Crystal Palace: Formation switch, January signings and what Oliver Glasner could change to arrest slump | OneFootball

Eagles boss under the spotlight after a difficult start to the season

So many Crystal Palace supporters believed their barnstorming run-in last season was the start of the next step beyond mid-table. Six months later, and things have instead gone the other way.

The first 11 games of the Premier League campaign have delivered one win, leaving Palace in the relegation zone and having scored fewer goals than everyone bar Southampton.

So why the descent, and why so fast?

With optimism from the summer gone, Oliver Glasner has spent the last month fielding uncomfortable questions about his future, though he is not yet at risk of losing his job.

Crystal Palace are in the relegation zone after a poor start to the season

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Performances have been OK; that must be said. But Glasner’s claim that Saturday’s 2-0 home defeat to Fulham was the first game all season they truly deserved to lose felt hyperbolic for a side who have lost six of 11 in the league.

The blame game is not a simple ‘either/or’. Multiple factors have caused these backward steps.

Key to an upturn in fortunes is the return to form and fitness of one of Glasner’s star men.

Jean-Philippe Mateta has scored in just two of his 11 league appearances and still appears to be suffering a post-Olympics hangover.

And while Glasner is right that Eberechi Eze has been unlucky not to have scored more goals, the fact his drop-off in output has coincided with Michael Olise’s move to Bayern Munich has not gone unnoticed.

The medical record at Palace was mooted under Roy Hodgson as a potential obstacle to progress, and injuries continue to disrupt.

Eze, Will Hughes, Jefferson Lerma, Matheus Franca and Adam Wharton are all sidelined, as well as new signings Eddie Nketiah and Chadi Riad.

Early summer business to sign Riad and Daichi Kamada was not built on.

Instead, they faltered after that, selling Olise and then signing four players on deadline day.

Glasner has twice admitted publicly that the club’s recruitment team frustrated him by doing the rest of their business so late.

Even the most ardent supporters had accepted, along with the hierarchy, that a player as special as Olise could not truly be replaced. But Palace could have done a better job of mitigating his exit. Swapping him, Jordan Ayew, Odsonne Edouard and Jesurun Rak-Sayi with only Nketiah and Ismaila Sarr was only going to spell trouble.

And it has. With 0.04 goals per shot taken, Palace have the worst shooting efficiency in the Premier League, while only three teams have worse pass completion rates this term.

Palace do not find themselves as financially strapped for cash as many Premier League sides, so money should be spent on attacking reinforcements in January.

Two offensive players - at least one of them a winger - would bolster squad depth.

Defensively, Maxence Lacroix is fast becoming a shrewd purchase and the ideal replacement for Joachim Andersen, yet Marc Guehi and Trevoh Chalobah have both made high-profile errors. No team has lost more individual duels than the Eagles, who also rank 19th of the 20 teams for aerial duels won.

Glasner continues to have meetings at least every week with chairman Steve Parish and sporting director Dougie Freedman, and between them they must find a way to turn this season into a success.

There is a basis for cautious optimism, starting with the fact Palace are still in the Carabao Cup and face Arsenal next month for a place in the semi-finals for the first time since 2011-12.

Meanwhile, Justin Devenny (aged 21), Asher Agbinone (19) and Caleb Kporha (18) have all tasted Premier League game time this term. Illustrative of how light the squad is, but also a nod to the success of the club’s academy.

Palace have a tough run of fixtures leading into Christmas, and in order to not fall further adrift in the drop zone, Eze, Mateta and other stars must assume responsibility in raising their levels, just as goalkeeper Dean Henderson has done this season.

Glasner should also consider changing his system, because the 3-4-2-1 formation worked much better when Olise and Eze were the two inverted No10s than since the former departed.

A 4-2-3-1 system would allow Nketiah and Sarr to play either side of Eze, who would then get free rein to dictate the attack.

Kamada, once his suspension is over, should be dropped.

Signing a winger in January would then relieve Nketiah of having to play wide and restore him to his original role of competing with Mateta up front.

If Palace do not stop the rot, Glasner will keep facing those uncomfortable questions.