Palace's attacking issues denting chances of a top half finish
When Crystal Palace return to action against Manchester United on Saturday, they will be seeking to score their first Premier League goal from open play in almost three months.
Granted, that is partly because of the break for the World Cup in Qatar. But since Michael Olise curled home a late winner against West Ham United on November 6th, all three of Palace’s top-flight goals have come from set-piece situations.
Jordan Ayew and Ebere Eze both scored from corners in the 2-0 victory over Bournemouth on New Year’s Eve, while Olise earned Palace a point against Manchester United a fortnight ago with a stunning free-kick.
Yet in their last 630 minutes of league football, Patrick Vieira’s side have not scored a single goal from open play. It is not just a recent issue either: Palace have notched just 11 non-set-piece goals all season, the fifth fewest in the division. Their manager is not hiding from the problem.
"The most difficult thing is to create chances," Vieira said earlier this month. "It is about scoring, we should score more goals, that is a fact.
"We have quality players who can do that. At the moment it is true that we lost a bit of our confidence. We do not take our chances, we have to keep working on that side."
Vieria is right to point to a degree of profligacy up front. 18 months into his tenure and he has yet to settle on a preferred choice at centre-forward. Neither Jean-Philippe Mateta nor Odsonne Edouard has done enough to convince Vieira that he can be a regular scorer at this level.
Mateta is a powerful runner who provides a physical presence up top, while Edouard is a tidy combination player. Yet Mateta has just six goals to his name since the start of last season and Edouard has scored only nine in that time.
Jordan Ayew has been trialled through the middle, but he has never been a prolific striker, while the use of Wilfried Zaha in that role removes Palace’s best player from his favoured position on the left. Injury to Zaha has further compounded Palace's attacking woes.
However, Palace’s main problem is one of creation rather than conversion. That is cause for concern - witness how often managers assert they would be more worried by a team that is not fashioning chances than one that is missing them.
The Eagles sit second-bottom of the expected goals table, with West Ham, Wolves and Bournemouth the only teams in the division to have created fewer big chances. In fact, Palace have scored 18 goals from roughly the same xG, which suggests wastefulness has not been their main issue.
Just five teams average fewer shots per game than Palace (10.9), who rank 16th for shots on target (3.7) and joint-16th for shots from inside the penalty area (5.9).
The very best opportunities come from inside the six-yard box, where Palace are producing a miserly 0.6 per match - only Wolverhampton Wanderers (0.5) and Bournemouth (0.4) have fared worse up to now. And Vieira’s side are also low down the rankings for key passes with 8.2, above only Aston Villa (8), Nottingham Forest (7.3), Everton (7), Brentford (6.9) and Bournemouth (6.4).
All this is somewhat surprising when you consider the inventive footballers in Palace’s ranks. Zaha, Olise and Eze are all flair players who possess skill, vision and technical ability. Collectively, though, the Eagles are struggling to turn all that into clear-cut chances.
Conor Gallagher has been a big loss. The club’s Player of the Year last season was not especially creative on the ball, but his pressing set the tone for Vieira’s side and Palace regularly had attempts on goal shortly after Gallagher had either won the ball back or forced an error from an opponent. Palace’s energy and intensity has noticeably dropped since the loanee returned to Chelsea.
Vieira’s side are in a decent position at the midway stage of the campaign. They showed their battling qualities in back-to-back draws with Manchester United and Newcastle United before FA Cup fourth round weekend, and a seven-point cushion above the bottom three means they should steer clear of the relegation battle.
If Palace are to break into the top half, though, they will need to offer more of a threat in the final third.
