Crystal Palace’s creativity concerns against low blocks highlighted by local reporter | OneFootball

Despite a positive start to the season for Crystal Palace, Standard Sport's football reporter Sam Tabuteau stated that their lack of creativity off the bench has hampered them at times this term, with Brentford heading to Selhurst Park on Saturday.

Oliver Glasner has been able to rely on the likes of Ismaïla Sarr and Jean-Philippe Mateta but, when facing a low block and needing more creativity, the local reporter insisted that the Eagles lacks depth to impact the game when required.

Other than the run of three without a win Crystal Palace are currently on, it looks as though it has been a pretty positive start otherwise. What have you made of the first few months of their season?

It has been a fantastic start and the recent results should not mar that in any way.

They have carried on from where they left off last season, and they look a fantastic side; especially when they get going on the counter-attack, they are incredibly feared.

In the summer, they managed to keep hold of Adam Wharton, Marc Guéhi and Jean-Philippe Mateta, who are key individuals. They also kept the bulk of the squad overall, which has been really important for them.

During the winless run they are on, they have picked up only one point from nine available, though that does not really tell the full story: they came from 2-0 down to hold Bournemouth to a 3-3 draw and only lost 1-0 to in-form Arsenal. They have to take encouragement from that, don’t they?

Absolutely - and there is no reason why they cannot be considered as one of the favourites for the Conference League. They lost to AEK Larnaca last week, which was a little bit of a shock result, but they will still fancy themselves to go really far in that competition.

In the Premier League, they have started well, despite those disappointing recent results, but their main issue is a lack of depth. They are quite a thin squad and Oliver Glasner has touched on that, outwardly showing he was a little bit frustrated by the pace of Palace’s business in the summer.

They brought in a few players on Deadline Day, or quite late in the window. I think that is having an impact, because players are trying to get up to speed and they are not quite at the same intensity as those who have been playing in this team for a couple of years now.

How much of a challenge could the squad depth pose?

I think it can and I think it already has. The balancing act is one thing, but it is the ability for Glasner to be able to call upon players from his bench.

The starting XI is fantastic and everyone knows what they bring to the table. But when games are not going the way Palace want, and perhaps teams are sitting back and asking a bit more of them creatively, Glasner is looking to his bench and struggling to find answers.

That is, ultimately, because the players there are not up to the speed of where that first XI is.

Which player should Brentford be keeping an eye out for on Saturday?

The obvious ones are Mateta, Wharton and Guehi, but the most impressive player over the 18 months or so that Glasner has been in charge has been Daniel Muñoz.

He has been scintillating. He ranks highly for tackles, crosses, goals, assists - he is all-action, he never stops running, and he barely misses a game as his injury record is impeccable.

Ultimately, Palace are quite glad to have a player that is so robust and reliable.

What should Keith Andrews’ men expect in terms of shape and style?

It is a 3-4-2-1, with two central no.10s behind Mateta. That combination of who plays behind him is important and there has been a little bit of adjustment after Eberechi Eze left for Arsenal a few months back.

They are still trying to find a balance to settle on, but that is their tried and tested formation and they are not going to stray away from it.

They know exactly what they are doing, as it has been drilled into them by Glasner.

Brentford did the double over Palace last season, but the first five Premier League meetings ended in draws. What’s your score prediction for this one?

Brentford have been in good form and Palace are coming off the back of a few bad results, so I am going to go for a 2-2 draw.