A bizarre transfer window. One club – you know who – wrote cheques for over 30% of all the money spent by all Premier League clubs in January.
More than 50% of clubs chose to exit the window with no new faces to change their destiny this season. And, if you ever needed proof that fear of relegation and the disastrous drop in income is a combination that scares owners, about 50% of total transfer expenditure by Premier League clubs came from 4 of the bottom 5 clubs.
As ever, we all focus on our favourite team, but this window one eye was constantly on Newcastle, where the flood of cash from sportswashing inevitably resulted in the Saudi wad wavers being rinsed by a clever club or two. While Burnley might have been genuinely sad to see Chris Wood’s release clause triggered, it did bring them an eye popping 25m windfall. For Brighton, however, banking £13m for a 29-year-old occasional first-teamer Dan Burn smacks of joyful exploitation.
For Palace fans, this month brought much less than it might have. We now know we will end the season much as we were when the summer window closed 4 months ago. Flirtations with loaning the gifted Van De Beek and buying the potential fox in the box Nketiah came to nothing, and we ended the month where we began.
Personnel-wise, attention now switches straight to July, when we will discover Palace plans for out-of-contract Kouyate, McArthur, Schlupp, Ayew, Tomkins, Clyne, Kelly, and of course Gallagher. Before the next window closes, we will doubtless wonder, guess and worry about who will replace them.
On the pitch, between now and 22 May, there’s the challenge of the final 16 matches of Patrick Vieira’s debut season as a Premier League Manager – and maybe, just maybe, enjoying a Cup run that’s long overdue.
With 4 of the remaining 7 home games against Big Six clubs, the potential for winning points at Slurst might well be limited. Based on previous seasons’ results against the same teams, 10 points from these 7 matches might be considered a very good return.
Which throws the focus firmly on winning vital points in the games away from home. And this is where it gets interesting. On our trips so far this season, it’s been a good job that Palace fans don’t just sing when we’re winning, or we’d be mostly silent.
Results away from home have been truly underwhelming. A fabulous win at Manchester City shows what we can do, but that was our only away win so far. From 9 other games, we were well beaten at Chelsea, Liverpool and Tottenham. We were disappointed losers at Old Trafford and Elland Road. And, despite being ahead at Arsenal, Burnley and Brighton, we have just 4 draws to add to the 3 points from our golden day out at the Etihad.
Setting the City game aside, we only spent 48 minutes out of 810 in a winning position. The other 762 minutes, we were level or losing. So a transformation is needed, very soon. Can we do it? Since promotion in 2013, Palace have proved well capable of winning away games – an average of 6 every season. So, for 2021/22 to be just an average Palace Premier League season, we need to win 5 of the next 9 away games over the next 16 weeks. Given the squad is unchanged from start to finish of the transfer window, Patrick and his players still have a lot to do.
Next week, we play at Norwich and Brentford in the League. After that, we go to Wolves, Newcastle, Leicester, Everton, Southampton, Villa and Watford. Can we win 5 of those 9? Well, all 9 are currently listed in the weakest 12 home teams in the Premier League so far this season. We’ve already visited every one of the strongest 8 home teams.
Now the window has closed and the pressing subject of the squad rebuild has been taken off his desk until the end of the season, where will Patrick now look to obtain the biggest improvements on the pitch – the kind of improvements that will bring victories that we need?
Taking Chances
Patrick’s positive playing style has turned Palace into a team that creates goal scoring opportunities more frequently. Now, it’s up to Edouard, Benteke, Mateta and Zaha to be more clinical in front of goal. If we are to win 5 more away games this season, at least 2 of these strikers needs to be capable of scoring at least 10 league goals this season. Never since promotion have Palace had two strikers hit double figures in the same season.
Opposition Set Pieces
Palace are not blessed with a bunch of giants like Dan Burn (thank goodness), so we do tend to lose goals where the ball is in the air during opposition set pieces and follow-up playing sequences. This means we have to focus on minimising exposure to these situations, and I’m sure Patrick and his team are rigorously putting Palace players through sessions designed to yield better protection for our goal.
Palace Set Pieces
When it’s our free kick or corner, we decide whether or not the ball goes in the air. With our shortage of tall players, it’s small surprise that our emphasis so far on putting the ball in the air has produced so little. So why don’t we play it low and clever, with set pieces that keep the ball on the ground and surprise our opponents? This should be a priority for Patrick. If it is, we’ve yet to see any end product – apart from Olise’s free kick that slipped into the corner of the West Ham net. Our approach doesn’t have to be 100% original….. just take a look at a few of the gems they’re showing on Youtube – search clever free kick routines. Palace have skilful and intelligent players – they must have the ability to execute some of these routines. Surely?
Late Goals Conceded
Of 34 goals conceded so far this season, 9 have come after the 75-minute mark – 26% of total goals conceded in 16% of the playing time. The weakness is so obvious that opponents will inevitably target it. Late goals might come because players lack fitness. That seems unlikely, although there must be a reason why teams like Brighton score more goals in the closing stages and we concede more. Our 2 games against Brighton featured a late goal each time – giving Brighton 2 extra points and costing us 4. The other possible explanation for weakness as games come to a climax is game management. We’re not Wenger’s Arsenal, experienced and hardened players led by a manager who knew how to win every week for weeks on end – we’re Patrick’s Palace, our players are young, which brings naivete, and substitutions might need attention.
Conclusion
Palace are clearly a work in progress, which is natural with so many new players following last summer’s transformation, led by a Manager still in his first season in this League. Now we know who we have and we know what we’re up against. There’s no doubt we need away wins, and we need them soon!
