In all honesty, I could sit here for hours and talk about what I think is going wrong at Palace, but I don’t think that would get us anywhere. So today, I’ve restricted myself to 4 main points.
I use the word stagnation as I don’t necessarily believe we’ve gone backwards, but there are clearly elements preventing us from really being able to push into the top half of the table comfortably.
1) Lack of Sqaud Depth…
It seems to be blatantly obvious to everyone other than the hierarchy at the club that we are struggling massively with the depth of our squad.
Last summer, we saw our POTS Gallagher return to Chelsea at the end of his loan and Kouyate leave for Forrest. Midfield mainstay James McArthur tore his hamstring, ruling him out for a large chunk of last season and this season too.
We only replaced these departures with one signing, Cheick Doucoure. Despite this being a superb acquisition, losing the depth that we had has resulted in Vieira having very few options when it comes to team selection.
Naivety from those in charge of transfers meant we spent the last few weeks of the Summer window pursuing, in Conor Gallagher, a player we were told was not going to be available for us. This in turn resulted in us missing out on the likes of Djibril Sow from Frankfurt and Joe Aribo who instead signed for Southampton.
A recent interview with PalaceTV saw Steve Parish claim that this January will be more focused on loan signings rather than spending any significant money, not exactly filling us, the fans with much hope.
If this is the case then next summer needs to be a big one, especially if it is the window where Zaha finally leaves.
2) Lack of Competition for Starting Places…
Another reason for our poor performances in recent games is the lack of competition for places in the squad. Other than in attack, where we have a relatively stacked armoury, there is only really one main option for each position.
I’ll be the last to criticise Tyrick Mitchell but it is only fair to say that there’s been a significant drop off in his performances and we can’t be surprised that he may be becoming a little complacent. He’s the only competent left back in the squad other than youth players and therefore his position is secure.
At centre back the depth is much weaker than it looked at the beginning of the season. We saw this on Boxing Day when Tomkins was bought in to replace the suspended Guehi. Whilst he’s been a brilliant servant to the club, he’s clearly past it and that was obvious within 5 minutes when he lost a race to a loose ball which he had a 10 yard headstart in.
Chris Richards is clearly not ready, in Vieira’s opinion, although has shown some good signs of being a very good on the ball defender in the short cameos he’s had.
Our midfield isn’t necessarily weak in depth but more so in quality. The only press resistant mid we have is Doucoure and for some reason Vieira persists with effectively playing just one in midfield. Instead of looking to Hughes or Milivojevic the main choice has been Schlupp. In the game on Boxing Day his negativity was shown as the crowed began to get agitated with his reluctance to turn on the ball, consistently looking for the easier first time lay-off back to where he receives it from.
3) We don’t have a Plan B…
We have seen in recent games and more so this season that there is a clear blueprint to beating us and breaking down our system. If we’re pressed high with intensity and forced to play backwards then eventually one of our defenders or goalkeeper will play a long ball either out of play or straight to the opposition.
This is even more common when there is no target man on the pitch. Although, there isn’t a proper target man at the club since Benteke left and Vieira has opted for Zaha centrally over Mateta and Edouard in many games.
This means that pumping long balls forward is completely pointless and therefore we lose the ball and seemingly have no other ideas of how to execute a game plan.
We’re also far too easy to beat down the line and our lack of ability defensively in the air is very worrying. Multiple times a game a long ball is played down the channel and our fullbacks seem to be beaten for pace each and every time. Once a cross is delivered, the result seems to be conceding as we saw with the Bobby Reid goal to give Fulham the lead. Not a single defender made an effort to mark him.
What we saw against Fulham was a team out of ideas. The players looked frustrated with themselves but also as if they haven’t been introduced to a different way of playing when Plan A doesn’t work. We have no players confident enough to turn and play against the press other than Doucoure, but at times it looks as if he’s trying to run an entire midfield on his own…
4) Attacking Consistency Isn’t Rewarded and We Don’t Create Enough…
Finally, the lack of creativity in our attack is arguably the most shocking considering the personnel we have. This season we have created just 1.4 big chances per game which is less than 13 other teams in the league, with Leicester and West Ham level with us.
We’ve also conceded 21 goals in 15 games and only scored 15 goals. One of the reasons for this is the lack of reward for attacking consistency.
Before Nottingham Forest away, Edouard had managed 4 goal contributions in 6 games, more than any other player in the team. This earned him a place on the bench, in a game we should undoubtedly be competing in.
Then, against Fulham, Vieira opted to start with no striker and Zaha playing centrally. Whilst it makes sense to mix the team up the selection is strange most games. Every team in the league has a recognised striker but we haven’t had one since Benteke started falling out of favour.
This may be a completely different issue but it is a worry that teams around us such as Brentford and Fulham are able to have strikers who will definitely score them around 15+ goals each season. We seem to be incapable of recruiting someone capable of similar numbers.