Palace lacked the patience for De Boer
IT shouldn’t be too hard for Roy Hodgson to improve Crystal Palace: after all, they couldn’t get much worse. Not in their numbers at least.
Played four, lost four, goals none; the worst start made by any team in the top division since Preston North End in 1924-25.
Yet anyone who saw Palace’s match with Burnley on Sunday will know that isn’t the whole story. Palace murdered them. Burnley defended magnificently and their only goal came from a suicidal backpass by Lee Chung-yong. It was impossible not to feel for Frank de Boer. Charged with re-imagining Palace’s style of play having succeeded Sam Allardyce, he walked into a 3-0 home defeat by Huddersfield on the first day of the season and the pressure built from there.
Palace foolishly balked over making Mamadou Sakho’s loan deal permanent, meaning De Boer never got to use one of the key figures from last season. Wilfried Zaha has also been missing since the Huddersfield game. Most importantly, De Boer was plainly sold a different job to the one he now occupied.
The club De Boer joined wanted to play like Swansea, according to chairman Steve Parish.
‘This year when I watched them and us, I thought the way Swansea played gave them a higher percentage chance of getting a result,’ he said. By the time Palace hit Burnley on Sunday that had changed.
Results, not tight, technical football, were Parish’s concern. Palace no longer wanted De Boer’s revolution, or even evolution, after all. They did not have the patience or faith to become Swans. If De Boer had beaten Burnley 3-0 playing ugly or utilising the most industrial, route one game his players could muster, he would still be in a job now.
Instead, he tweaked his system, compromised his beliefs, but found a game plan that might, given longer, have worked. Palace had 22 chances to Burnley’s four; Andros Townsend was the game’s outstanding player; and Palace mixed their game well.
That wasn’t enough. Palace were no longer interested in philosophy: indeed, looking at the men who preceded and succeeded De Boer, one has to question whether they ever truly were.