da fazobetai： Four games into the new season and ‘Total Croydon’ has come to an end, Crystal Palace sacking a manager in Frank De Boer who was asked to revolutionise the style of football at Selhurst Park and replacing him with a man in Roy Hodgson who was often lamented as a tactical dinosaur during four underwhelming years at the helm of the England national team.
da dobrowin： And yet, it is unquestionably clear that turning south London into a bastion of the kind of free-flowing football that can attract better players, better managers and better investors while thrusting the Eagles into the next bracket of Europa-League-contending Premier League clubs remains Steve Parish’s ultimate, driving ambition. He’s already taken the club from the brink of financial ruin to the middle of the top flight; but feels an exotic philosophy completely polarised to Palace’s historic belief in energetic directness is essential to breaking through the next glass ceiling.
The problem, however, is the inevitable short-termism of the Premier League and particularly at a club like Palace. While the likes of Liverpool, Everton or Tottenham can afford to spend a few years in the wilderness to oversee a transition of styles, Palace don’t have that luxury – anything less than decent results by their usual standards and the Eagles find themselves facing a relegation battle.
As not only De Boer but also Alan Pardew discovered after trying to install a more attractive philosophy, Parish finds himself unprepared to commit to his own self-imposed risk the moment Palace fall into a position where style of play becomes secondary. In the case of De Boer, that position came after just four games.
It’s the age-old adage of running before you can walk, or in this instance trying to inflict death by a thousand passes when you averaged the fourth-fewest per match of any Premier League side the previous season.
There’s an obvious reason for that; Tony Pulis, Alan Pardew and Sam Allardyce all recruited for a side that could punish teams on the counter-attack, the Eagles even signing a striker in Christian Benteke for a club-record fee who has made a career from that kind of service; but the challenge extends much further than simply the first team. Every level of the club is geared towards the traditional English style. That doesn’t mean there aren’t some fine technical talents in the youth ranks, but it does mean Palace don’t have a factory of Ajax-esque products to bring through and supplement with likeminded signings to make Parish’s vision of possession-based football a reality.
If Parish truly believes Ajax and Barcelona-inspired football is the next unavoidable step for Palace, it will have to be a case of evolution over revolution. De Boer’s attempts to impose a new style and system outright showed what an uphill struggle revolution would be, and how Palace couldn’t afford that risk in a relentlessly competitive Premier League.
Looking around the top flight, no manager has better evolved an attritional style of play while maintaining results than Stoke City’s Mark Hughes – the man Hodgson will need to imitate if he’s to play his part in the long-term transition during the two years of his Palace contract.
The Potteries isn’t exactly the complete hub of vibrant, free-flowing football envisaged when Sparky was unexpectedly brought in to succeed Tony Pulis, but when the Welshman’s contract expires at the end of next season, he’ll feel he’s fulfilled his brief of taking Stoke to the next level by improving the style of play. Stoke have finished in the top half three times from four attempts under Hughes and in that time have employed the kind of technical talents Parish would love at Selhurst Park – the likes of Xherdan Shaqiri, Bojan Krkic, Marko Arnautovic, Ibrahim Affellay and Jese Rodriguez.
Although there is still a physical core to Stoke and not every point is gained prettily, they’ve become much more than the direct, routinely organised side Pulis created to get them to the Premier League; they’re a multifunctional team who can win games in different ways and the ability to attract players like Shaqiri and Jese particularly shows how the change in style has improved the club’s standing globally.
Hughes’ project has lasted four seasons and still isn’t complete; Hodgson certainly won’t be afforded that kind of time and due to the abysmal start to 2017/18, creating a bedrock of positive results will have to come first. But for all the criticisms of laborious tactics during his spells with Liverpool and England, it’s often forgotten Hodgson did create a side at Fulham that reached a Europa League final by depending as much on savviness and ability in possession as physicality, players like Danny Murphy, Zoltan Gera, Simon Davies, Jonathan Greening and Damien Duff becoming key members of the squad.
Much like Hughes, Hodgson was given several transfer windows to build that side at Fulham, which probably wasn’t quite to the supreme technical levels Parish envisages for Palace anyway. Due to how short his contract is, it seems unlikely the former Three Lions boss will be given that kind of freedom to alter the squad at Selhurst Park – something the presence of Director of Football Dougie Freedman also hints at.
Yet, if Hodgson can go some way to putting the wheels of transition in motion by replicating what he achieved at Fulham and kickstarting a process similar to what Hughes has overseen at Stoke, slowly building on the counter-attacking side Palace already have, his short tenure will represent an integral part of the strive towards Parish’s vision. And coincidentally, Hodgson’s contract will expire the same time as Hughes’ with the Potters. Perhaps hiring the Welshman in 2019 represents the next logical step in the long-term evolution Palace now need.