- Henderson praises defensive performances
- Frustration with 0-0 draw
- Looking up the table with ambition
Crystal Palace goalkeeper and captain Dean Henderson spoke on his side’s 0-0 draw with relegation-battling West Ham.
Palace failed to produce a performance worthy of winning the game against a side who play like one in trouble. Slightly superior possession was potentially the only dividing factor between the two sides. One big chance a piece, West Ham’s saved impeccably by Henderson, Palace’s fired wide by Brennan Johnson.
The game was, of course, huge for the Irons, who are now just two points above Spurs in the relegation zone, but it’s hard to feel like it wasn’t a missed opportunity for Palace to push up the table.
‘Just Couldn’t’ – Hendo’s thoughts
“We’re obviously disappointed”, Henderson began. “The lads gave it everything we could. A few tired legs out there and we pushed on to try and get the winner, but unfortunately we just couldn’t do that today.”
The performance did resemble a side who have now played over fifty games in all competitions this season. Leggy, lethargic and slow in possession, Palace certainly did not deserve to win the game.
However, the Eagles defended superbly and limited the visitors to just one chance of note: a back-post header from Constantin Mavropanos, which Henderson saved expertly.
“We take the clean sheet and move on.”
Palace recorded their 13th clean sheet of the season, a stat which Henderson is very pleased with. “I think it’s an unbelievable return from our league position to have that many clean sheets, it’s fantastic. The defensive unit is so good and anybody that’s come in and stepped in has been excellent. That’s the foundations.”
Whilst his comments are of course true, they do suggest that Palace’s league position is a matter of fact due to the forward line lacking consistency. Palace remain the biggest underperformers of expected goals in the Premier League, and are likely to hold that title until the end of the campaign.
The lack of goals in the side is concerning, and without the contributions of Senegalese sensation Ismaila Sarr, Palace would be in and amongst it with Spurs and West Ham. The midfield has also been a problem in finding the net.
A grand total of zero goals have been scored by the rotation of midfielders in Glasner’s squad, highlighting a key issue for Palace, and showing where improvement is desperately needed to ease pressure off of the forwards.
Palace ‘Wanted to Win’
Despite much encouragement from the wider football fanbase to throw the game and put Spurs deep into trouble, Palace’s players, of course, wanted to win the game. As did the fans.
A win would have put Palace well in touch with the sides above them, and in with a huge chance of pushing for Europe. That opportunity remains, but it’s hard not to feel as if failing to win tonight has dented those hopes.
“I’ll be honest, we wanted to win today, we wanted to close the gap above”, Henderson claimed.
“We tried our best, obviously playing midweek, it can be tough at times. We feel like it’s a missed opportunity.”
It felt like Palace weren’t quite at it, a feeling which has repeated numerous times after European clashes, and something Palace will need to correct if they find themselves competing on the continent once again next season.
“Hopefully we can win our game in hand and push on.”
Of course, the game that Henderson alludes to is against title challengers Manchester City, who have been on a roll recently and show little signs of that easing. With games against both City and Arsenal to come, Palace may well have a larger say in the title race than they did in the relegation battle on Monday night.
