The remorseless Sheffield United have put another team to the sword – this time, it’s the mighty Eagles of SE25 that were made to look anything but sharp against Chris Wilder’s Blades.
In a less-than-super Sunday for Palace fans everywhere, a John Lundstram shot into an open net left many Palace fans understandably frustrated. However, the 1-0 scoreline would superficially lull any casual pundit into believing that the match was a tight-run affair.
In truth, the wider Palace picture provided a far more intriguing tale – one that should be grossly worrying for fans and the management team alike.
Few players appeared worthy of praise. The Palace defensive unit of Joel Ward, Scott Dann and Martin Kelly saw moments of visible confusion and communicative break-down shown rather clearly on their faces.
As such, questionable and rash decision-making was perhaps merely the logical response to these shortcomings.
Ward appeared to struggle on occasion with some stinging counter-attackers, although fair praise must be bestowed onto Ward and the Eagles’ centre-backs for some respectable clearances.
Left-back Patrick van Aanholt, whist making some superb offensive runs, failed to drive any meaningful shots towards attackers, consequentially then being caught on the break as balls were intercepted by United. Once again, Palace defenders proved to be anything but stalwart.
The defensive hero has to be Vicente Guaita – smothering pre-emptive jubilation from Blades fans, he successfully blocked a certain McGoldrick tap-in from the six-yard box with a crucial dive and scramble.
Even for the conceded goal, Guaita made an initial and superb instinctive save, but played the ball directly to an unmarked John Lundstram.
The Blades’ number 7 bathed in the luxury of half an open net, with an effortless high strike securing United’s first home win in the Premier League since 2007.
Off the back of an outstanding promotion-winning run of form, Sheffield United have once again found themselves to be a formidable, hardened and steely force.
It seems as though Wilder had produced a tactical masterclass that thwarted most attacking moves by Palace – Zaha rarely found himself marked by less than 2 Sheffield players, offering little ample space for pacey, prolific manoeuvres and masterful creativity.
With a dulled talisman, poor defending and low-energy striking displays, there are already questions to be asked.
When it is then considered that Max Meyer and Wilfried Zaha were played out of position, hard-working Jordan Ayew was an unused substitute and a winger was replaced with a defensive midfielder in a losing situation, it is increasingly obvious why Palace fans spectated a dire performance and a generously-narrow defeat.
In all credit to Wilder’s men, Sheffield appeared hungrier from the first whistle whilst equally maintaining a clear composure and confidence in their style of play.
Contrastingly, the deflated appearance of Roy’s boys was duly noted by Hodgson himself. Speaking to the CPFC media team, Roy stated that it became ‘fairly easy’ for Sheffield to valiantly defend their lead after a loss of composure and quality in Palace’s build-up play.
Palace have won only one of the last eleven Premier League matches in August, failing to score in eight of those games. Without drastic tactical reformation tailored to suit players’ natural style better, Palace could be back on a downwards spiral.
It’s clear that much went wrong against the Blades.
There can be little doubt that the men in the dugout will be working hard to buoy the team and improve the drastic shortcomings seen at Bramall Lane – it is more a question of whether football fans will be in for a shock at Old Trafford on Saturday.
