De Boer looking at Palace expansion

Frank de Boer revealed plans to implement a more expansive brand of football following his appointment as Crystal Palace manager on a three-year deal.

The 47-year-old succeeds Sam Allardyce following his resignation at the end of last season, and has already spoken to former Manchester United manager Louis van Gaal about the Premier League.

Palace have struggled against relegation during the past two seasons, and to that end De Boer has also targeted improving their poor form at Selhurst Park.

The Dutchman played under fellow countryman Van Gaal during his time at Ajax, Barcelona and Holland.

De Boer’s arrival at Palace comes after a period of pragmatism under Allardyce, who replaced the struggling Alan Pardew, and he said: “I already spoke with Van Gaal, a very informal talk.

“Van Gaal is always very good to me and we always have contact and he was the first one to contact me with this new job in this exciting football world. He gave some good tips but that is for me.

“You have to be realistic and see what the quality of the team is and sometimes you have to play more reactive football than trying to be more dominant.

“Of course I want to be dominant if we can and if not we have to be compact. The quality up front is quite high so every team now has to play one, two or three systems and also different styles and we have enough time to teach them.

“I will give youth the opportunity when they are good enough and I’m interested to see how talented the players are.”