Crystal Palace are not only into the FA Cup final but they are among the Premier League’s most tactically interesting teams. Manchester United are trying to make the 3-4-3 work but they could do worse than take Oliver Glasner’s team as the template.
The praise was not so forthcoming at the end of November when Palace were enduring their worst ever start to a Premier League season. At that stage, they were only one place off bottom having picked up fewer points than both Leicester and Ipswich.
Jean-Philippe Mateta’s Olympic commitments may have been a factor – he scored in only two of those first 13 games. Half a dozen other first-team regulars were involved as their respective nations reached summer finals. Michael Olise was missed too, of course.
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Oliver Glasner reveals his non-negotiables in order for Crystal Palace to succeed
But Glasner has since turned things around spectacularly. Indeed, having picked up 37 points from their 22 Premier League matches since then, it is form that would have had them on the fringes of Champions League qualification had they started stronger.
The Austrian has been utterly vindicated in sticking to the formation that he has long favoured, but what is it that makes it work so well while Ruben Amorim stutters? The explanation, surely, is that Glasner has so many players who are suited to the system.
The wing-backs are key and, in Daniel Munoz and Tyrick Mitchell, Palace have a pairing who are revelling in the role. They are unusually good in one-against-one situations, both ranking among the top 10 players for tackles made in the Premier League this season.
Palace wait before pressing, refusing to be baited, preferring to use the inside forwards to force the opposition wide, funnelling the ball towards their combative wing-backs. It is from there that they are able to snap into those tackles and end many of the attacks.
Crystal Palace’s wing-backs cover far more ground by pressing than other defenders
The Palace supporters have welcomed that increased intensity, an approach embodied not just by their wing-backs but in the form of cult hero Maxence Lacroix at the back. Ahead of them, they know that the quality is there if they can keep it tight defensively.
Glasner has not quite been able to match last season’s achievement – the best scoring campaign in Palace’s Premier League history – but the addition of Ismaila Sarr, a summer signing from Marseille, as the replacement for Olise has been a success.
Ismaila Sarr has been used as an inside forward by Crystal Palace this season
Ismaila Sarr scoring his second against Aston Villa in February – note the bodies in the box
It is a new role for the former Watford winger, who was used much wider during his previous two stints in the Premier League. But, now 27, he has adapted to playing more centrally, contributing seven goals in the competition and scoring four more in the cups.
It helps that Adam Wharton can find him. The England midfielder’s progressive passing rivals the best in the Premier League. Only Bruno Fernandes, Kevin De Bruyne and James Maddison play such passes more regularly and Wharton does it from deeper.
Adam Wharton ranks highly among midfielders for progressive passes
Both he and Will Hughes rank among the top 10 midfielders for passes played between the lines per 90 minutes, revealing that this is something Glasner wants to see from his side. Not for him the sort of sterile possession favoured by some in the Premier League.
No team in the competition has had fewer build-up attacks this season – defined by Opta as pass sequences of 10 or more that end in a shot or with the team working the ball into the opposition penalty box. Palace tend not to need 10 passes to manage that.
They also play with the least width per passing sequence of any team and have the lowest pass completion rate in the Premier League too. A feature of Palace’s play is that they often work the ball vertically, preferring to look forward when in possession.
From there, Sarr and the excellent Eberechi Eze can capitalise. Both are tasked with feeding Mateta, a striker with 14 Premier League goals this season and 27 since Glasner’s arrival – outscored by only Alexander Isak, Erling Haaland and Mohamed Salah in that time.
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Highlights of the Premier League match between Arsenal and Crystal Palace
Monday 5th May 6:30pm
Kick off 8:00pm
The importance of Mateta’s role at Palace can hardly be overstated because he does not just finish the moves off himself but it is his movement, stretching defences, that creates the space that allows Eze and the rest to construct them in the first place.
He has made 329 runs challenging the back line this season. Only three Premier League players have made more than that and only one of them – Aston Villa’s Ollie Watkins – makes a higher percentage of their total runs this way. That hard work reaps rewards.
From back to front, Palace are doing this their own way. They endured a shaky start but have shown themselves to be a team in which every player knows their role, one that can cause problems for any opponent. That Oliver Glasner template is working.
