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It’s been a bit of a tough time for Crystal Palace over recent years in the English Premier League. After a good impact by Alan Pardew, things began to sour, with Palace in desperate trouble and facing relegation. Steve Parish made the best decision possible and employed Sam Allardyce as Pardew’s replacement. A man who has never been relegated from the top flight and has often dug even the most doomed teams out of trouble. Big Sam called time on his managerial career in May this year, step forward Frank de Boer.
Steve Parish made the best decision possible and employed Sam Allardyce as Pardew’s replacement. A man who has never been relegated from the top flight and has often dug even the most doomed teams out of trouble. Big Sam called time on his managerial career in May this year, step forward Frank de Boer.
De Boer, a legendary Dutch footballer, pursued a career in management after retiring from playing and took his first senior position at Ajax. De Boer had played over 300 times for the club and it made sense for him to take his first steps into management there. Over a period of five and a half years, the Dutchman was very successful, guiding the club to four successive Eredivisie titles. De Boer wanted to test himself in a more competitive league though, as you’d expect.
This is where things started to go wrong for De Boer. He was appointed as the new Inter manager on the 9th of August 2016 but only lasted 14 games, having won only 5 of those. It was a run of four defeats in five Serie A games that saw the Inter hierarchy sack De Boer but less than a year later he was appointed as Sam Allardyce’s replacement at Selhurst Park. It’s not been a great start either, Palace have lost all three of their Premier League games so far and they haven’t scored either.
De Boer was heavily criticised during his time at Inter for trying to deploy a three at the back system that just failed to deliver. At Palace he has continued to set the team up in the same way, even though it is evidently not working. Palace have lost 3-0, 1-0 and 2-0, conceding 6 goals in 3 games and they have looked pretty poor at the back at times. For many it’s clear to see that the system doesn’t work as Palace simply do not have the players who can play how the Dutchman would like. It’s important that when a manager comes into a club that he works the system around the players instead of trying to shoehorn them into a formation that they aren’t comfortable with.
Another problem has been the recruitment. Palace are blessed with numbers at the back but only have Christian Benteke as a senior striker available, with Connor Wickham out with a cruciate knee ligament injury. Surely de Boer could see that this was something that needed addressing in the summer window that has just closed?
It’s hard to make a case for de Boer and most people would say he wasn't the right man for the job. His approach just hasn’t worked and he doesn’t look like he is willing to change systems to suit the players at his disposal. There are also serious question marks over his recruitment policy but the Palace hierarchy have to shoulder some blame for that too.
It will be very hard for a new man to come in and improve the situation prior to the January transfer window but Roy Hodgson will give it his best shot. According to Sportingbet, the South London club is already 6/4 to be relegated. Therefore, it will be imperative for Palace to get the next appointment of Hodgson right and they must be able to back the new man in the next window or they could be in real trouble this season.
Written by Ketan Patel
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