Sam Johnstone has been confirmed as Palace's second summer signing, arriving from West Brom on a four-year deal.

Sam Johnstone's arrival from West Brom on a four-year deal is the latest calculated signing for Crystal Palace at the goalkeeper position.

Aside from the various third-string 'keepers that have come and gone over time, Johnstone is the sixth that has joined to compete for the number one spot since promotion, the seventh being the incumbent Julian Speroni.

Transfer fees are not the only factor to account for, as signing fees will naturally be higher for "free" transfers, but the net spend is remarkably low when using the broad brush estimated fees.

Even the two "failures" Steve Mandanda and Alex McCarthy may not have worked out at Palace as planned, but were low risk and have continued to deliver in top-flight football.

Enter Sam Johnstone

Landing a player like Sam Johnstone at 29 is likely securing him for his prime years as a goalkeeper. His being on the edges of the England squad adds further credibility.

As a Manchester United academy graduate, he was sent out across the EFL on loan, including Aston Villa, before getting a permanent move to West Brom in 2018.

Very experienced at Championship level, Johnstone has a single season in the Premier League where, much like his then-teammate Conor Gallagher, he outperformed the club's league position.

Per Statsbomb, Johnstone ranked 9th for "prevented goals" (+4.4) in a season where he faced 228 shots on target, the most in the division.

The top-flight sample is too small to paint a definitive picture of Johnstone against the best competition, so turning to his Championship play, his traits will have interested Palace.

Despite being listed at 193cm in height, Johnstone can move quickly off his line and shows good reflexes, as highlighted in his double save against Blackpool last season.

He has carried a reputation of being error-prone on occasion. Still, the hope will be behind a defence that has developed a good understanding Johnstone will face far fewer shots on average, exposing him less.

In a Patrick Vieira-led team, there will be an emphasis on goalkeepers passing short and being a sweeper option to retain possession.

The expectation isn't for this player to have the range of passing as Ederson at Man City but rather to show the composure to redirect the ball to the two defensive playmakers, Joachim Andersen and Marc Guéhi, especially when being pressed by a forward.

In the Steve Bruce Wrest Brom system, there is a greater emphasis on safety-first than you would expect at Palace, but on occasion, Johnstone still shows the aptitude to pick out an open full-back rather than going long.

As a prospect, Johnstone has every chance to get a valuable signing for the club. The threshold he will need to meet is only that of a league-average standard. Any seasons above that level is more than a bonus.

Even if he has limited minutes or the competition drives a high standard from Guaita, the club will still have succeeded in the short term.

The Decision-Making Process

Dougie Freedman, as Sporting Director, had a hard deadline to decide on the goalkeeper spot as Vicente Guaita and Jack Butland are only contracted until the end of the 2022/23 season.

Guaita has proven to be an excellent 'keeper for Palace, and there is an argument for adding him as a 4th all-time great alongside John Jackson, Nigel Martyn and Julian Speroni.

Guaita had one genuinely exceptional 2019/20 season, visually and by the "prevented goals" metric, which ranked third in the Premier League. Those performances were critical in avoiding relegation in a team that only scored 31 goals and endured a lot of defensive pressure.

Now in 2022, Guaita is a high-variance player, still capable of the sublime but unlikely to display the high level of consistency he once did.

It seems logical that teams that either promoted sides or those at the top of the Championship will be interested in Jack Butland, making him the prime candidate to make way in this window.

Palace will hope that Johnstone earns the number one spot, given their investment. Whether or not Guaita will accept being the veteran backup spot long-term remains to be seen.

‘Be careful what you wish for’ – the phrase banded about by many when the momentum for moving on from Roy Hodgson gathered. The reservations over the merits and managerial pedigree of his successor, mixed with the number of out of contract players only served to fuel those who hesitated over accepting change.

Some (Crystal Palace fans and others) wrote the team off before a ball was kicked. For the most part, though, Palace fan were eager to see how the project with a new manager and group of new, albeit inexperienced at Premier League level, players would do.

The success of Patrick Vieira’s first season cannot and should not be judged on points or league position. At least not in the context of what came before. That Hodgson did the job asked of him, very well at times, is not in question. The question was whether that was the only way to do the job going forward. That was the metric for this season.

With a big summer turnover of players, mixed with a whole new coaching staff, Vieira’s first challenge was one of integration. He seemed to immediately immerse himself in the club, what it means and link to the fans. This took the players on the journey with him from the get-go. It was clear each new player also got it.

The manner of the integration of the new players so quickly was striking – Joachim Andersen and Marc Guehi struck a ball-playing partnership as well as an understanding with their full-backs. Conor Gallagher seemed to be on James McArthur’s wavelength from the first kick of the season. Will Hughes has come in at times and looked part of the midfield unit in a variety of roles and Michael Olise has been used with the big picture in mind.

Improvement is another measure of this season’s success – both in the existing players but also the unit as the season has gone on. In terms of the former, we have seen a new side to a number of the players Vieira inherited. Joel Ward and Tyrick Mitchell have both shown a diversity to their game, with Mitchell’s game-by-game improvement being one of the highlights of this season.

Cheikhou Kouyaté’s transformation into a key pivot of the midfield has been an essential ingredient into Gallagher’s and McArthur’s performances. Jordan Ayew’s work both off the ball and starting transitions has been very apparent and so his contribution should be evaluated by more than attacking output. Nathanial Clyne has had a resurgence since he has had a run in the team, playing like the player he was when he left for Southampton.

Jean-Phillipe Mateta has gone from disposable to a permanent transfer and then of course there is Wilfried Zaha, freed from being the sole attacking outlet of the team, resulting in him having his best goal return. As he himself said “I feel like it’s not just counter-attacks and hoofing the ball around”.
Beyond players, lessons have been learned throughout. That is all part of why this season should be seen as a process and transition.

Improvements in set piece defending, in holding out at key times of the game and how the ball is transitioned from the back through midfield have been occurring as the team has gelled. Both Andersen and Guehi have added variety to how to start playing from the back. The wide players now stay wider when the ball is with the centre-backs. Tweaks with time have shown that this season has been about more than points – it has been about a blueprint. An excellent season doesn’t mean there is not room for improvement.

As we move forward, there are still many questions to answer. The true success of this season will be how it is built upon; it cannot be viewed in isolation. The improvements made need to continue. The questions asked need answers – how can Kouyate and McArthur be supplemented? Identify the correct right-back to take us forward. As ever, a question mark over the strikers – can Mateta be entrusted with leading the line for a whole season? What is Odsonne Édouard’s role in this team? How can a midfield be shaped to allow both Eberechi Eze and Olise to flourish? However, we are looking to answer these questions not with how to fix problems, but how to enhance what we have. That is a sign of the progress made by Vieira.

To think of the season just in terms of the table would have missed the point of why a change was needed and what a process of change is. That Vieira and his coaching team have had Palace a safe distance from the bottom three all season as well as reaching the FA Cup semi-final are a bonus for this season of transition. The season has been a success – probably our most successful in this Premier League run. He may not have been top of the wish-list for most, but we’ve got a manager who knows exactly what he needs.

Crystal Palace now has three inside right-winger prospects, born within a 631-day window, after teenage winger Malcolm Ebiowei signed from Derby.

It is overly simplistic to say they are the same prototype, but each has displayed the technique to strike a dangerous cross and a lack of fear when taking on a full back.

The latest acquisition is eighteen year old Malcolm Ebiowei, the second player to join from Derby County after Luke Plange, who he replaced to make his debut in February.

Through Derby's ongoing struggles, Ebiowei, like Plange, was given a chance to play in the Championship at a very young age, possibly ahead of schedule.

Those sixteen appearances give us an intriguing, if not brief, glimpse into why Palace and other Premier League clubs sought after him.

Ball Carrying

The first impression is that Ebiowei fits the Crystal Palace winger archetype, having the pace and skill to take on full backs in the Championship. This ability is borne out in the per 90min stats, where he led the league in both total dribbles and progressive runs.

Although those totals were from a sample of 10.6 full games, a player being able to make such an impression in his debut season is impressive.

At times, it appears as if he glides past players where there is little space, cutting in from the right flank onto his stronger left foot. Additionally, he has a good frame and can ride challenges as well as beating players with pure finesse or pace.

In this current Palace system, wingers aren't purely used as out-and-out dribblers, much like how previous managers used Wilfried Zaha. When Ebiowei gets his chance in pre-season or the Premier League, he will likely be asked to be more patient than he has been used to for Derby or in youth football, so there will be a refining process.

Creative Play

Ebiowei has an excellent left-footed delivery, leading Derby to give him set-piece deliveries by the end of the season. His two assists, the first a curling cross against Bristol City, the second a whipped-in free-kick against Blackpool, are a skill that will translate to a higher division.

In his games, he was a high-volume crosser of the ball, similarly to his now-senior right-winger, Michael Olise, ranking 7th in the Championship with 4.27 crosses per 90min, and wasn't a wasteful passer. This comes within the context of playing for a team that was often outmatched.

It is too early to project precisely where Ebiowei will end up as a player, but the raw skills are certainly there.

There's no reason to think that he won't be able to factor into the squad for next season, as the advent of the five substitute rule opens the door for one of the young-attacking wingers, either he or Jesurun Rak-Sayki, to get more opportunities.

The club, Dougie Freedman and the recruitment team had a flawless summer window in 2021. The first two signings are a good continuation.

In the meantime, enjoy some highlights: 

Note: all stats are valid as of May 9, 2022. 

In December 2021 we wrote a piece detailing Wilfried Zaha’s contribution to the overall attacking team play, showcasing his change in play style to suit the needs of his teammates. Four months later, with only three games left in the 2021-22 Premier League campaign, we wanted to see how Wilf’s season has progressed since December. 

“Look how they fouled my boy”

It has been obvious for a while now that Wilfried Zaha is the most fouled player in the Premier League. The “Hack-a-Wilf” minigame opposition defenders seem to play against him has also been a crux of Wilf’s relationship with referees, whom he has often times asked to protect him during games (*cough* John Moss *cough*). Unfortunately this doesn’t always happen, and so rotational fouling (spearheaded mostly by Man City and Chelsea and lesser teams like relegation-favorites Leeds) has become the norm when trying to deal with the danger posed by Wilf. Thus, the first question we want to answer is - how many fouls has Wilfried Zaha suffered throughout this Premier League season?

The answer can be found in the figure below - according to Whoscored, across 30 appearances (2491 minutes) Wilf is the most fouled player in the Premier League (91 fouls suffered), a staggering 3.3 fouls suffered per 90 minutes. 

By bearing the brunt of the opposition’s physicality, Wilf takes some pressure off of his attacking teammates. This allows them to express themselves in a more natural fashion (see Olise or Mateta). However, Zaha is not alone in carrying the “foul cross” throughout the game: alongside him in the Top 10 are Jordan Ayew (perhaps the most prolific foul-obtainer in the league, 3.0 fouls suffered) and Conor Gallagher (1.9 fouls suffered per 90). 

“Shut up and … dribble?”

In our December article we highlighted how Zaha has switched his style of play from “dribble and shoot” to “dribble and pass”. In addition, while wild claims had been made in the Twitter-world that Wilf had stopped dribbling, we showed that in December he was in the 90th percentile of dribbles attempted. Let’s have a look at his stats as of May 9, 2022:

Since December, his number of dribbles attempted per 90 has decreased slightly (-0.24), whereas his dribble completion has increased (+0.05), along with the number of players he has dribbled past  (+0.16). These numbers now bring Wilf in the 89th percentile or above in all these 3 categories, showcasing his “declined” dribbling abilities. (PS: according to Whoscored, Wilf has 16 more successful dribbles than Mohamed Salah, on a highly similar volume of dribbles). 

“One-trick pony-tail”

Wilfried Zaha deniers have long since claimed that Zaha’s only ability is to knock the ball past an opponent then try to draw a foul by moaning at the referee. Now, of course, if you watch Crystal Palace week-in week-out, you know that these deniers have the footballing knowledge of a caterpillar. In our December piece we showcased how essential Wilfried is to creating shot  and goal scoring chances and enabling his teammates to shine. Now, let’s have a look at the SCA and GCA stats as of May 9, 2022.

Zaha has more than doubled his SCA contributions since December, in the context of missing several games due to the Africa Cup of Nations. His 99 SCAs rank him 14th in the league, ahead of players like Mason Mount, Sadio Mane, or Phil Foden. In this interval, he has also become Palace’s top scorer with 13 goals (6th in the league, tied with Harry Kane), his highest tally to date. To understand where his SCA contributions come from, we have broken them down in the table below.

The majority of his SCA contributions are still from open-play passes (69/99, 69.7%), and is on track to become his highest in the last 5 seasons. To put this number into context, Conor Gallagher has 16 fewer total SCAs than Zaha but 37 fewer from open-play passes. Compared to December, Zaha’s dribble contribution to SCA has more than doubled, whereas his contributions from fouls have remained steady. Thus, Zaha is contributing more through his dribbles, while also keeping his number of SCAs created from open passes at a high level.

When it comes to creating goal scoring chances for his teammates, Zaha (11, 0.40 per 90) is only surpassed by Gallagher (13, 0.44 per 90). His 11 GCA for the season is enough to place him 24th in the league, ahead of players like Bruno Fernandes or Youri Tielemans.

“Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn.”

Throughout this season Wilf has shown an increased sense of maturity and willingness to work for the benefit of the team, and has assumed his role as a leader both on and off the pitch. His critics have largely been silenced, and his goal scoring tally of 13 is his highest to date. The data suggests that Wilf is basically at his peak, thriving in the Patrick Vieira system and playing his best football for Palace yet. Long may that continue.