Oliver Glasner is feeling the pressure at Crystal Palace. After 11 games, his side languish in the relegation zone with just seven points in a significant reversal of fortunes from the tail end of last season.
Goals are at a premium, with only Southampton (seven) having scored fewer than Palace’s eight. The club have only twice had fewer points after this number of games in a Premier League campaign.
A dismal home defeat by Fulham on Saturday compounded their woes. There were eight senior players unavailable through injury and suspension, with Glasner having chosen to name only 20 senior outfield players in his Premier League squad.
Those injuries left Palace with a threadbare side which included the 21-year-old Justin Devenny, on debut, alongside centre-back Marc Guehi in central midfield for the first half.
There was a makeshift feel to Palace’s side against Fulham (Warren Little/Getty Images)
Compounding the issues over squad depth is the reality that the club’s summer recruitment has yet to bear any fruit.
Of the seven senior arrivals, only Maxence Lacroix has made a significant contribution to date. Daichi Kamada, a player whose signing Glasner championed, has floundered. Ismaila Sarr and Eddie Nketiah do not have a single league goal or assist between them, while Chadi Riad has been injured since late August.
The result is one win in those 11 league games played so far this season.
Added to their worries, Palace face the toughest run of fixtures this side of Christmas according to the Opta Power Rankings, which uses the ELO ratings algorithm to predict the outcomes of matches. They will play Aston Villa, Newcastle, Ipswich, Manchester City, Brighton and Arsenal.
Yet despite the difficulties, Glasner remains a popular figure with the hierarchy and there is an acknowledgement that the £50million ($64.7m) received from the sale of Michael Olise to Bayern Munich was spent too late in the summer, hampering progress.
But Palace have been here before with a manager finding himself in an unenviable position, let down by those above while making his own mistakes and struggling for results. There are parallels to be drawn from previous campaigns. But can we draw any conclusions from how Palace reacted to this predicament in the recent past?
Patrick Vieira’s first season — 2021-22
Were there similarities with this campaign?
Vieira’s first season in charge of Palace is considered with fondness after the team broke several records. In a 38-game Premier League season they recorded a first positive goal difference, their fewest number of defeats and goals conceded, and their second-highest goal, victory and points tally.
Yet it was not exclusively positive.
They went through a period of just two wins in 14 games over the winter, a sequence that saw Vieira’s position under threat by the time his side visited Watford in February 2022. The intention was that, if Palace suffered defeat at Vicarage Road, his fate would have been sealed — but Palace emerged 4-1 winners.
That run of games had concerned the hierarchy but performances were always better than the results they yielded. Palace were competitive in the vast majority of games. Furthermore, their struggles were masked by the maintenance of a mid-table position — born of only two defeats in their opening 12 games — and a run of wins in the FA Cup. That gave a sense of security and impetus.
Conor Gallagher and Vieira applaud the fans after drawing at home to Manchester City in March 2022 (Justin Setterfield/Getty Images)
It was different too, as a significant number of younger players were settling into a new team which had undergone a summer overhaul.
Olise was raw but exciting, Conor Gallagher excelled on loan from Chelsea, and both Joachim Andersen and Guehi were a calming influence having quickly struck up an excellent defensive partnership.
Everyone wanted it to work. The style of football was so radically different to what had gone before under Roy Hodgson that, again, results were slightly overlooked more than they might otherwise have been in favour of the entertainment factor. Vieira’s stature and his charismatic personality also helped.
Palace won eight of their final 16 games in all competitions that season, including their run to the FA Cup semi-final. It felt like there was a sense of purpose and direction.
What was happening with the owners?
There was hefty investment in the squad after John Textor paid £87.5million ($112m) for a 40 per cent stake in the club to become the fourth General Partner that summer. He had initially sought to buy a controlling stake.
There were initial signs of promise that the new arrangement — with Textor joining his compatriots David Blitzer and Josh Harris, as well as chairman Steve Parish — would provide the recruitment department and manager with the financial support to bolster the squad and instigate progression.
But by April 2022, Blitzer and Harris had their sights set elsewhere. The pair were involved in a consortium which was ultimately unsuccessful in its bid to buy fellow Premier League side Chelsea.
What was the outcome?
Palace persevered with Vieira after the fine end to the season and went into the summer buoyed.
Textor’s arrival injected funds to strengthen the squad (Wagner Meier/Getty Images)
Vieira’s second season — 2022-23
Were there similarities with this campaign?
The second season under Vieira perhaps echoes the current plight most obviously.
Between mid-November and March, Vieira won just one league game in 14. His tactical decisions became increasingly peculiar, particularly with his team selections that cast Eberechi Eze to the fringes.
With Cheick Doucoure suspended for a 3-0 defeat by Everton at Goodison Park in October, Vieira was asked if he had considered playing two defensive midfielders to cover his role. His answer was a sharp, succinct “no”. It reflected his intransigence and stubbornness when it came to tactics that season.
His reluctance to use Eze — seeking to return to his best after a long-term Achilles injury, but still one of Palace’s most important players — was puzzling. When he was involved, Eze was played as a pressing central midfielder, a role which failed to coax out form. Vieira too often played his attackers in roles which were not considered to be their best. By the end, Eze looked broken.
Eze laboured under Vieira (Ryan Pierse/Getty Images)
Palace were competitive in most of those games. But, where expectations were significantly higher after the achievements of 2021-22, the style of play was a radical departure from that first season, becoming more ponderous and defensive.
The parallels are clear with Glasner this season. Like Vieira, he has had to contend with injuries to his squad, but his system — and his intransigence to changing it — is not benefitting his attackers. Neither Nketiah nor Sarr are natural No 10s. Both have toiled. Palace have scored three league goals from open play all season. Yet the system has not changed.
How did recruitment work?
That summer, Palace’s transfer activity was limited. Goalkeeper Sam Johnstone arrived on a free transfer after his West Bromwich Albion contract expired, and defender Chris Richards joined from Bayern Munich for an initial £10million ($13m).
The outstanding deal was the signing of a then 22-year-old Doucoure from Lens in a deal worth up to £26million ($33.6m). He quickly became integral in midfield. But with Gallagher returning to his parent club, and Cheikhou Kouyate released, Palace’s squad was not strengthened sufficiently and there was minimal activity in January.
Vieira called for backing in the transfer market to no avail, while making mistakes of his own — just as Glasner has this season.
What was happening with the owners?
Now it was Textor thinking about looking elsewhere. He had a multi-club model through his Eagle Football vehicle and there were significant tensions between him and Parish.
The pair disagreed over the concept of Palace being involved in a multi-club model and the club’s immediate priorities, with Textor preferring to spend more in the transfer market and Parish prioritising improvements to the club’s infrastructure.
Palace’s fans voiced scepticism over Textor’s multi-club ownership model (Adam Davy/PA Images via Getty Images)
What was the outcome?
In the end, a brutal run of fixtures exclusively against top-half teams saw Palace slip down the Premier League table, hovering above the relegation zone. Three successive games without a shot on target and a defeat by arch-rivals Brighton & Hove Albion meant that Vieira’s position was untenable and he was sacked.
Roy Hodgson 2023-24
Were there similarities with this season?
Hodgson took over in March 2023 charged with steering Palace away from relegation and achieved it in style, winning five of the last 10 games with his team playing a far more exciting brand of football.
But what followed was all too familiar. An underwhelming transfer window was compounded by injuries eating into a thin squad, with stagnant football failing to produce results. Two wins in 13 league games between October and the end of December put Hodgson’s job in jeopardy.
That crippling injury list was key. At one point the list of absentees, headed by Olise and Eze, was so severe he could only just name a full complement of senior starters. Ring any bells?
Palace failed to build on the initial impetus provided by Hodgson and Ray Lewington’s return (Ian Kington/AFP via Getty Images)
How did recruitment work?
Wilfried Zaha left for Galatasaray, while James McArthur and Luka Milivojevic were released. Midfielder Jefferson Lerma joined on a free early in the window after his Bournemouth contract expired, but Rob Holding was the only other senior outfield player signed — from Arsenal for around £1m ($1.3m).
The young attacker Matheus Franca joined from Flamengo but was always considered to be a prospect rather than an immediate option to impact games. He also arrived injured. Goalkeeper Dean Henderson was the most extravagant outlay, with £15m ($19m) plus another potential £5m in add-ons paid to Manchester United.
The squad felt light, particularly up front with no new senior forward coming in to fill the void left by Zaha.
What was happening with the owners?
Textor was increasingly agitated and eager to find a club where he could take advantage of Eagle’s model.
What was the outcome?
Hodgson was close to being sacked by Palace when he collapsed during a training session in February. That ultimately led to the 76-year-old stepping down as manager and Glasner being appointed in his place.
A beleaguered Hodgson talks with Olise as the team succumb at Brighton in February (Sebastian Frej/MB Media/Getty Images)
Oliver Glasner — 2024-present
And so to the present day. Palace were revived by Glasner over last season’s run in, fuelling expectations to levels similar to those at the end of Vieira’s first campaign. The hope was of a push for Europe. But another disappointing transfer window undermined those aspirations.
Glasner has repeatedly bemoaned the decision to sign four players late in the last 24 hours of the window. For Zaha, read Olise: Palace have not adequately replaced him and, instead, spent hefty sums on Nketiah and Sarr. The squad is weaker than it was a year ago.
Glasner, though, is culpable in his desire to work with just 20 senior outfield players. If the squad was more balanced — there are nine senior players who can operate at centre-back, but only two wing-backs and one genuine No 10 — and did not have a history of being wrecked by injuries then there might be more logic to the decision.
He has, though, not coaxed the best out of Eze this season and appears to be wedded to his system with only minimal in-game tweaks.
Daichi Kamada trudges off following his dismissal against Fulham (Zac Goodwin/PA Images via Getty Images)
Their run of form is concerning but they have, just as under Vieira, been competitive in most games. Individual errors can and must be reduced.
In the background, the situation regarding the owners remain unsettled with Textor seeking either a controlling stake or an exit. Either of those outcomes is still possible. But the uncertainty is unhelpful, unsettling and risks holding Palace back.
Glasner’s success last season has not been forgotten and that is part of the reason he remains popular with the Palace hierarchy. It is not inconceivable that he will turn things around and prove to be successful as Palace manager. He will go into a daunting run of games leading up to the January window with the backing of the board.
But Palace, as recent history demonstrates, still have to prove they can break free of this damaging cycle of boom and bust.
(Top photo: Barry Coombs/PA Images via Getty Images)
