Oliver Glasner may be familiar with slow starts but the statistics for Crystal Palace make for grim reading this season.
The club have made their joint-worst start to a Premier League season after eight games, they have only once before failed to win a game across that timeframe, they have scored the fewest goals in the division (five) and their second fewest across 16 campaigns.
You have to rewind to the 1992-93 season to find a previous campaign in which Palace had yet to win after eight games. Just four times in their overall league history have they matched that record. Only when they started disastrously under Frank de Boer in 2017-18 have they scored fewer goals in their opening eight games. On Monday night, a 1-0 win for Nottingham Forest made it five defeats from eight in the 2024-25 season, extending their stay in the relegation zone.
Glasner may, with some validation, feel aggrieved with comparisons to the final seven games of last season in which Palace went unbeaten, but it is inevitable that they will be made anyway. The contrast could scarcely be more stark — not just in results but in the performances and style of play.
What was previously a team that was enthralling to watch; engaging, exciting, pleasing on the eye with slick, quick interplay has become a slog. Now they are dull, ponderous, lacking intensity and struggling to create sufficiently strong opportunities or score goals. They had 20 shots against Forest, their most in a Premier League without scoring since 2018, but those efforts totalled only 1.0 expected goals.
“I don’t think it’s a tactical problem,” Glasner said in his press conference after defeat at the City Ground. “It’s a mentality problem — a lack of confidence. It’s my responsibility.” Responsibility for their poor start this time around should be shared, even if Glasner is right to take some of that criticism.
An underwhelming transfer window has left them short, especially in transition, an area where Glasner’s side were so effective at the back end of last season. That is a key aspect of how Glasner likes his team to attack alongside the triggers for pressing. With limited ball carriers who have the ability and confidence to take opponents on and stretch defences, Palace have struggled in attack.
Daichi Kamada has been largely ineffective so far (Photo by Sebastian Frej/MB Media/Getty Images)
The failure to replace Michael Olise adequately has weighed heavily on Palace, and breaking up the Marc Guehi and Joachim Andersen partnership has led to an unsettled defence lacking familiarity. Meanwhile Palace have only 20 senior outfield players in their squad — a conscious decision to reduce the size of the group.
But at the same time, Glasner has persisted with the ineffective Daichi Kamada — a player he pushed to sign after his contract expired with Lazio in the summer — has played Eddie Nketiah primarily in a No 10 role where, despite performing capably he is clearly more limited, and has until now stubbornly refused to adapt his system.
That does, at least, appear to be something he is becoming more prepared to compromise on.
“We always have an xG higher than one but we miss clear chances and the more we miss them the more the confidence goes down,” Glasner said. “We don’t create enough at the moment but it’s too much to expect us to play offensively brilliant. Maybe it is (time) to change the shape — today we played 3-5-2, maybe we need more players who have scored goals (and to) find the right formation.”
Against Forest he changed things slightly. Eberechi Eze played just off Nketiah up front with Kamada slotting into a midfield three. But their best attempts came when shooting from distance rather than creating opportunities through clever play. As with much of this season so far, there were moments where the attacking moves were smart and slick, but consistent quality was lacking.
The absence of players available in pre-season due to international tournaments and the late arrival of new signings at the end of the transfer window offer mitigation. So does Adam Wharton’s troublesome groin injury which may require surgery. But Glasner has yet to settle on a line-up or formation he is content with and which will suit the players he has to choose from.
Those summer signings — Maxence Lacroix, Trevoh Chalobah, Ismaila Sarr, Kamada and Nketiah — need time to adapt. Some more than others. But Palace cannot afford for it to take too much longer for them to settle. With both defensive and attacking partnerships broken by the sales of Olise and Andersen, the side is lacking balance.
Eddie Nketiah played further forward on Monday night but was unable to score his first Premier League goal for Palace (Robbie Jay Barratt – AMA/Getty Images)
The transfer strategy of choosing to play a numbers game and prioritise different profiles in attack over a more direct replacement for Olise appears to have failed. They will need to find a solution in the January transfer window.
But until then, Glasner must find a way to rekindle the spark in his squad. It is not all explained away by the underwhelming transfer window or the loss of Olise and Andersen.
Yet they have not been comprehensively outplayed this season and have for the most part kept themselves in games. To his credit, Glasner understands that looking back at what is now out of anyone’s control is no way to achieve better results and appears to understand what is going wrong.
Awareness of the problems is one thing though, fixing them is proving much harder.
(Header photo: Alex Livesey – Danehouse/Getty Images)
