Allardyce admits it is now a fight until the bitter end
A total number of eight games have now passed since Sam Allardyce took over the reigns at Selhurst Park, following the sacking of Alan Pardew in December after a poor run of form in the Premier League.
However in those first games of Allardyce’s tenure, there doesn’t seem to be much change being seen within the team and the thought of Championship football is becoming more of a reality as the number of games become fewer and the number of available points become a premium.
The Eagles were due to jet off to Dubai during the past week in which Palace hadn’t had a fixture due to the FA Cup but after a few problems in booking flights which were out of the club’s hands, the trip didn’t take place. Allardyce took Sunderland on a similar trip last season.
Speaking to Sky Sports’ Soccer Saturday ahead of Palace’s Premier League clash against fellow strugglers Middlesbrough, Allardyce said: “It’s not about the technical side of the game, there are a lot of very good technical players here.
“It’s about us fighting a bit harder, fighting for the cause and being more determined to get results. It is about results now over performances. The game has always been about results over performances really; if you can play attractive football and win, that’s a bonus, but if you can’t, we’re in a results business.
“If you can’t win, don’t lose and if we’d done that more often we wouldn’t be in the difficult situation we’re in now.”
Last season, Big Sam took over a struggling Sunderland side who looked like a lost cause with many fans and pundit considering that relegation was very much guaranteed for the north-east club.
He is disappointed however that change at Selhurst Park hasn’t been quicker on the pitch with results not going Palace’s way, slipping to 19th in the league during the process, holding onto that spot by goal difference with bottom side Sunderland who share the same points.
“Sunderland started to change about now but I had been there a lot longer,” Allardyce says. “Getting here in late December meant that there wasn’t a lot of time to assess the players.
“The turnaround hasn’t been as quick as I would have liked. People will look at my track record and say, ‘Sam will do it’ but I can’t do it on my own, the players have got to do it for me.
“But then you look at what has happened at Swansea with Paul [Clement] and people are looking for that change around immediately.
“We just haven’t had that but there is still enough time to come between now and the end of the season to get that three wins out of four or four out of five. We can have that little run – we’d have liked it quicker, obviously – but somewhere along the line, that run of undefeated games which took us away from the bottom at Sunderland last year has to come.”
“However much we’ve talked about not conceding goals it still hasn’t happened on the pitch. My major objective is to convince the players that if we start from the basis of a clean sheet we are going to get out of trouble. We need to get those clean sheets quickly. If we don’t do that it’s always a minimum of two goals to win a game and, realistically, when you’re down at the bottom, scoring two in a game is very difficult.
“I’m not stopping us playing with the ball though. I’m just saying when we haven’t got the ball, the opposition can’t score against us. That’s not taking away from anything we do with the ball. People seem to get confused about that, saying, ‘All he’s interested in is clean sheets!’ I’m not, because we have to score a goal to win. But having the responsibility out of possession as a team and working hard as a unit is the main aim for us.”
The former England manager has previously spoken to the press about the mental strength of the Palace side, in particularly, following the defeat to Sunderland at Selhurst Park, in which fans chanted ‘you’re not fit to wear the shirt’ just as the players entered the tunnel at half-time, after a late first-half collapse.
Brought into the club’s Beckenham training base, Allardyce appointed a psychologist to help give the players a mental boost and improve the strength of his team.
“I think there’s a little bit too much fear because of the negativity and criticism they have had,” he says. “They’ve got to switch that off and stay focused.”
Does that suggest the players are listening to criticism from external voices? “The noise is too noisy! They’ve got to shut the noise off, but whether they do or they don’t, you can only tell them. They spend a long time away from the football club so you don’t really know whether they do listen to the noise or not.”
The table for relegation to the Championship is now between seven clubs, believes Allardyce, with Bournemouth, Swansea, Middlesbrough, Leicester, Hull, Palace and Sunderland all in the fight for survival.
“It’s now become a fight with seven clubs. We’ve got Bournemouth downwards and I think it’s probably unlikely anybody else gets dragged in from above that on 30 points. There’s a seven-team league now and we’ve got to try and finish on top of that seven-team league and we’re going to do our best to do that.”
Correction (23/02/2017 – 00:33) – Crystal Palace’s planned trip to Dubai was not called off due to on-the-pitch circumstances, as previously written. The trip was being looked into by the club but couldn’t find ideal flights to best suit Palace.