When Manchester United’s forwards were shown clips by the club’s analysts of the goals their next opponents Crystal Palace have conceded this season, they could well have licked their lips in anticipation.
United are strongest in transition, with Marcus Rashford returning to form, Alejandro Garnacho eager to run beyond the opposition back line and Bruno Fernandes a willing facilitator with balls in behind, especially on the flanks. So when Palace host United tomorrow, they will need to be careful when committing players forward if they are to avoid being caught out by quick counter-attacks.
Ignore Palace’s struggles in attack over these early weeks. Their vulnerability at the back has seen five of the seven goals they have shipped in the 2024-25 Premier League conceded from transitions. That has been the most pressing concern of their winless campaign.
Manager Oliver Glasner encourages his side to press high wherever possible, searching for specific triggers to hassle the opposition into mistakes which turn over possession. Daniel Munoz at right wing-back is key to that and enjoys marauding forward to great effect. Tyrick Mitchell is relatively limited in that regard, but still more than capable when the support is there.
But pushing up means space behind and vulnerability. It is a balance of risk and reward, but has been skewed too far towards the first of those by individual mistakes. Palace have lacked the comfortable, confident structure they found in the final weeks of last season.
Some of that may be down to the change in personnel at the back.
Palace may have seen off Newcastle United’s pursuit of Marc Guehi, but they chose to sell his centre-back partner of three years, Joachim Andersen, to Fulham. The fee of around £30million ($39.6m) for a 28-year-old on a hefty salary was sensible financial business, but after he started the season-opening defeat against Brentford before completing that transfer, they have missed Andersen’s presence in the three games since.
Andersen was not the quickest and it may be that his absence is not a contributory factor, but it does seem to have unsettled Guehi. In his place has come Maxence Lacroix from Germany’s Wolfsburg, a player with no Premier League experience, albeit one familiar with working with Glasner having played under him in the Bundesliga.
Lacroix has looked clunky and ungainly so far. He is settling into new surroundings and will need time, but he is yet to showcase his ability playing on either the right or left of the back three.
Elsewhere, Chris Richards has struggled on the left. Chadi Riad, another newcomer, laboured against West Ham and is now injured. Nathaniel Clyne endured some difficult moments against Leicester and Guehi has been far from at his best in a less-familiar central role.
So how have Palace, a team who conceded only four goals in their final seven matches last season, been bypassed so easily in the early stages of this one?
On the opening weekend against Brentford, Palace were caught in transition for the first goal, with their opponents beating the press.
Palace have five players ahead of the ball, and six in Brentford’s half, as the below GIF begins, having tried to press them into a mistake. Centre-back Andersen has committed to the attack too, and is out of position as a result.
Vitaly Janelt passes to Christian Norgaard, who plays a ball through to Yoane Wissa just over the halfway line. Wissa receives and instantly plays a through ball between Guehi and Richards — who has come across to cover for Andersen.
That allows Bryan Mbeumo to run inside from the right flank. He bears down on goal after collecting the pass, throws Guehi off-balance by shifting his body weight to the left and shoots beyond an unsighted Dean Henderson.
Palace have managed to get three players behind the ball by this point, but the speed of Brentford’s counter is too much.
Two weeks later, in the 1-1 draw at Chelsea, the above scenario was revisited.
Guehi is the centre-back marauding upfield this time. He charges forward with the ball, deep into Chelsea territory, and plays a pass into Jean-Philippe Mateta’s feet. But the striker fails to hold the ball up and is tackled by Levi Colwill.
With Palace committing seven players ahead of the ball, Colwill sends Noni Madueke on his way down the right.
Mitchell is out of position after coming forward to offer another option. Madueke escapes the attention of Will Hughes, who is reluctant to take the Chelsea forward out to cynically stop the break as he is already on a yellow card. He cannot cope with Madueke’s pace.
Madueke then slips in Cole Palmer, with Chelsea overloading Palace four players to three. This takes out both Richards and Clyne, with Palmer cutting the ball across the face of goal to present Nicolas Jackson with a tap-in.
In between those fixtures was another London derby, at home against West Ham United, in which Palace also struggled to defend opposition counter-attacks.
Midway through the second half, with the game goalless, Mateta plays a poor pass to Mitchell, who is tackled by Konstantinos Mavropanos. Aaron Wan-Bissaka comes away in possession, Daichi Kamada launches himself into a challenge but the defender skips past and carries the ball further upfield.
Even with eight players in good positions to stop the attack, Palace fail to do so.
Kamada and Eberechi Eze let Jarrod Bowen run between them and receive a pass from Wan-Bissaka, who has evaded the attention of Riad and Mitchell. This allows Bowen to charge into the space and cause problems for Palace’s defence. Lucas Paqueta is unmarked and free to run into the area and receive a Bowen pass.
West Ham still threaten to make a mess of the opportunity with Paqueta failing to control the ball, but it eventually falls to Tomas Soucek who, having made a run into the area, opens up his body and curls a finish past Henderson.
For West Ham’s second, Eze loses possession poorly in the opposition half. Maximilian Kilman carries it out of defence, with six Palace players committed forward. Guehi and Richards are positioned to run back towards their own goal and Adam Wharton misses a challenge on Kilman.
Kilman brings the ball into Palace territory and switches the play to Bowen. Glasner’s defence is scattered and heavily skewed to the right side of the pitch, leaving Riad isolated one-v-one with the England international, who has cut inside. Kamada tries to come across to help out but is too late and Bowen shoots beyond Henderson.
During the 2-2 home draw with Leicester City on Saturday, the visitors’ first goal was a simpler but no less effective counter-attack.
Mateta misplaces a pass back to Wharton, who is first unable to control the ball and then fails to dispossess Wilfred Ndidi. That in turn leaves the latter free in space, with Palace’s high defensive line exposing them. Ndidi plays a pass over the top for Jamie Vardy who escapes the attention of Guehi, runs onto the ball and rounds a hesitant Henderson to score into an empty net.
“We lost the ball in midfield and, for me, it would be a problem in the structure if we then have an underload; if they run two against one, three against two on our goal,” Glasner said post-match of that goal.
“But it was when we lost the ball, Let’s say we are when the guy who has the ball is three against two for us. So we have all the back three here and the goalkeeper. But we couldn’t defend it. It was well played, we knew that Jamie Vardy has great movement, he has scored many goals in the Premier League like this and, even though he’s not 20 anymore, he’s a great finisher.
“Maybe we also need to play together for a longer time, so that everybody knows how the other one plays. But I can’t tell you the one reason because every goal is a little bit different.
“What’s clear is we concede many goals when we lose the ball.”
Palace’s defence may find themselves under more pressure given their team-mates’ inability to control midfield.
They must impose themselves in that area, starting against United tomorrow, if they are to find their feet this season.
(Top photo: John Walton/PA Images via Getty Images)
