[FM23-24] How Is Our Trophy Case Still Empty - Crystal Palace

[keeper#1]

I saw a tweet, the other day, which said in the over 160-year history of Crystal Palace that they have never won a top flight league title or major trophy.  How is that possible?  With such a long history, they should have won a trophy purely by accident at this point.  Well, this save aims to change that history and turn Crystal Palace into one of the top teams in England and then in Europe.  Turn the Eagles into one of the most feared teams in Europe.  While that sounds easy on paper, I've set up a bunch of achievements to turn what could a short term into a long term save.

Some of these achievements will be easy to knock off.  Others will take some time.  I'm eyeing the long-term achievements like "Win Premier League 14 times" (why 14 times? Arsenal currently lead London with 13 top flight league titles), "Win 20 total cups", "Lead England in Sponsorship Income" and "Have Largest Stadium in England" as the most difficult achievements to earn.  Those will turn this potential short term save into a longer save.  

I decided to use myself as the manager for this save.  Nothing exciting just my boring ol' self.

The board have realistic expectations for Crystal Palace's current stature.  They want the same boring mid-table finish like Crystal Palace always seem to achieve.  They rarely fall into the relegation fight while, at the same time, rarely push for a spot in Europe.  It's quite impressive for Crystal Palace to always finish in this zone year after year.  The board just wants a competitive effort in both cups.  Again, nothing exciting.  Just competitive.  Don't want to make too many waves or get the fans too excited.  I can easily get on board with the board's "build with youth" goals.  That's how I like to build a club. 

The fans, like the board, just want to stay in the Premier League.  However, unlike the board, they do have some ambition but it's all rivalry driven.  Beating Millwall should not be that hard of an achievement since they are division lower than us.  The rivalry with Brighton is an interesting one.  Not really sure how the two clubs became rivals.  I would have expected one of the London clubs like Fulham to be in the mix over Brighton.

The Roster

My long-term roster goal is to have two players at each position in each squad (Senior, U21 and U18).  Right now, the focus is on the senior team and then will build the U21 and U18 teams through scouting and youth intakes.

 

Goalkeeper is a weak spot in the roster.  Borderline England national, Jack Butland, is out on loan and has a big contract for someone who is not with club.  The starting duties falls to 35-year old Vicente Guiata.  He appears to be what is called "a replacement-level player."  He's good enough to work as a short-term solution at position but will not be the long-term answer for the position.  Sam Johnstone is not that long-term answer either.  A longer term solution will need to be found in the transfer market through scouting.

Defense is a bright spot for this roster.  It's got three young players all with room to grow that could be starters for the club going forward.  On the left, Tyrick Richard is a developing attacking left-back that is just 22-years old.  The center is occupied by youngster Marc Guehi and the more experienced Joachem Andersen.  Pushing both of them is developing US talent Chris Richards.  Richards is a decent signing for the club.  He never really got the expected playing time at Bayern and has a high ceiling.  The right side is the only spot on the backline where an aging player is filling the role.  But it's the very experienced Nathaniel Clyne filling that starting right-back role.  Clyne is good enough in both attack and defense to hold down the role for the next year or two until we can find a long-term answer for the position.  Clyne is above replacement level but not an elite player.

The midfield is filled with both experienced and up and coming talent.  The well-known Wilfried Zaha mans the left forward position.  He will be pushed by the rapidly developing Ebere Eze.  Eze is also versatile enough to drop into the central midfield so we can get both of them on the pitch at the same time.  We may do this a lot this season since the attacking midfield options are not the best.  We have a lot of ball winning types in the midfield but not many who can do something with the ball once we win it from the opposition.  Cheick Doucoure will anchor the midfield at the base of the midfield triangle.  The third central midfield position is in flux with either loanee Albert Sambi Lokonga or Will Hughes filling that third position.  But this is another position where we will be looking for longer term solutions.  Right forward is another position which is in need.  I can slide Zaha to the right side and put Eze on the left if I want to go with two grinders at the top of the midfield triangle.  Outside of that, there are not many options for the position.

Jean-Phillipe Mateta is the only true center forward at the club.  He will be pushed by Odsonne Edouard for playing time.  Edourard is another player who is more comfortable at the very crowded left forward position.  Some positional balance is needed in the midfield and attacking line going forward.

 

 

[Jogo Bonito]

This will be a fun follow. A club in South London with a great tradition and little in the way of accomplishments.

They have some excellent assets with Guehi, Andersen, Mitchell and especially Eze and Olise. Where is Olise in the squad view by the way? The youth set-up also traditionally delivers some good home-grown talents - and maybe Wan Bissaka can be tempted home?

If a quality and reliable striker is added to the ranks, this is a team that can do much better. Agree that goalkeeper, right-back and another central midfielder are probably the other areas that you need to address. Good luck at the Palace.

[karanhsingh]

Good luck with this, certainly set yourself some ambitious targets!

[keeper#1]

2022-23 Season Update #1 - Early Struggles and Injuries

The fixture makers were not kind to us to start the season as we opened with three of the big clubs right off the bat.  Not surprisingly, we opened with three losses.  The match against Newcastle should have been a draw.  We got down 2-0 before Zaha scored twice in two minutes to tie the match.  Late in stoppage time, we gave a cheap Route One goal which allowed Newcastle to take all three points.  Thankfully, we had an easy Carabao Cup match against Birmingham to get some momentum which was quickly lost after a draw to Leeds and then a home loss to last place Leicester.  After the transfer window closed, we, finally, got our first league victory beating Fulham 2-0 at Craven Cottage.  Hopefully, we can carry the momentum from that win through the international break and into our next match against Chelsea.

The win over Fulham dragged us out of the relegation zone and into 17th place.  The offense has been a major concern with just four goals in six matches.  The defense has been shaky thanks to our a minor knock to our starting goalkeeper.  The xG stats are encouraging since we are massively underperforming our xG stats.  They have us sitting safely in the middle of the table but due to our inability to find the net, we sit in 17th place.

A lot of these transfers were pre-arranged before I got to the club.  The only transfer that I made was bringing in center forward Moussa Dembele in from Lyon.  Lyon, for some reason, did not rate him as a player to keep on their roster.  I knew about his ability to score goals and saw that one of our weaknesses has been scoring goals so it was a match.  I would have liked to brought in more players but we in a definite sell players to buy players situation.  And....

Nobody was really interested in our players so I could not make that big sale where I could use the proceeds of the sale to fund other purchases so the only purchase I could make was bringing in Dembele.

Why was Dembele for sale, Lyon?  He's still a quality player who has a track record of finding the back of the net.  

The busiest person at the club, in the first few weeks of the season, has been the physio.  It's been a never-ending parade of players going from the pitch or the training ground and into the physio's office.  At present, we have seven first-team players out with some level of injury.  It's been hard to gain team cohesion when I can't put the same starting XI on the pitch from match to match because someone is always getting injured.  Need this to change as well so our on-field results can start to turn around.

Not a lot of matches in the next few weeks.  We need these weeks to get everyone healthy.  My goal for these next five matches is nine points.  Except for Chelsea, they are all against opponents who we should be competitive against.  Nine points would set a foundation for us to build upon going forward.

 

[Sahaj Oberoi]

This seems like a cool save, keep going.

[Jogo Bonito]

Dembele is a great signing for Crystal Palace. The low fee is because he was going to leave Lyon at the end of his contract. Back to the City of London where he first made an impression at Fulham, so a very realistic (and good) signing. Some tough early results there, hopefully as things settle and injuries ease, your form will improve.

[Swaban]

good luck mate, ill be following this! 

[keeper#1]

2022-23 Season Update #2 - World Cup Winter Break

We were on pace to get the nine points that I hoped we would get in the five match stretch from Chelsea to Southampton.  We had seven points in the first four matches and then we completely crapped the bed against last place Southampton.  We carried that lack of momentum into our next four matches where we only gained one point out of a possible 12.  Then, we regained some level of form by beating Wolves to steady the ship somewhat.  Our reward for steadying the ship.  Back-to-back matches against Manchester City.  They knocked us out of the Carabao Cup before beating us in the league.  The one positive that I can take from this stretch of matches is Moussa Dembele is starting to find his goalscoring form.  The major negative is our poor goalkeeping.  Guaita has allowed 6.5 more goals than expected.  Sam Johnstone hasn't been much better.  Allowing just 0.27 more goals than expected but with a save percentage of only 80% compared to his expected percentage of 89%.  Just terrible goalkeeping.  I'd like to improve this position in the winter transfer window but I don't know if I'll have the available transfer funds to improve the position.  I'm still in a sell players to buy players position.  But we need an upgrade here or we will be a relegation battle all season.

 

We are in the fun position of scoring below our expected goals and allowing more goals than expected.  This is why we are in the middle of a relegation fight.  If we were playing to our expected goals stats, we would be in a battle for a European place.  Instead, we are wallowing in 16th place fighting against relegation.  We are the biggest underperformer in the league.

Based on the stats, I don't know if we have anybody to sell in order to bring in players that could improve the side.  I may have to dip into the loan market to improve the team if I can't find any buyers for some of these players.  Wilfred Zaha has informed me that he does not want to renew his contract so sadly he would be the players most likely to move.  But, he is also our most productive player so I could be stuck in a situation where I need to keep a player on the team in order to fight off relegation and watch him walk away for nothing in return or sell a player that is almost irreplaceable in the lineup.  Tough decisions to be made during the World Cup break.

 

[karanhsingh]

I am sure things will improve before long, just gotta stick with it!

[keeper#1]

8 hours ago, karanhsingh said:

I am sure things will improve before long, just gotta stick with it!

Our goal scoring/preventing luck has to change at some point.  We've got to improve to the mean.

[Hootieleece]

Goalkeeping is one position if you can find the right player (or in form) can mask a lot of deficiencies and make a difference in relegation battle.

In my Preston save we did well to end up 14th, but one move I made over the summer was to find a better goalie. Mostly because the old #1 dreaded big matches and almost every match in the Premier League is a "Big Match."

[keeper#1]

2022-23 Season Update #3 - Signs of Improvement & Winter Transfer Activity

Taking the results against Liverpool and Chelsea out of the equation, we did ourselves very well in this stretch of matches.  I'm taking the results against Big Six out because I consider any points gain in those matches as a bonus.  I'm expecting to go 0-12-0 against them.  Earn our 40 points to stay clear of relegation against the other 13 teams in the Premier League,  In those matches, we did great.  The matches against Southampton were in the 3rd round of the FA Cup and the match against Wolves was in the 4th round.  As a result, we dropped zero points in the non-Big Six matches in this run of matches.  I hope that makes some level of sense.  We are playing really well right now and ready to kick on into the spring and the end of the season.  Use the rest of this season as a springboard for the 2023-24 season.

 

We are still underperforming our xG stats both for and against.  But we are starting gain some separation between ourselves and the relegation zone.  That said, the xG stats would have us in a battle for the final European place but the actual stats have us entering a battle for the middle of the table which exactly where Crystal Palace like to reside.  Not really pushing for Europe but not really worried about relegation.  Just going through the motions and playing out the string.

Transfer Dealings

I've said all season that we were in a sell to buy situation.  Would we finally sell some players so we could buy some players?

Finally, we got some players out the door!  However, one of those players is star player Wilfried Zaha, who told me that he was not going to sign a new contract when his expires at the end of season.  I really did not want to put him on the transfer list but I did not want him to walk away for nothing either.  I was able to get Tottenham to agree to a Crystal Palace friendly deal and he departed the club.  When a club like Real Madrid comes calling for one of your players, there isn't much you can do to prevent them from leaving.  I was able to get Real Madrid to agree to another Crystal Palace friendly deal for starting centre back Joachim Andersen.  I was less worried about the details around the Jean-Phillippe Mateta and Jeffrey Schlupp transfers.  They are both reserve players who were sucking up too much salary for their standing at the club.  In the end, I, finally, have some transfer funds to go out and get some players to help the club for the future.

I was able to cobble together enough funds through transfer sales and massaging the wage/transfer budgets to bring in five quality young players.

Jacob Greaves is a direct replacement for Joachim Andersen.  Greaves comes in with some positional flexibility that we were lacking along the backline.  He can playing in the center of the pitch as well as out wide on the left side.  He's a quality young English center back which ticks a lot of boxes in terms of wants from the board:  Sign players under 23 - check, Sign players from the lower levels of the domestic game - check.  He will immediately join a centre back rotation with Marc Guehi and Chris Richards.  James Tompkins will serve as the ultimate #4 last choice center back in the rotation.  A good player for the future.

Johan Bakayoko comes over from PSV to replace the departed Wilfried Zaha.  Immediately, he made his mark on the squad with two goals and an assist in his first four appearances at the club.  A fast winger who loves to run down the left side of the pitch with the ball.  A great young talent from a club that loves to produce young talent will be a great asset for this club going forward as we give him a showcase in the Premier League to show his skills to bigger clubs and playing on a bigger stage than he will see in the Eredivisie.  Boxes checked with this signing: Sign players under 23, Sign players under 20 for the future, Sign players to sell for a profit.  

Kamil Grabara comes over after being the #1 goalkeeper at FC Kobenhaven.  Once he gets settled and back into game shape, he will be a solid goalkeeper for us going forward.  He should be able to stabilize a shaky backline with a goalkeeper who can cover some of the deficiencies in that line.  I need a solid "last line of defense" and Grabara looks to be that solid last line.  He hasn't shown in it in first two appearances for the club but those were against a solid Chelsea squad and a Wolves squad where I rotated a lot of the players out of the lineup so I could focus on the league.  The month of February will hopefully show what he could bring to the club.

Torres is the first two deadline day signings.  A great young Uruguayan talent playing for Orlando City in the MLS.  That means he would be able to come to us for a lot less than if he was playing for a European club.  Has the ability to play all three forward positions giving us lots of positional flexibility and unpredictability to our lineup.  Played only one season for Orlando City and scored eight goals with 11 assists in that season.  At only 22 years old, he has 15 caps for the Uruguay National Team and already bagged his first senior goal.  I think Torres will be a great buy for us and can't wait for him to step on the field for us.  I could say he ticks two boxes for us: Sign Players under 23 and Sign Players to sell for a profit

Lastly there is Alex Scott, the English wonderkid, who comes over from Bristol City.  He brings a different look to our midfield than our current midfielders.  He's more of a natural attacking presence and wants to get the ball forward and into the net.  Most of our midfielders are grinders.  Players who want to win the ball but not do much with it after they win it.  Scott wants to dribble through the defense and either take a shot on net himself or get the ball to others in scoring positions.  He came over for the "cut rate" price of 7 million pounds.  A great player who ticks every box for a Crystal Palace signing: Sign Players Under 23, Sign Players Under 20 for the future, Sign Players from Lower Levels of the English Game, Sign Players to Sell for a Profit.  Another player who I can't wait to take the field for us this season.

[Hootieleece]

Great signings. Alex Scott is a gem.

[keeper#1]

1 hour ago, Hootieleece said:

Great signings. Alex Scott is a gem.

Thanks.  I was shocked that I could get Scott for only 7 million.

[Jogo Bonito]

No choice but to sell 'Wilf' really as a club like Palace need to generate money. Hopefully Greaves will settle and make the loss of Andersen less painful. I like the signing of Scott, but if you still have Olise and Eze it would be another attacking midfielder so presume those 'grinders' must be in the deeper positions. A typical Palace type signing, that last one.

[keeper#1]

2022-23 Season Update #4 - Getting Ready For the Youth Intake

A decent set of results in these six matches.  Two wins.  Two draws.  Two losses.  We poached our first points against one of the big clubs when we drew with Arsenal.  The fans enjoyed the 3-0 thrashing of Brighton.  We are getting scoring from a diverse group of new players.  The only goals scored by players who were at Palace when I took over were: Olise (Newcastle), Eze (Villa) and Edouard (2 goals against Brighton).  The offense signings are paying dividends.  The defensive signings are struggling.  We are still allowing too many goals for my liking.  As a former goalkeeper, I'm a defense-first type of manager.  Needing to score multiple goals every match is tough to do every night. It's a lot easier on everyone to win a match 1-0 or 2-0 than it is to win 4-2 or draw 3-3.  We were lucky to draw against Villa.  We got down 2-0 and clawed back to 2-2 only to give up a 3rd goal and need a late goal from Dembele to tie match.  It's a lot of work for everyone involved.

  

Still more of the same.  Our poor defending is causing our poor league position.  We are allowing 11 more goals than our expected states while scoring three fewer goals than expected.  Three goals less than expected can be explained by ball luck.  A shot hitting the post and bouncing out instead of in.  Allowing 11 more goals than expected means the problem lies deeper than "ball luck."  I've changed the players except on the flanks.  Maybe we lack speed at those positions which is causing the problem when we are pushing for goals to get back in the match.  Maybe it's coaching.  A deeper dive is going to need to take place during the summer and figure out what the problem is.  On the flip side, there is Everton, who can't find the goal with map and a flashlight, but are in 8th place because they have an airtight defense that is 17 goals better than expected.  They are our polar opposite.  You pair our offense with their defense and you have a team that is competing for a European place.

[Hootieleece]

At least you aren't Nottingham Forest's Defense!

If you are playing a high line are the attributes of pace, positioning, anticipation good (13+) for your CB's? How Defensive minded (Positioning and tackling) are your Full/Wingbacks?

Last but not least look again at the Goalkeeper.

That should help until you do your deep dive into the stats.

So far you are Crystal Palace playing like well Crystal Palace.

[keeper#1]

2022-23 Season - Youth Intake

An overall good class.  Three top tier talents and a bunch of talents who can fill in depth roles if needed.  Lots of good personalities.  Pleased with the class.

[keeper#1]

2022-23 Season Update #5 - Margins Are Thin

Some expected results against teams which we are expected to struggle against as well some dropped points in matches where we shouldn't drop points (loss to Wolves and draw to Everton) have seen our margins in the relegation battle become very thin.  If we had lost to Southampton would be deep in the relegation mix but we responded with a dominant 5-2 victory to give us some breathing room.  But that breathing space is getting smaller and smaller.

We have a game or two in hand on most of the other relegation candidates.  It's in our hands.  Can we get the points that we need to stay in the Premier League for another season?  Or will we run out of gas in the last matches of season and find the trap door into the Championship?

We have some matches that we can win in the home stretch.  I'm targeting the home matches against Brentford and Fulham as six points that we need to have.  The matches against United and Tottenham are likely losses.  Two points, at a minimum, from the Leeds and Leicester matches would give us eight points from the six matches and 44 points total for the season.  That should be more than enough to stay out of the relegation zone this season.  Then, I'll have a full summer to evaluate the roster and start the building process.

[karanhsingh]

Reckon you should be safe there. Nice to see a good intake. 

[keeper#1]

2022-23 Season Update #6 - End of the Season Success

For the last six matches of the season, I switched it up a bit tactically.  We still played in the 4-3-3 shape but we went about things a bit more defensive-minded.  We were going all out attack.  We still wanted to attack when the opportunity presented itself but we wanted to sit back and try to capitalize on any opposition mistakes - think @13th Man Coiled Spring.  In my last update, I said that my focus was going to be the Brentford and Fulham matches - get six points from those and let's see what happens in the more even Leeds and Leicester matches while all but writing off the Manchester United and Tottenham.  Well, the exact opposite happened on the pitch.  We played our worst against the sides that were battling relegation with us.  Getting just two points from the Brentford and Fulham matches.  We claimed all six points against Leeds and Leicester and pulled out two tremendous victories over Manchester United and Tottenham earning all six points from those matches as well.  14 points out of possible 18 in our final six matches.  Made avoiding relegation a breeze and shot us up the table.

   

We finished in 10th place as we just blew past teams like Brentford, Villa, Leicester and Leeds in the last month of the season.  We allowed only six goals in the last six matches which is a lot closer to the one goal per match average that I'm looking for.  On the season, we still way underperformed defensively which cost us a couple of places in the end.  But the tactical shift is something I will carry over into the 2023-24 season as it appears to have the offense-defense balance that I'm looking for, right now, with Palace.  

2022-23 Big Six Results: 2W 1D 9L  9GF 30GA

Defender of the Year - LB Tyrick Mitchell: Mitchell was our most consistent defender all season and one of the first players on the team sheet for every match.  He ranked toward the top of the league is just about every defensive category (Interceptions/90, Clearances/90, Progressive Passes/90).  A very good all-around defender on what was a shaky backline for most of season. Thankfully, no other clubs are interested in his services, at the moment, teams are more interested in Marc Guhli and Chris Richards instead.

Midfielder of the Year - CM Ebere Eze: Eze was a great attacking option out of the midfield for us this season and was the team's second leading goal-scorer with 10 goals behind Moussa Dembele's 14 goals.  Eze was not much of a passer in the midfield since he is more focused as a goalscorer not being a creator.  That said, he did still find a way to carve out five assists for us this season.  His passing numbers are all below average for a member of the top five leagues.  Unlike Mitchell, there were a couple of teams interested in Eze's services but that interest has cooled as we get closer to the transfer window opening.  Teams are focused on the more creative options like Michael Olise and Cheick Doucoure.  

Forward of the Year - CF Moussa Dembele: It took awhile for Dembele to get settled in and scoring but once he did, he was one of the best scorers for us this season leading the way with 14 goals. He ranks toward the top in most of the center forward categories like goals per 90 and xG per 90.  He's a volume shooter so his conversion rate is a little low but I want him to keep shooting and help offense stay at it's level of performance that we had this season.

The board has given me a respectable transfer budget.  There are other teams interested in some players from the club but I will only move them if the right offer comes along.  No one is upset at the amount of playing time that they are getting so I don't want to rock the boat by shipping out players against their will.  I'll be looking to improve the team from the defense out.  Get some more speed down the defensive flanks and in the midfield.  We are a bit long in the tooth at those positions.  It will be a busy offseason as we look to build upon the success that we had in the last month of the season.

[Hootieleece]

Great last month! Getting the defense right is the way to go. Offense will come.  

To paraphrase a famous quote: Defense wins Championships, Offense puts fans in the seats!

 

[keeper#1]

15 minutes ago, Hootieleece said:

Great last month! Getting the defense right is the way to go. Offense will come.  

To paraphrase a famous quote: Defense wins Championships, Offense puts fans in the seats!

 

I'm a big basketball guy as well.

"Rebounding wins championships. Defense wins games. Offense sells tickets." - Pat Summitt

[Domoboy23]

I also started a Palace save a couple of weeks ago (got a bit of a soft spot for them, got a close mate who supports them and I went to one of their playoff games against Brighton and loved the atmosphere and usually really enjoy their TIFO's).

I've found the challenge is the fact you're inheriting quite an aging squad in some key positions and depth filling positions. The challenge is phasing out these legacy players and replacing with a sufficient quality in their prime to compliment the younger lads coming through, whilst also trying to transfer to a more progressive style of play. Which I think is what each manager has struggled with really whenever they.ve looked away from Roy Hodgson, it starts well but then they slump again as they aren't quite there and then had to revert back to a usual, defensive, counter attacking style (nothing wrong with that, I love defensive football) to ensure safety.

What I would say is:

a) don't underestimate how great Guiata is

b) I was surprised at the amount of debt at the club for such a responsibly led club, this will eat away at you season after season so either lowering the budget or getting into Europe is key

c) The chairman is really patient

 

I finished 11th the first season on 50pts (same as you but you managed 10th) , then 2nd season 16th with 37 points and currently mid way through the 3rd season in 14th with 22 points. It's not an easy one, but it's a fun one!  Some of the link-up play between Eze, Olise (and Zaha before I sold him) really is quite something at times.

Edited June 23, 2023 by Domoboy23

[keeper#1]

2 hours ago, Domoboy23 said:

I also started a Palace save a couple of weeks ago (got a bit of a soft spot for them, got a close mate who supports them and I went to one of their playoff games against Brighton and loved the atmosphere and usually really enjoy their TIFO's).

I've found the challenge is the fact you're inheriting quite an aging squad in some key positions and depth filling positions. The challenge is phasing out these legacy players and replacing with a sufficient quality in their prime to compliment the younger lads coming through, whilst also trying to transfer to a more progressive style of play. Which I think is what each manager has struggled with really whenever they.ve looked away from Roy Hodgson, it starts well but then they slump again as they aren't quite there and then had to revert back to a usual, defensive, counter attacking style (nothing wrong with that, I love defensive football) to ensure safety.

What I would say is:

a) don't underestimate how great Guiata is

b) I was surprised at the amount of debt at the club for such a responsibly led club, this will eat away at you season after season so either lowering the budget or getting into Europe is key

c) The chairman is really patient

 

I finished 11th the first season on 50pts (same as you but you managed 10th) , then 2nd season 16th with 37 points and currently mid way through the 3rd season in 14th with 22 points. It's not an easy one, but it's a fun one!  Some of the link-up play between Eze, Olise (and Zaha before I sold him) really is quite something at times.

Yeah.  There's a bunch of old deadwood in the squad (Tompkins, McArthur, Ward).  Clyne and Milivojevic are serviceable but not great long-term options.

[Jogo Bonito]

A really good finish to your season, very much mirroring their actual season just gone. 

With the trident of Eze, Olise and Dembele, the counter-attacking style seems a good fit. Any plans to try and get Wan Bissaka back to Palace?

[keeper#1]

3 minutes ago, Jogo Bonito said:

A really good finish to your season, very much mirroring their actual season just gone. 

With the trident of Eze, Olise and Dembele, the counter-attacking style seems a good fit. Any plans to try and get Wan Bissaka back to Palace?

He's only coming off the bench for United so I'll to see if I can convince him to come home.  I hadn't really thought about it before your suggestion.  Thanks for the tip.   

[Jogo Bonito]

Just now, keeper#1 said:

He's only coming off the bench for United so I'll to see if I can convince him to come home.  I hadn't really thought about it before your suggestion.  Thanks for the tip.   

Welcome! I recall that I could have picked him up on a free transfer at VfB so there is every chance. Will help your European HG quota too 

[keeper#1]

3 minutes ago, Jogo Bonito said:

Welcome! I recall that I could have picked him up on a free transfer at VfB so there is every chance. Will help your European HG quota too 

GRRRRRR! He just signed a new contract with United.

[Jogo Bonito]

3 minutes ago, keeper#1 said:

GRRRRRR! He just signed a new contract with United.

Oh no, tragic. Keep an eye on it though, you may get lucky. Perhaps a top-six finish might change his mind...

[keeper#1]

2023-24 Season Update #1 - Everyone Is Broken

We have been very bipolar so far this season.  Either really good (3-0 victory over Liverpool and 5-2 victory over last place Blackburn) or really bad (pair of losses to Aston Villa and 2-1 losses to Watford and Norwich).  What has been behind this inconsistent form?  In a word: injuries.  Like last season, it has been a never-ending stream of players heading into the physio's offense.  We've had to play matches with basically a U21 lineup up front and a different matches with a U21 lineup at the back.  We haven't been able to play the same lineup two matches in a row.  It's very frustrating on my end because I brought in some signings to help shore up positions and because of injuries, I'm right back to where I was last season where I've got young players who aren't EPL ready on the bench or, in extreme cases, in the starting lineup.  They aren't major injuries but they are the 2-3 week variety which do just enough to mess up a team's form.

At one point, this list was 10 players strong.  On October 1st, I'm short two starting midfielders (Scott and Eze), a starting attacking winger (Torres), two rotational pieces (Winger Apsrilla and center back/right back Richards), and two backups (Winger Ebiowei and right back Clyne).  That's a lot to lose from the lineup.  Some will be back in time for our next match against Tottenham but it may be until after the October International Break for us to be mostly healthy and able to play our true starting XI.

 

We sit in 12th place which, I think, is a good place for us to be dealing with all the injuries.  I'm chalking some of the defensive frailties on the injury crisis that we have been dealing with all season.  The offensive injuries put pressure on the defense because we are unable to keep the ball as much as we would like which puts pressure on the defense.  The defensive injuries force us to put rotational and bench players into the starting lineup which puts pressure on the goalkeeper as he is facing higher quality shots and/or more 1v1 situations.  Just a tough deal all the way around.

[keeper#1]

Summer 2023 Transfers

I had to split the incoming transfers into two pages because some of the signings took place before the 2023-24 season became official.

We had a few outgoing transfers during the unofficial portion of the 2023-24 season.

We had a lot more outgoing transfer activity than incoming once the season officially ticked over to the 2023-24 season.

The biggest loss was Will Hughes but he made it known that he wasn't going to resign when he contract expires at the end of the season.  That earned him a place on the transfer list and Antwerp paid over value for his services while I brought in Tom Davies from Everton as his replacement.

Anel Ahemdhodzic comes over from Sheffield United as a rotational piece at the center back position.  Very good at distributing the ball to the midfield.  Good enough defensively to fill in and be a good ball playing defender to give our starting center backs a rest.  Not a flashy signing but a useful signing for us.

Nicholas Domingez joins us on a 4M pound relegation release clause from Bologna.  Expected to slot in the starting XI as a box to box midfielder.  Willing to play a risky pass to try to create a goal.  Fast enough to track back defensively and help out the back line.  A good player on a poor team that we expect to raise the play of our midfield and help us more into a more solid mid-table/top-half finish this season.

Kiliann Silidilla is our big signing of the season coming over from Freiburg.  The Silidilla signing does two things.  First, he is a natural right-back and will immediately become the starter at that point.  In the process, it allows us to slot Chris Richards back into his more natural center back position creating depth there without the need to sign anyone.  

Fabian Rieder is a player that I had on my radar for over a season.  I wanted to bring him in last year but couldn't afford the transfer fee.  Now, I can bring in the attack-minded Rieder to bolster our ranks in the midfield.  Brought in to provide cover for Eze when he needs a night off or has a drop in form.  Has some growth potential to eventually move into the starting role in the future.

Yaser Asprilla is the Columbian wonderkid brought in from Watford.  Can play all three forward positions and has the highest ceiling of the six signings that we made over the summer.  Could take over a starting place at any of the three forward positions, this season, or get a good number of starts just by filling in at all of the positions due to injuries or dips in form.  A nice signing for us in the offseason.

[karanhsingh]

Nice to see you getting my boy Rieder in, a favourite from my current save!

[keeper#1]

2023-24 Season Update #2 - More Injuries and Bad Form

Going back to the Watford and Newcastle matches in September, we had an eleven-match stretch when we got only one win and three draws.  1-3-7 is not form that will keep you in the Premier League.  But that one win was a famous 1-0 victory over Chelsea.  We closed December in much stronger form going 2-2-1 in five matches.  Back-to-back wins over West Ham and Leeds and draws with Brentford and Wolves.  The only blemish was a difficult match at Old Trafford.  What was the underlying cause to this terrible form.  More injuries.  Training ground injuries, injuries during matches, injuries during the international break.  You name the event odds are we had an injury during it.  The biggest injury was Moussa Dembele going out for about a month and half.  This really impacted our offense which, of course, impacted our defense because the offense wasn't as effective at holding the ball up.  Just a chain reaction.  We appear to be, finally, over the injury crisis and our form is starting to turn for the better.

  

For the first time in my tenure, we are playing better than expected on defense and it's saving our season thus far since the offense has been lacking.  My goal is always to get the defense to around a goal allowed per game before I work making the offense better.  We are getting to that point.  The offense should naturally improve with Dembele back into the lineup.  This will allow me to go with a starting trident of Torres on the left wing, Dembele in the middle and either Asprilla or Olise on the right wing.  From there, we should start getting into more leading and winning positions and moving up the table as a result.  It's not a long climb, only five points, from our current position of 14th to the tail end of the European places competition.

[Gilberto Silva]

Enjoying this journey so far - nice squad you've put together so far. Dembele and Torres are fantastic additions and would fit in well at Palace. 

Side-note, what skin are you using? 

[keeper#1]

28 minutes ago, Gilberto Silva said:

Enjoying this journey so far - nice squad you've put together so far. Dembele and Torres are fantastic additions and would fit in well at Palace. 

Side-note, what skin are you using? 

@_Ben_Statman skin.

[Jogo Bonito]

As someone said, Palace are doing Palace things. But your head is above water, and it's only one defeat in six now. Maintain that form and you'll be looking up rather than down. Perhaps the injury to Dembele confirms you need an alternative option of suitable quality.

[Lasson]

27 minutes ago, keeper#1 said:

@_Ben_Statman skin.

It’s just a quality skin if you want to dig deeper than just attributes. 

[keeper#1]

2023-24 Season Update #3 - Starting To Come Together

As @Jogo Bonito said, we had only lost one of our last six matches heading into the busy Festive Fixture season.  Newcastle quickly reminded us of our standing in the league thrashing us with four unanswered goals after we took the lead, in the 4th minute, on a Michael Olise free kick.  From there, we smashed everyone that we were supposed to smash and lost to who we were supposed to lose to.  Manchester United dispatched us from the FA Cup right away.  That's fine with me.  We aren't a team built for deep cup runs.  The shorter the cup run the better right now.  It allows us to focus on the league.  In the league, we have been in great form.  Going back to the beginning of December, we have lost just two league matches (Newcastle and Tottenham), while winning six and drawing four.  A 6-4-2 record over a two-month period has pulled us away from the relegation fight into Palace's normal position of mid-table anonymity.  

 

I can really get rid of all thoughts of relegation now.  We are on 36 points and 18 points clear of relegation.  Relegation is looking to be a three-club fight this season.  Blackburn are all but gone.  Four points from 26 matches and a -47 goal difference isn't going to get in done.  Watford, Everton and Norwich will be battling all the way until May to see who earns that 17th place finish and the right to stay in the league for next season.  All of them have their flaws,  Norwich and Watford can't stop the opposition.  Everton can't score.  We are only six points out of the battle for a place in a European competition next season.  It would be nice but we aren't deep enough, at present, to deal with domestic and European competitions.  

Offensively, we are still a one-trick pony with Moussa Dembele doing the majority of the scoring as he leads the team with 14 goals in all competitions.  Facundo Torres is second on the team with five goals.  He is a primary back-up for Dembele when he is out of the lineup.  Torres is a more natural left forward/winger as seen by his team-leading seven assists.  After that, it is a bunch of starters who have all chipped in with a few goals at random times during the season.  The defense has improved itself to league average allowing just over a goal per match (30 goals allowed in 25 matches).

The rest of the season, we can focus on the league.  If we maintain our current level of form, we could make a push for Europe but I would settle for what we had last season which was a 10th place finish although this season's 10th place will look a lot different than last season's 10th place when we needed a furious push in May to finish 10th.

[Jogo Bonito]

A very good period of form generally. Imagine how good you might be next year with one more striker to sub and rotate in. I guess, living at a Palace, new silverware would blend in amongst all your other ornaments. But one day, when it comes, it will be taking pride of place for the football club. Hopefully you can get 8th-10th as a minimum this year and start next season with momentum and increased confidence.

[keeper#1]

2023-24 Season Special Update - Last Match Day of the Season

After a couple more months of good form, we entered the last match day of the season sitting in 7th place and in the last potential spot to head to Europe next season.  We are in the driver's seat since we already sit in 7th place.  We controlled our own destiny.  Win and we stay in 7th place.  Draw and we need some help to stay in 7th place.  Lose and we could fall all the way down to 10th place (though that is very unlikely given our vastly superior goal difference +12 to -5 over 10th place Brentford).  We play at home to 11th place Aston Villa while the other three European contenders all had to go on the road.  8th place Bournemouth had a difficult road match against 2nd place Arsenal though Arsenal were locked into second place win, lose or draw.  9th place Chelsea hosted rivals Tottenham.  This is most likely the game to watch for our fans.  Chelsea has the biggest chance to play spoiler should we lose or draw.  Brentford have a tough road match against an Everton potentially facing relegation should they lose.  

We come out for our biggest match in decades....flat.  Dembele forces a poor pass trying to get us into the attacking third and Villa jump on the counter-attack down their right-hand side.  Six passes later right winger Hirving Lozano finds Ollie Williams, who has slipped between Marc Guehi and Chris Richards, and Aston Villa lead 1-0 in the 3rd minute.  We spend the rest of the first half getting into the Villa half of the field and then doing nothing with the ball.  At halftime, I light into the team for their flat play and switch things up to be a little more proactive with our attack.  We can't let Villa possess the ball and wait for them to make a mistake.  That will just allow Villa to kill the match off and win 1-0 or 2-0.  The proactive approach starts to reap some benefits as our attacks become a little more potent.  In the 80th minute, we earn a corner kick.  Dembele rises above everyone to get a header.  But it wasn't clean and a goal-mouth scramble ensues.  Yaser Asprilla ends up with the ball and has a Villa defender coming at him off the post.  Asprilla finds Dembele in the center of the goal completely unmarked.  Dembele slots it home.  VAR checks for a possible offside which is denied.  We have tied the match, 1-1.  That ends up being the final result.  Now, we go to the out-of-town scoreboard to see if we got the help that we needed.

Arsenal, as expected, doubled up Bournemouth, 4-2.  Brentford struggled to a 1-1 draw against Everton which allowed Everton to score a key point in their relegation battle.  Chelsea also took care of business, at home, beating Tottenham, 2-0.  The two Chelsea goals, however, we not enough to move Chelsea past us on goal difference.  We are tied on points (57) and on goal difference (+12).  What has separated the two sides?  It went to the next tiebreaker....goals scored.  We scored 52 goals to Chelsea's 49 and that earns us the 7th spot over Chelsea.  If we had been tied on goals scored, the next tiebreaker was results between teams.  We would have won that tiebreaker too as we beat them 1-0 at Stamford Bridge and drew with them at home.  However, the last English European spot is not ours yet.  We have to wait a week to see if 15th place Leeds will upset Liverpool in the FA Cup Final to steal that final European spot from us.  If they do, we will watch them play in Europe or hope that England earns one of the two "European Bonus Slots" for next season.  If they don't, we will play in a European continental competition for the first time in club history as we enter the Europa Conference.

Or the flip side, Leicester's loss to Norwich in a massive relegation battle was enough to slide them into the trap door down to the Championship while Norwich and Everton stay up for another season.

 

YOU'LL NEVER WALK ALONE!  BEAT LEEDS!

Full update coming later today....I actually have to do some work this afternoon.   

[karanhsingh]

Man Utd winning the league shocker 

Edited June 28, 2023 by karanhsingh

[Jogo Bonito]

Well, I said 8th-10th, and you nailed 7th. Great progress there.

It would be nice if you are rewarded with a place in Europe, whichever one of the two options makes it possible. Good luck on that.

[Hootieleece]

19 hours ago, keeper#1 said:

YOU'LL NEVER WALK ALONE!  BEAT LEEDS!

Leeds was the big rival for Liverpool during Liverpool's 1980's dominance.

I support beating Leeds at every opportunity!

Others as well: Man United, Man City, Chelsea, Arsenal.....the list is long.

[keeper#1]

2023-24 Season Update #4 - Another Late Season Push

We played great in the last four months of the season.  We played the last 14 matches with a 7-3-4 record.  24 points from a possible 42.  What I was most impressed with was our defense.  It has come leaps and bounds from when I first took over and we ran around the back like chickens with our heads cut off.  Allowed only 2+ goals in two of the last 14 matches.  They kept us in every match.  This was needed because the thin forward line was starting to run out of gas by the end of the season.  The only highlight was the five-goal performance against hapless and last place Blackburn.  We grinded out results.  Nothing flashy.  Just grinding and working for points wherever we could get them.  We are competitive with everyone and got the rewards for our efforts.

 

Back to what I like seeing....overperformance.  For as bad as we were last season, we completely flipped the script and overperformed this season.  +4 on our xG.  -10 on our xGA.  +6 on xPoints.  This overperformance shot us up a very tight midtable.  Everton crashed back down to earth after their overperformance last season.  Leicester got relegated.  The biggest surprise was the massive underperformance by Manchester City who finished in 10th place and have no pathway to European competition next season....I can't afford the wages of any of their players who want out but it should be interesting to see what happens with them in the offseason.  Chelsea need some help to get into Europe as well.  They need a Leeds loss combined with England getting one of the bonus European places to qualify for a European competition.  Manchester United and Arsenal ran away and hid from the rest of the competition this season.

RECORD AGAINST THE BIG 6: 3W 2D 7L  8GF  13GA

Defender of the Year - GK Kamil Grabara: The last line of defense was in top form this season.  He allowed just over a goal per match (39 goals in 37 matches) and was named Man of the Match four times.  Having a full offseason to settle in at the club, he turned around his underperforming play of last season with a +10.44 xG Prevented (2nd in the league behind David de Gea) and a save percentage (85% - 3rd in the league) in line with his expected save percentage.  His 1.03 GAA/90 in league play was also 4th best.  He proved to be a valuable member of our team this season.  The problem could be keeping him for next season.  Some bigger clubs are looking at him because of his low minimum release clause (14 million).  I've been trying to sign him to a new contract but both him and his agent are proving to be difficult negotiators in making that new deal happen.  I've got scouts looking at replacements should we need to go in that direction over the summer.

Midfielder of the Year - CM Ebere Eze: Eze is an odd fit on this team.  He's a natural winger that I have slid back into the central midfield because we have more talented wingers and our midfielders have needed time to develop.  He led the midfield with four goals and five assists in all competitions. I'm in an interesting position with Eze.  Do I sell him and bring in a more natural central midfielder or do I keep him because he provides an interesting mix of positional versatility to the squad.  I could fetch something in 20+ million range for him.  Another tough decision to be made over the summer.

 Forward of the Year - CF Moussa Dembele: There was no other choice but Dembele for this honor.  He is a proficient scorer for us tallying 21 goals in all competitions and 20 goals (3rd best) in the Premier League.  He is our primary goalscoring outlet in the squad.  He takes the majority of the team's shots and, most importantly, he shoots them on frame (62% shots on target).  This puts pressure on both the defense, to mark him, and the goalkeeper, to make the save.  I need to two things over the summer to help Dembele.  Find some wing forwards who can score to take some of the scoring load off of him and some depth at the depth so he isn't out of gas come April.  We've got European matches to think about as well so that will only add to his match load if we can't find a suitable back-up for him.

Even though, we have been in the red for most of the time at Palace...the board continue to come with good size transfer budgets to help me improve the squad.  My offseason priorities are:

1) Figure out the goalkeeper position and if Grabara will be with us next season and if not who will be replacing him

2) Find suitable back-ups and depth at center forward

3) Find suitable back-ups at both wingback positions - we were thin there as well.  Nathaniel Clyne declined rapidly over the season and Nathan Ferguson could never play well when given the opportunity

4) Youth depth across the board

Liverpool beat Leeds 4-1 in the FA Cup Final.  PALACE ARE GOING TO EUROPE!

England earn one of the Bonus European Places!  Palace get moved up from the Europa Conference to the Europa League!  Chelsea takes Palace's spot in the Europa Conference.

  

Final Table showing the top 8 sides and where they will be playing in Europe next season as well as our three relegated teams (Leicester, Watford and Blackburn).  They will be replaced by Southampton (Championship Champions), Nottingham Forest (2nd Place) and Sunderland, winners of the Championship Playoff.  They beat Burnley, 5-3 in the semifinals, and Fulham, 2-0 in the Finals.  Fulham beat West Brom, 3-1, in the other semifinal.

 

[Jogo Bonito]

Lovely to see you claim a Europa League spot, nice work. Hopefully you'll keep Eze around, it would be a real shame to lose him from the squad. 

[keeper#1]

Summer 2024 Transfer Window - Nine to Five (Morning Train (to Selhurst Park))

 

It was a very busy summer 2024 transfer window for Crystal Palace.  Players getting off the train coming in as existing players get on the train to head to their new destination.

Transfers Out

23 players leave the club.  Over half of them leave on loan, we have a fair number of younger players who need to get playing professional football but aren't ready to play for us.  A couple of the players that we signed were quickly spun out on loan just a few days later.  However, we did a few BIG transfers out of the club.  The first was left forward/central midfielder Ebere Eze.  West Ham came in with an above value bid of 27 million pounds for him.  I went back and forth over this decision and decided to take the money and allow Eze to move across town to West Ham.  The next big early transfer window move was left forward/right forward Johan Bakayoko departing for newly promoted Nottingham Forest.  Bakayoko was struggling to find playing time for us.  He was a good rotational piece but didn't have the required skill to push for a starting place.  Nottingham Forest gives him the chance to be a starter on a team that hopes to be in the EPL but could easily fall back down to the Championship where he would thrive.   Central midfielder Nicolas Dominguez and goalkeeper Kamil Grabara will get talked about together because they both left for the same reason.  They wanted new contracts for more money than they were worth.  Dominguez was able to find a home back in Italy right away going to Fiorentina.  I had a tougher time moving Grabara because their agent was a PITA to work with.  Always demanding more.  I found a spot for him in Lille.  The last players moved on a transfer fee for cash was bit midfielder Naouirou Ahamada who Antwerp WAY overpaid.  Antwerp must have buckets of money to spend because they also came in with a 71 million pound bid for central midfielder Alex Scott that I declined.

Transfers In

Most of the early signings are signings for the future.  Bellingham is a midfielder from Birmingham that is signed for squad depth going forward.  He's nowhere near ready for the Premier League but my scouts say he has a high ceiling and it was better to get him for 4+ million now and not 24 million in a few seasons.  Left back Thierry Small was a similar purchase as Bellingham.  Two signings that are similar are right-back Mitja Ilenic and Hayden Hackney.  They both have the ability to be a deep rotation option for the senior team/starter for the U21 team.  I was unable to find a landing place for them on loan so they will have play in those "swing roles" for us this season and hope they develop by being around the first team players all season.   That brings us to Will Lankshear and Troy Parrott both forwards from Tottenham.  Parrott gives us positional flexibility across all three forward positions and will be Dembele's primary back-up and potential long-term replacement.  Lankshear will be out of loan to develop his game and will be on the path to be Parrott's back-up if/when he moves up to the starter role and potential ultra long-term starter.  Another set of players who are linked are central midfielder Charlie Patino and Dominik Livkovic.  Patino was brought in to be a great young rotational option for the departing Dominguez.  Livkovic, the starting goalkeeper on Croatia's run to the 2024 World Cup Final, comes in to replace Grabara.  I'll even argue that Livokvic is an upgrade over Grabara and the purchase/sale comes out to be a wash.  Davy Klassen and Chris Smalling are another pair of players brought in for similar reasons.  They are veteran players brought in to provide experience during the Europa League.  Both were bargain buys: Klassen (free) and Smalling for just 3.3 million pounds.  Nathan Baxter came in because I saw a need for a more reliable backup goalkeeper during the friendly season.  Joe Whitworth just wasn't going to be the answer at the back-up goalkeeper.  On deadline day, I brought in Donny van de Beek from Manchester United because we needed some offensive punch in the midfield than we were lacking with our other options at the position.

Edited July 1, 2023 by keeper#1

[keeper#1]

2024-25 Season Update #1 - Growing Pains

We had a busy friendly season.  I wanted to see if we were Europa League ready as well as get us ready for Knockout Stages of the Europa League.  The Tour of Belgium was tough with back to back losses to Club Brugge and Genk before going home a good note with a victory over Tubize.  Then we played a pair of cups.  One domestic which we won with ease and another against similar European competition where we came in third.  That led us into the beginning of the Premier League season.  We had a tough start when Nottingham Forest scored a late equalizer.  We took that gut punch into our next two matches against Liverpool, who completely outplayed us, and Arsenal, who gave us another late gut punch and we watched a draw turn into a loss.  Finally, we got some matches against lower or equal competition where we cruised.

Sitting right where we should be just out of the European places in 8th place.  And we are an overperforming 8th place.  Could be a fun season for us with lots of players getting playing time even though it's not seen on the stat sheet right now.

We have a UEFA Coefficient of 85th so four of our matches are against teams ranked above us (Roma, Sporting, Fenerbahce, and Qarabag) while playing four teams ranked below us (Viktoria Pizen, Mainz, Osijek and Kilmarnock).  The board want us to reach the quarterfinals of the competition so we need to be on our A-game in these league phase matches.

 

[Hootieleece]

Charlie Patino is a class signing. He is my midfield General at Preston. Except I got him on a Bosman.

Very Busy Transfer Window.

I also have a hard time keeping up with the Top 6 competitively in matches because of the gap in quality. Do you find the same?

If I play defensively I lose 1-2 to 0. Play more offensively we lose 5-0!

Edited July 2, 2023 by Hootieleece
added words I forgot

[Rikulec]

Interesting read so far, keep up the good work.