The title of this article often poses a lot of questions and debate. So, I thought I would put this out there and see what the feedback is.
Crystal Palace have managed to create their most successful period in history. This includes a seven-season stay in the Premier League, a cup final, record signings, record average attendances and plans for a new main stand.
However, some Palace fans are still not happy or don’t appear to be content.
Many fans of previous top-flight clubs such as; West Brom, Stoke and Charlton for example, have wanted a change. The main reason they wanted a change was the style of football which was labelled as boring and felt mid-table security wasn’t enough. Therefore, the usual consensus is a change of personnel within the team, more players brought in and possibly a new manager.
This then brings up the phrase ‘be careful what you wish for’. It’s quite interesting when you look at this from two different views and aspects.
The above example of Palace is a classic one. Let’s look at the last 30 years as an example. The 1987 season had an average gate of 7,583. As the club progressed through the play-offs, the attendances did improve dramatically from that particular year. After the 1990 FA Cup final, when Palace finished third in the old first division in 1991, the average gate was 19,660. The latter stat is not particularly impressive considering the Eagles had multiple big names in their team, third in the top flight and were close to getting into Europe.
The next 10 years consisted of Championship football, with two promotions in between, but other than that, it was mainly based around the second tier of English football.
The turn of the century then consisted of two seasons in administration. This was then rectified when Simon Jordan purchased the club, promotion was achieved within four seasons. The build-up to promotion was drawing the attention of crowds around 17,000 mark, again creating a spike in attendance. The stay in the top flight was short lived and just four seasons later the club was again back in administration.
The administration was then resolved with a consortium buyout, a group of Palace fans, who purchased the club along with the stadium. The next few seasons were a case of stabilising the club and getting the financial side back on an even keel. The third season, then produced the promised land once more.
It was here the Eagles managed to establish themselves from 2013 to current day. The club is in profit, high profile business partners added to the current consortium, plans for a new stand within the next two years and Premier League survival of a healthy state every season.
The side playing in the Premier League has been stable. The pattern seems to be a poor first half, better second half. Although relegation has been flirted with, Palace do manage to find themselves in a comfortable position come the end of the season. However, some supporters are still not happy.
They feel the football is dull, not attractive and very negative. These comments are always aimed at the manager’s philosophy, his style of play. Although, if you look at some of the games, Burnley for example, where over 33 attempts on goal were created and over 60% possession was recorded, it tends to point at extremely poor finishing rather than a negative style of play. The West ham game is another example, where an incredible amount of chances were missed.
The underlying problem here appears to be the poor finishing from top quality players who should really be more clinical in this league. This pattern appears to be have been repeated many more times, especially at home.
The problem being is the business end of the season. Once it gets to this stage, results are more important than ever. Things turn into cat and mouse, a point is the least required to make sure the team can get to that magical 40 points. It tends to be this area of the season when football does seem to be more cagey and a case of cancelling each other out. Not so much negative football, but respect the point and secure what you have.
On the other hand, from what I’ve seen and heard, some Palace fans want a different approach.
They feel the team should be in the top 10 and playing a different brand of football. With the likes of Wilfried Zaha, Andros Townsend, Christian Benteke, Michy Batshuayi and Mamadou Sakho, you can see this theory. Although if any injury occurs within this first XI, then the backup squad doesn’t appear to be adequate.
Palace are currently 12th at the time of writing and have a chance of obtaining 11th position with their last game. Should the brand of football be better, or is it just a case of playing winning football and getting the points over the line. I’ve seen many comments saying Palace are not progressing or moving forward.
How do Palace move forward? The spending power doesn’t appear to be in heavy supply, although this is understandable when you consider they have a 25,000-seater stadium and are pushing the limits of the financial fair play rule.
Therefore, does that lead to a change in playing style and tactics? If Palace decide to change the style to a more attacking front, does this risk of replicating the likes of Stoke and West Brom. They changed their manager’s respectively, the style, philosophy and are now applying that attacking brand of football in the Championship.
