner has time to unpick the riddle of Selhurst Park.
The Crystal Palace manager’s team are patently capable of producing competitive, creative football, the kind that can pose problems for a side even as ruthlessly efficient as Liverpool. But, once again, their quality only emerges in fits and starts; the product of mid-game changes or the intervention of the half-time whistle.
On Saturday, it was not enough to secure a much-coveted and much-needed first league victory of the campaign.
“We had enough chances but we didn’t score,” said Glasner. “It’s not going so easily at the moment. That’s completely understandable for me. If you don’t have the results, the confidence of the attacking players suffers.
“But again, performance, character, creating so many chances against the best defending team in the Premier League at the moment… it encourages us.”
Focusing solely on that encouragement is not easy, not least with the team in the bottom three for the first time since March 2018. They will be stewing on that over the next two weeks. Palace have failed to win any of their opening seven league games, the fifth time they have done so in the Premier League (1992-93, 1994-95, 2004-05, and 2017-18). On three of those occasions, they were relegated and on the fourth, in 2017, the manager, Frank de Boer, was dismissed four games into that sequence.
Glasner will be aware of the pitfalls. The longer this run goes on, the more confidence can seep away. If left unchecked, this can derail a season.
But we are clearly not there yet. The visual evidence reflects the detail of their results, which all indicate that Palace are not being comprehensively outplayed or beaten, but are in fact running opponents close. They just cannot knit together a complete picture.
Against Liverpool, their mediocre first-half produced one shot on goal compared with Liverpool’s eight, but that was replaced by eight attempts in the second period, matching Liverpool’s offering. They could easily have had a penalty, too, when Marc Guehi was pulled back in the box by Virgil van Dijk. The substitutes, particularly Jean-Philippe Mateta and Will Hughes, had a significant impact on the game, with Mateta creating three chances for team-mates.
But their intervention from the bench followed a starting selection that had largely been well-received. Eddie Nketiah, a natural No 9 who had previously been operating as a No 10, was thrust up top for the first time, and Jefferson Lerma returned to midfield with Daichi Kamada dropping out. The solutions, then, are not coming easily either.
“They had a great impact again,” said Glasner of his substitutes. “With JP and his physicality, Will Hughes with his willingness — a player who brings a lot of energy. But it’s the same (feeling). We always want this from the beginning.”
The causes of this slump are well documented.
There is Michael Olise’s summer exit, and the fact that Palace have only won one league match without him — against 10-man Burnley in February — under Glasner. Can Sarr and Kamada fill the creative void left behind? There’s the hangover of a demanding summer and an increasingly international squad, impacting the likes of Adam Wharton, whose fitness issues are evidently holding him back. He struggled on Saturday while Daniel Munoz, who spent the summer at Copa America with Colombia, succumbed to injury.
“Many managers have talked about it, but it’s no coincidence international players get injured,” said Glasner.
There is also the loss of Joachim Andersen, and the integration of a new-look defence. Such radical change was always going to cast some kind of shadow over the start of this campaign.
The opening moments of Saturday’s contest spoke to the impacts of this disruption. Nketiah led the attack for the first time and, in his eagerness to make a mark, stepped half a yard offside before putting away Sarr’s cross inside the first minute. He really should have looked along the line and remained onside to score.
Debutant Trevoh Chalobah, the Chelsea loanee, endured an unsettling pre-season and picked up an injury immediately upon signing for Palace, and that rustiness was typified by how he let Diogo Jota ghost beyond him to score eight minutes later. “When he’s found his rhythm, he defends it,” said Glasner.
Those two moments, inside the opening 10 minutes, altered the trajectory of the game.
Liverpool were still dominant overall and could have scored more, with Jota particularly guilty of squandering chances. But to be in a position where the team should really have equalised, with Eberechi Eze guilty of missing the team’s best chances, does point to a side that is still very much competing.
“They are knowing each other better and now (the task) is to find the right setup,” said Glasner. “Maybe we have to adjust a little bit, but in every game we are competitive. Yes, we don’t get the results at the moment. This is frustrating. But there’s just one way you can turn it around: stay together, believe in your work and work on it.
“This is what we did in the game. After being 1-0 down at half-time and struggling, it could end up being three, four or five. But this team always comes back.”
Glasner’s task is to turn fits and starts into something consistent over 90 minutes and not, like here and against Manchester United last month, rely on alterations to instil energy into the contest. Only once this season have Palace not improved the number of chances they are creating compared to those they are conceding after half time.
|
Opponent
|
First half xG difference
|
Second half xG difference
▲
|
|---|---|---|
 West Ham |
-0.01xG
|
-0.03 xG
|
 Everton |
-1.06 xG
|
0.14 xG
|
 Liverpool |
– 0.55 xG
|
-0.19 xG
|
 Brentford |
-0.54 xG
|
-0.28 xG
|
 Chelsea |
-0.53 xG
|
-0.31 xG
|
|
-1.25 xG
|
0.56 xG
|
|
 Leicester |
0.29 xG
|
1.43 xG
|
Expected goal difference compares the quality of chances created by a team (expected goals) compared to those they are conceding (expected goals against)
“Now it is our job and our responsibility — my responsibility, and my job — to improve the understanding of what we want to do, in possession, out of possession, to create more chances and to be more stable in defence, like the second half. This is what we will do.”
Three other teams are without a win in the Premier League, and two more sides within touching distance above Palace. It will only take a short run to turn the tide for Palace.
The disappointment, of course, is that the promise of last season’s run-in has faded so quickly.
(Top photo: Jacques Feeney/Offside via Getty Images)
