After a remarkable turnaround in fortunes under Oliver Glasner at the end of last season, Crystal Palace fans were hoping for a fast start to the 2024-25 season and possible European qualification this time around.
However, with three games left to play, a review was made.
In Palace’s first two games they lost 2-1 at Brentford and 2-0 at home to West Ham United. Despite drawing 1-1 with Chelsea in the return leg, Palace were plagued by balls down the left channel in the first 45 minutes that day.
Overall, it’s been a slow and somewhat sluggish start to the season. Not surprising: there are enough positive signs to not worry too much, but slow enough to temper the optimism that was generated last season.
Some may point to mitigating factors. Palace had nine players on international duty over the summer. They also sold star striker Michael Oliz to Bayern Munich, with first-team regulars Joachim Andersen (Fulham), Jordan Ayew and Odson Edouard (both to Leicester City) also departing. Newcastle United’s pursuit of Mark Guehy, while ultimately unsuccessful, was also a cause for concern.
However, manager Glasner is not one to make such excuses. Instead, he pointed out that other clubs also had to deal with players in major competitions this summer and made it clear that his team should have done better in the first two games.
This is not the first time Qas has appeared to struggle with inertia during his six months in charge. A seven-match unbeaten run at the end of last season, in which they swept through with their explosive football, has made everyone forget what came before: one win in his first six games as Roy Hodgson’s replacement.
Palace have not looked particularly convincing in this spell. Their most notable performance was a 1-0 defeat to Bournemouth on 2 April. In a 4-2 defeat to Manchester City a week later, despite the result, Palace improved significantly. A 1-0 win against Liverpool at Anfield on 14 April started a run of six wins in the last seven games. All of it was broadcast.
In his first press conference since his appointment, Glasner said it takes time for a team to play the way he wants: “One of my strengths and weaknesses is impatience. So I hope it will be soon.” He said he is “not a magician” and will not change everything overnight.
“Every coach has his own ideas and the players have to deal with them. It’s not like you can snap your fingers and the next day (everything works like clockwork) because it will be easy for us. It’s a daily thing. I want to improve every parameter and detail, be physically strong, create more, score fewer goals, score more goals after set matches.
“I can’t say (it will happen) in three weeks. My experience is that when we really see that things are getting better and better and it’s in the minds of the players, at the previous clubs it takes up to three months.” first eight games “I’ve drawn five games and lost three in Frankfurt. I hope we start better here.”
Glasner won the Europa League trophy with his team Frankfurt in 2022 (Sebastian Golnov/AFP/Getty Images)
But the Austrian has a history of starting campaigns slowly when it comes to his teams.
As mentioned above, in the first 10 Bundesliga games in his first season as Frankfurt manager in 2021-22, Glasner’s team won just once. They were also eliminated from the DFB Cup in the first round after losing to third-tier Waldhof Mannheim.
In the 2022-23 season he did better: one defeat and two draws before his team won.
In Wolfsburg, in the 2020-21 season, his team started their Bundesliga campaign with four draws before winning their fifth match.
During that slow start three years ago, questions were asked of Glasner. Everything from his dress code and his look to his way of playing was scrutinised. But these doubts were dispelled with six league wins out of seven in November and December, and at the end of the season Frankfurt won the Europa League.
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So how does this help us understand the beginning of this season?
Ahead of the draw with Chelsea on September 1, Glasner said it was “amazing that everything worked so quickly” after his arrival as coach in February. “Now we need to find the best set-up for each player to be together and rebuild everything. I can’t say whether it will be two or four weeks.”
Clearly, this is a manager who is showing that he is still building a team; that his players still like his system, his style, his focus on analysis, his mathematical side that he uses to get more out of his players and the heavy physical demands of aggressive pressing, including learning the triggers for when to do it.
This summer has seen the arrival of seven new players, four of whom (Matt Turner, Maxence Lacroix, Trevo Chaloba and Eddie Nketiah) were signed on transfer deadline day just over a week ago. These new players have only had a few days so far to get to know Glasner and, more importantly, understand what he wants from them. Nketiah and Lacroix, who last played for Glasner at Wolfsburg, were behind closed doors for the 3-0 win over third-tier Reading as the coaching staff tried to fit them into the group. Striker Nketya struck the ball twice.
That sudden rush of late arrivals was far from ideal, though. The rest of the squad didn’t return until a week before the opening game against Brentford on August 18 after a post-tournament break. As with Glasner’s teams before Palace – particularly Frankfurt in 2021-22 – there are summer tweaks that will take time to implement, but his past examples suggest the boost will come at some point in the season.
Palace improved a lot in the second half against Chelsea, although it may be a while before everything really clicks. So this first international break of the new season comes at a good time – giving those who have no obligations back home time to get to know their manager.
The lack of overall improvement in the upcoming games should not be a cause for concern. Glasner’s history shows that things take time.
Integration into a system that is physically and tactically demanding will not be seamless.
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