Crystal Palace and Roy Hodgson

Roy Hodgson came into Palace with the club goalless and without a point

There is something eminently likeable about Crystal Palace. Their fans never seem to get too high or too low, and from the outside looking in, are a good group. Of course, there will be fans from other clubs who loathe Palace who will be sending around eight laughing emojis at the prospect of saying something positive about the South London side but as Premier League fans go, Palace are pretty inoffensive.

The same too goes for Roy Hodgson. It now seems that Hodgson has been managing almost forever, from Halmstad to the Hawthorns, Fulham and Liverpool, the Palace boss is one of the most experienced and underrated managers not only managing currently but within the last twenty years. His time at England and Liverpool will always be a stick to beat him with, because in the eyes of many you cannot be a remotely successful manager if you fail with either. Yet, at Crystal Palace, Hodgson has done well.

Again, take Hodgson’s first team selection, a 0-1 home defeat at the hands of Southampton: Hennessey, Ward, Dann, Fosu-Mensah, Schlupp, Townsend, McArthur, Cabaye, Loftus-Cheek, Puncheon, Benteke. That day, Palace played in a 4-4-1-1 formation. For Palace against Southampton in Hodgson’s first game, it was somewhat of a unfair marker, he had only just gotten the job, Palace had some key injuries including Wilfried Zaha, who arguably played his football for Palace that season, plus James Tomkins, Mamadou Sakho, Patrick Van Aanholt and Luka Milivojevic. In the weeks, months and ultimately years ahead, all of those have become stalwarts of the Palace team, adding to a team of grit, physicality, yet at their very best, flair and a team which is adept of playing effectively on the counter attack. Defensively, similar to Burnley, Palace started off trying to be stubborn as Hodgson tried to get Palace back to basics, they sat narrowly as Roy Hodgson had Palace becoming more hard to beat from the more open and less stubborn period of four games under Frank De Boer.

The major difference from De Boer’s final game away at Burnley is that Palace had become and still are more direct in attack. The Dutchman had used a 3-5-2 formation in his opening three league games, switching to 4-3-3 at Turf Moor. Hodgson, however opted for 4-4-1-1, with Ruben Loftus-Cheek charged with playing close to Benteke. In attack Puncheon in particular cut into the middle of the pitch allowing Schlupp to burst down the line to give Southampton more difficultly in defending against Palace’s counter attacking football while, just as under Sam Allardyce, the back four played longer, more direct passes to Benteke to hold up with Loftus-Cheek, Puncheon and Townsend either making runs off the striker or in front of him to pick the ball up and play higher up the pitch.

Ultimately, Palace did lose the game 0-1 but it was the start of Palace becoming a more stubborn defensively yet good counter attacking team, just as they always were before the four game De Boer project. Palace picked up that season massively under Roy Hodgson. After losing seven consecutive games at the start of the season, Palace finished 11th, finishing on 44 points. If Hodgson had arrived at Palace at the start of that season with a summer window and a pre season, Palace would have likely had finished in the top half of the table, with Rafa Benitez’s Newcastle only finishing higher than Palace in 10th in goal difference at the end of Hodgson’s first season

Palace’s best performance that season was arguably their 5-0 home victory over Claude Puel’s Leicester City side who had finished 9th that season after finding themselves in the bottom three under Craig Shakespeare. Palace, that day played a 4-4-2 formation with McArthur and Loftus-Cheek playing as wide midfielders and Zaha and Townsend up front. While Leicester had improved under Puel, they still had a issue playing against forwards with pace and good movement and Hodgson saw an opportunity in playing Zaha and Townsend up against the capable, though slow, Harry Maguire and Wes Morgan. Palace’s first goal was a snapshot of what Hodgson was trying to achieve in attack the previous months at Palace, Loftus Cheek and McArthur cutting inside to find Zaha, who brilliantly opened the scoring.

Palace, with the inspired brilliance in the final third with Loftus-Cheek, Townsend and Zaha, at that point, were playing the way De Boer had imagined, with Hodgson adding structure and calling for the back four and goalkeeper to play more directly to beat the press and find the openings for Zaha.

The 2018/19 season was not as easy for Palace, particularly in the early months of the season. Palace struggled to repeat the same style of football as they had in the later months of the 2017/18 season with Max Meyer unable to have the same impact as Loftus-Cheek in a attacking capacity and silly mistakes defensively costing Palace. The turning point for Palace was arguably away to Manchester City.

Palace offered a defensive masterclass that day at the Ethiad, 22% possession, five shots and zero corners. Palace, in the simplest of terms, let Man City have all the ball. City struggled to break Palace down with John Stones and Phil Foden struggling to compete with the physicality of James McArthur and Luka Milivojevic with Jeff Schlupp providing an engine to cut through the weakened City midfield, as seen with the first Palace goal. In defence, the Serbian would drop deeper sitting next to James Tomkins and Mamadou Sakho to almost make a back five while Schlupp and McArthur would look to win the ball back higher up. The wide midfielders, Meyer and Townsend would again drift in narrowly but this time deeper to block gaps for Man City to play through while Wan-Bissaka and Van Aanholt sat on the edge of the penalty area next to the central defenders.

The pundits and fans will all talk about Townsend’s wonder strike and Zaha’s movement but the defensive rigidity was the main reason for Palace’s win. Although, Hodgson in his initial first few months of his reign at Palace wanted to move Palace on offensively, Hodgson from December 2018 onwards built Palace to be more defensive, although not every game was a 20% possession classic, Palace are in the purest of terms harder to beat and although are they are harder to watch, they have become more successful at what they do.

Palace finished the 2018/2019 Premier League season in 12th place in 49 points, their record points total in the Premier League with a incredible nine away wins. They did disappoint at home with five home wins but most of that was the difficulty they had in the first half of the season before Hodgson went back the basics.

Before Covid-19 stopped the Premier League, Palace were 11th on 39 points, They would only need another eleven points in the nine games remaining to beat their best ever points total again and perhaps a top half finish, should the league finish. Hodgson has recently signed a new contract extension until the end of next season to provide another year of stability, good organisation but football for Palace fans maybe not the most aesthetically pleasing football.

As for how Palace shape up now, it is with a 451 formation after the 442 experiment coming to an end. The general starting eleven is: Guaita, Ward, Tomkins, Cahill, Van Aanholt, McCarthy, Kouyate, McArthur, Ayew, Zaha, Benteke. Although Milivojevic and Townsend are mainstays for the side from Selhurst Park, Hodgson has had success in the last few games playing the 451 with three traditionally more dogged midfielders but with more freedom given to Ayew, Benteke and Zaha, with also Palace having more energy in middle without the Serbian.

Last summer, Palace made a huge net profit in last season’s transfer window with the sale of Aaron Wan Bissaka and the additions of James McCarthy, Gary Cahill and Jordan Ayew. Cahill, in particular has been crucial for Palace. Arguably, one of the signings of the season in the whole league, Cahill has added a different element to Palace’s low block.

Whenever the season will be finished, Crystal Palace will have had a good season. They are organised and stable. Though improvements have to be made to ensure Palace’s long term ability to flourish in the Premier League as they will not have the stability of Hodgson forever. Vincente Guaita has also been outstanding in goal making numerous key saves to keep Palace in games at times while also commanding his penalty area well.

What comes next?

Coronavirus will likely mean that transfers will be limited for everyone but Palace will be looking to bring the average age of the team down with Palace having the oldest squad in the league. Nathan Ferguson, Eberechi Eze and Ollie Watkins would all be good signings to improve the squad as well as the starting eleven. Jonjoe Kenny would be a smart addition also as well as a new backup goalkeeper if Wayne Hennessey departs Selhurst Park.

There has been issues at Palace with Harris, the American owner as well as Steve Parish’s involvement at Palace but with a good summer window, Palace will be in good shape for the future with Roy Hodgson doing a good job.

Owen Parkes