The Frank de Boer sacking is just another step in a line of frustrating steps. Here are some pointers as to how Palace could make things a little better, courtesy of Rob. 

1. Stop the briefing

2. Start working

3. Start chanting 

4. Bring fans and players closer

5. Give us some long-term hope

Crystal Palace pushed Liverpool to the brink with a resolute performance on Saturday, but there were clearly still lessons to be learned. Here are five talking points from the game.

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1 – De Boer Demonstrates Pragmatism

Many Palace fans went into the game at Anfield with trepidation – how would the team so bamboozled by Huddersfield’s press be able to cope with Klopp’s Geggenpress? Frank De Boer answered this with the team set up in a more pragmatic yet equally fluid system which didn’t leave the gaping holes we had seen the week before. The 3-4-3 was more of a functional 5-3-1-1 which when opportunity arose to go forward switched to 3-4-3 with Jason Puncheon pushing on from midfield. Palace may have failed to create much and clearly it is still a work in progress but De Boer’s implementation of change from last week was apparent and offered signs of encouragement. But for a slip from the otherwise steady Luka Milivojević or miss from Christian Benteke, we could have come away with a point.

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2 – Ward is Off the Pace

Some of Joel Ward’s struggles to play as a wing-back are understandable but the Liverpool game showed how far his game in a deeper more conventional full-back role has declined too. Liverpool targeted that side of the pitch for their attacks with Andrew Robertson in particular able to get forward and provide numerous crosses. Ward is an adequate Premier League defender in systems set up to defend; his weaknesses are magnified when that is not the case and the first two games under De Boer show that this is an area Palace need to upgrade on before the window closes.

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3 – Midfield Yearning for Cabaye

Ruben Loftus-Cheek has made an impressive start to his Palace career with his ability to gain possession, drive with the ball and eye for a pass. Milivojević has established himself as the team’s defensive screen since he joined in January. And while Puncheon has a role to play, the midfield is yearning for the creativity of Yohan Cabaye. Someone to pick the ball up from the defence and start moves, someone to find the wingers, someone to give-go-be available for the return pass. Including him with Loftus-Cheek and Luka would require tinkering to the system but Cabaye’s impact would make this worthwhile. This team needs him.

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4 – Benteke Cannot Function in Isolation

Benteke has shown his importance to Palace; 17 goals last season and vital in improving the attacking players around him. However, to be that player for Palace, he needs players around him for him to get the right service and for him to bring them into the game. He cannot do this while being isolated through the middle. His game is not about dragging centre backs out of position into the channels. It is about winning battles centrally. The protracted transfer last summer paid dividends by the time the season ended – he must not be wasted this season else it is the whole team which will suffer.

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5 – Kaikai’s Chance

With Wilfried Zaha injured and a lack of viable options on the wings for De Boer, Sullay Kaikai was given a chance to stake a claim for a place and other than Ruben Loftus-Cheek’s performance, he was one of the positives to come of the game. He looked a threat with the ball and without it his movement kept Liverpool’s defenders busy. There is a long way to go before judging whether he is ready for the Premier League but that he is being given a chance by a manager still finding his feet is encouraging. With Jason Lokilo also being integrated into the squad, it is clear the manager has the will to use younger players – every Palace fan will be hoping their ability matches his faith. 

Another Transfer Window closes and one which, for Crystal Palace fans would match or exceed on the January 2005 window in terms of dissatisfaction.

The summer promised much. From Steve Parish tweeting that the club had 84 days to plan how to break into the top 10 and the search for a new manager. Six weeks yielded Frank De Boer – who was a free agent – and promise of a footballing evolution.

Palace fans had been here before; before him Alan Pardew, Ian Holloway, George Burley and Peter Taylor had all promised this kind of football yet all ultimately (some after a few ups) failed to deliver. It felt different with De Boer; a top drawer player in his day and a manager with four consecutive league titles to his name.

But the evolution has not materialised and De Boer took the club straight into the revolution. A change in formation, a change in playing style – both from the outside looking like progressive moves. However, this encountered two problems and these multiplied as they clashed: the Manager using players out of position to fit his new formation and the club not spending to add players suitable to De Boer’s chosen style.

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Going into the closing days of the transfer window, with the club goalless and pointless, there was hope that having only signed one long term player in the summer, the manager would be backed. Steve Parish spoke in the week about three coming in. Even on Deadline Day itself he told the Croydon Advertiser:

“We're expecting two or three to come in. Maybe a striker, maybe a defender and maybe someone else, we'll see, I need to go and work on it. Eighty per cent, barring disasters, we should be all right.”

It transpires that there was a disaster; only one of those three players arrived and while Mamadou Sakho has shown he can be a key player for us, Palace are left with an imbalanced squad containing just two goalkeepers (with question marks over their suitability for the Premier League) and just one striker (with due respect to Freddie Ladapo).

The reaction from Palace fans has been predictable yet is largely justified. Questions about strategy in terms of manager and player recruitment, finances for transfers, the role of the American investors and of the chairman himself have been asked and perhaps for the first time since CPFC2010’s takeover, requiring answers on some of the above is justified.

The club has a hiding place behind STCC (Short Term Costs Control, ultimately only being able to increase the wage budget by £7 million) but we are in a position where a long-term injury to Christian Benteke would, without exaggeration, be season ending for the team and we are in that position not because of STCC but because of years of poor planning, a mismatched recruitment process and spending on players who have contributed little.

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Unity among the club, owners, manager and fans is what has seen Palace through difficult times; administration, relegation fights, promotion pushes. However, we are at a place just three games into De Boer’s tenure where there seems to be a disconnect between him and the Board and between him and the players. A consequence of this has meant the fans are asking questions of Board.

It is hard to see within the current climate where the Palace survival spirit will come from; it certainly will not come while the players the manager has at his disposal due to a lack of spend do not buy into what he is doing. It will not come while the manager ignores the suitability of his players to a different formation. And it will not come while a growing section of the fan-base is starting to doubt the motives of the Board.

The summer promised so much despite the time it took to appoint De Boer. What has manifested is chaos caused by misalignment at every possible level. Three games in, a shambolic transfer window and doubts over the manager’s future is a stretch even for the Palace rollercoaster; survival in the top flight this season would be typically Palace in many ways.

However, it is difficult to shake the feeling that after Tony Pulis’ great escape, Alan Pardew’s flamboyant and then stuttered survivals followed by Sam Allardyce redeeming Palace last season, our luck could be about to run out. It would be hard to argue against it being of our own making. 

1 – Failure to Prepare Apparent

With a new manager in place and the implementation of a new style and new formation, there was a concern as pre-season went on as to whether there was enough time for adequate preparation as the season drew closer. The emphatic answer to that was provided on Saturday; there was a failure to properly prepare. Players were being used in roles in which they were not in pre-season – Joel Ward used at right wing-back, Luka Milivojević back in midfield despite spending three games in central defence, Ruben Loftus-Cheek in an advanced midfield role and Timothy Fosu-Mensah starting at centre-back despite joining only two days’ prior.

Add to this Jason Puncheon looking uncomfortable in a two-man midfield and Wilfried Zaha being nullified by the desire to set him free – it is clear after just one game there are many questions which still need answering the biggest of which being whether the desired system and style suits the players in the squad? And if the answer is negative, does the club have the ability to spend money to address this?

2 – Dann Ill-Suited to New Role

Scott Dann has been critical in Palace’s sustained presence in the Premier League and while last season he may not have been Sam Allardyce’s first choice, Frank De Boer has chosen him to be the central of the three centre-backs but in a 3-4-3 he is ill-suited to this role. Playing a higher line, he does not have the pace to cover behind as a sweeper which in turn means Wayne Hennessey’s inadequacies at this level are further highlighted with his unease in passing the ball out.

Dann also isn’t the vocal organiser he’s used to playing with, negatively impacting the two young centre backs playing either side of him. Further, 3-4-3 requires this central player to push up into midfield, allowing the wing-back to drop in as full-backs and allowing a fluidity in formation to a 4-3-3 – Dann does not have the technical ability to do that. Huddersfield exploited this time and again and used their press to isolate him and spread the three centre-backs. It worked a treat.

3 – Loftus-Cheek impressed

Impressive throughout pre-season as part of a midfield pair, Ruben Loftus-Cheek was inexplicably used as one of Christian Benteke’s support players on Saturday; though at half-time he reverted to his more familiar role. Regardless, his home debut was the brightest spot for Palace in a miserable afternoon.

His work without the ball was notable but more so his technique in winning the ball, use of the ball both long and short and his powerful runs. If he continues in this vein as the season progresses, Loftus-Cheek will be crucial to the team in whichever battles are ahead.

4 – Manager Has no Honeymoon Period

Harsh as it may seem given he’s only had one game as manager, is trying to progress the club in style and has not seen his team invested in, but it is already clear de Boer does not have a honeymoon period. Having already lost to one of the teams Palace should be looking to beat at home, being the first full-time foreign manager at the club and looking to ‘transition’ the team in the way Alan Pardew failed in 12 months ago, the pressure is cranked up already.

Palace stayed up last season because Sam Allardyce organised a defence and allowed counter-attacking football, as Tony Pulis had done three years earlier. Palace fans do not have the appetite for another relegation battle and there are few “fire-fighter” type managers left for Steve Parish to turn to should the club need saving again. De Boer has to make this work and show signs that it is working soon.

5 – PALACE Already at Crossroads

As above, we are only one game into the new era but the club finds itself at a crossroads already. This is not about the manager’s future; more the club needs to choose a direction and without further hesitation.

The hierarchy needs to decide whether to back De Boer in his footballing philosophy, invest heavily in a new goalkeeper, central defender and right wing-back for the first team and further attacking options to back-up Benteke and Zaha while then moving on the likes of James Tomkins, Martin Kelly and James McArthur if they do not fit into De Boer’s plans.

It is not fair on those players who have contributed to Palace’s recent achievements to either be unused or misused and nor is it fair to the manager. If the club does not have the will to go down that path, then the manager needs to fit into what is at the club – the foundations for a variable 4-3-3 are there and the players in the squad fit that formation. Either way, with three points already thrown away, a direction needs to be picked and backed without further ado.