Luke's Football blog

The Eagles have had since March to look for a manager to come in, and it’s been decided that Roy will stay on for another year, leading to much disgust in the fanbase. There are a lot of problems and things that could go wrong with this, and I’m here to tell you about them.

Player Pull

This is one of the main problems with appointing Roy again, if the Eagles want to bring players in, they will feel unsure about the project they will be walking into, as it doesn’t look like a place where they can improve their career.

Vieira wasn’t the greatest of managers, but one thing he did have was player pull, as he convinced a lot of the quality players the Eagles have today to join, which has been a success. However, with him gone now, it’s going to be hard to attract more players, especially if they are keeping a 76-year-old in charge for another season.

He did get the best out of the players, but you could say the fixture list was a bit easy as most of the teams that we played ended up being relegated or near the drop, and the games they struggled in were against teams that are in the top half or comfortably safe from relegation, so it will be good to see how he does against the big 6.

Neglecting Cup Competitions

During his last tenure, Roy would usually neglect the cup competitions to focus on safety in the Premier League, which had been successful in the past, but a big cup run does a lot for the fans of the side, who feel it’s one of the few chances they could get into Europe.

The closest the Eagles got to a cup final under Roy was in 2019, when he lost to Watford in the quarterfinals against Watford, who would end up reaching the final that year.

Under Roy, they went on a run where they didn’t win a cup competition for 2 years, going out in the 3rd round of both cup competitions, which was poor for a Premier League side.

The fans love a good cup run, which showed under Vieira reaching the semi-finals of the FA Cup in his first season in charge. There was positive interest in the side at the time, which died down the next season.

Negative Tactics

This may seem a bit controversial with the way he got the team playing at the latter end of last season, but Roy is known to play an eye-numbing brand of football, which has been criticised a lot in the past.

The 2021 season is considered to be one of the worst seasons in Palace history due to the bad football that was played, and during lockdown, when no fans were allowed in the stadium, it was hard to be a Palace fan as you felt disconnected from the team at the time.

There were many games that stood out for all the wrong reasons for the Eagles, with the 7-0 loss to Liverpool and the 3-0 loss to Burnley springing to mind.

They did finish in a comfortable 14th place that season, but it was hard to watch every week with Roy just choosing to sit back every game while all the teams against him were dominating all possession and looking like the team that would win.

Lack of Ambition Shown

This is another of the main reasons why the appointment of Roy is a problem, as the lack of ambition shown by the club is enough to put people off joining.

Crystal Palace have been a staple club in the Premier League ever since being promoted back in 2013, but in recent times the lack of ambition has started to creep in. With fierce rivals getting Europe for the first time in their history and Aston Villa also getting Europe, it’s making the fans wonder if that could be them if they showed more ambition.

Brighton lost their manager earlier in the season, and they already had a list of candidates sitting there waiting. They managed to choose the best person for the job in De Zerbi, who has taken them to the next level and propelled them into the Europa League spots. Aston Villa have also managed to get their manager choice spot on after sacking Gerrard after a poor run of games. They brought in Unai Emery, who soared them up the table and got them into the conference league.

They both had a candidate in mind, while Crystal Palace couldn’t reach their targets, so they settled on the easier option, which was Roy in the end, which might turn out to be good. We don’t know yet, but if it’s anything to go by, it could be a long season.

It’s just not the best-thought-out decision at the end of the day, but we will see what happens and if he will prove all the doubters wrong in the end.