It is a measure of how far Crystal Palace have come under Oliver Glasner that, having won the FA Cup and the Community Shield, and with the club just two points off a place in the top four of the crowded Premier League, there is a latent sense of unrest around Selhurst Park.
It’s no secret that Palace are struggling for goals following the summer departure of Eberechi Eze to Arsenal. Glasner highlighted the problem, not for the first time this season, after last week’s 2-1 UEFA Conference League defeat to Strasbourg, a match Palace managed to lose despite creating a plethora of chances either side of Tyrick Mitchell’s first-half opener.
“It’s happened too many times this season,” said the Austrian after watching Ismaïla Sarr and Adam Wharton squander opportunities in front of an open goal in a match dominated by Palace, who had 16 shots and twice as many touches in the penalty area as their opponents.
“Ultimately we need more consistent goalscorers. It is perhaps symbolic today that Tyrick Mitchell, the full-back, scored and everyone else missed their chances. We are talking about small margins. You have to take your chances. I have not played a European match with as many big chances as we did and that makes it even worse.”
It was a similar story when Palace returned to competition against Manchester United on Sunday. By the time Jean-Philippe Mateta opened the scoring with a retaken penalty, the Frenchman had already fired two presentable chances wide. Equally guilty were Wharton and Daichi Kamada, who respectively failed to find the accuracy and purchase needed to beat Senne Lammens in the United goal.
The theme continued after Sarr left with an ankle injury shortly before half-time, with his replacement Eddie Nketiah failing to punish a Matthijs de Ligt slip after dawdling just long enough for Luke Shaw to block his effort. It was a moment that epitomized a half in which Palace were dominant but loose, allowing United to regroup and claim a 2-1 win – their first at Selhurst Park in five years – thanks to goals from Joshua Zirkzee and Mason Mount.
For Glasner, this was the latest setback in a campaign that seems to be getting worse. In September he was named Manager of the Month after presiding over an unbeaten start to the season. By the time October was over, a run of 19 games without defeat was over and while no team had created more big chances than Palace’s 34, no other side had missed more than their 23. Now they enter December on a run of back-to-back defeats and with Glasner, whose contract expires at the end of the season, cutting an increasingly disappointed figure.
Rather than complain again about his side’s lack of lead after the match against United, the Austrian chose to reframe the issue, pointing to Palace’s inability to act more decisively in the transfer market after securing European football for the first time. He had a point. Five players left Selhurst Park over the summer for a total fee of £63.2 million, potentially rising to £71.5 million. An identical number came to a combined cost of £48 million. It was, Glasner argued, unnecessarily conservative.
“When you play European football for the first time in your history, you have to invest and not save,” he said. “I think January is too late [to make amends]. We will have played more than 50% of our matches. Everything was pretty clear and I didn’t say anything. But today I think it is also time to talk about the fact that we missed the opportunity to play an even better season in the summer.”
When Eze left for Arsenal, he took with him the potential for another 17 goals, just like last season. Making up for such a deficit is not easy and while Spain international Yéremy Pino, a £26m summer signing from Villarreal, has undoubtedly brought creativity to Glasner’s side, he is not a goalscoring machine. Pino scored four goals in 34 games in La Liga last season; so far this season he has one from eleven league games.
The bad news for a stretched Palace squad is that things are likely to get worse before they get better.
So far they have lost half of the six league games they have played after a European night, winning just once. No team has made fewer lineup changes in the league this season, highlighting a distinct lack of depth beyond the starting XI. The absence of Sarr, who scored ten goals and six assists last season, will do nothing to solve that problem. Glasner expects to miss the Senegal international until he leaves for the Africa Cup of Nations later this month.
With or without Sarr, the arrival of a new striker in January is the minimum requirement. Palace cannot afford not to back a manager who is attracting covetous eyes from clubs across Europe. Glasner was considered by Bayer Leverkusen following the sacking of Erik ten Hag three months ago and has been linked with a host of other leading clubs including Real Madrid, Liverpool and Manchester United.
For his part, Glasner has made his position clear. “We need more players to turn up and score goals,” he said last month.
If Palace want to build on their unprecedented recent success and stick with their architect, the club should listen.
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