All involved at Crystal Palace cut frustrated figures at the moment. Oliver Glasner’s side are winless in their first six Premier League games, a dismal record that sees his side sit in the relegation zone. 

Following their emphatic end to last season, the mood surrounding the club heading into the new campaign was one of ambition and excitement, but just over a month into the season that bubble has burst and Palace seem destined for another season of mediocrity. 

Expectations increased after last season’s brilliance under Glasner, but the Austrian coach acknowledges that he and his side have been greeted with a reality check following their winless start: “Maybe [the start to the season] is a welcome back to reality. Maybe they were flying too high after the great finish to last season. Many forget that seven rounds before the end of the season we were five points away from relegation."  

Saturday’s defeat at Goodison Park epitomised a game of two halves, Palace could have quite easily blown Everton away after 45 minutes, taking the lead for the first time this season and completely dominating. Whereas in the second, the Eagles crumbled as the Toffees completed the turnaround less than ten minutes after the break.

Post-match, captain Marc Guehi conveyed his dispiritedness: “There’s only one feeling, disappointment, we let ourselves down today. We need a better mentality as a group, we need to be stronger and we need to start winning games - it is simple.”

While Adam Wharton added: “It’s not good enough at the moment. They wanted it more, they were winning the headers and stuff like that. We have to be better.”

Frankly, the duo are right. Palace are not good enough at the moment. They are making the same mistakes and lack coherence across the pitch.

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As much as individual errors have cost the South London club, Oliver Glasner must take accountability for his obstinate game plans.  Despite countless warnings, the Crystal Palace boss has continued to make the same mistakes. Perhaps the most apparent case of his stubbornness is his perseverance in playing Daichi Kamada as one of the holding midfielders when he has demonstrated time and time again that he is not suitable to fulfil the role. 

Glasner should have learned his lesson after West Ham when Kamada’s introduction in the holding role opened Palace up and gifted control of the midfield to the Irons, who easily cut through Palace to score twice in five minutes. 

Yet that was not enough for the Austrian coach, who deployed the Japanese international in the holding role against Manchester United, with Kamada once again looking out of his depth, achieving a passing accuracy as low as 66%.

Kamada is a liability as a holding midfielder, he does not have the attributes to play the role, his physicality is lacking and his passing ability is questionable. 

Once again, his inferiority came to bear on Saturday, when he misplaced a simple pass to Eberechi Eze and the ball was granted straight to Ashley Young. The full-back quickly found Dwight McNeil, who had so much time and space to bend an effort into the back of the net - leaving Dean Henderson hopeless. 

Everton’s leveller minutes into the second half was due to Kamada’s abruptness in possession. However, this has been clear for weeks and defeats start to go beyond individual errors when the manager is regularly making ineffective use of his squad. 

Glasner’s stubbornness is not limited to Kamada. While some supporters were excited about the prospect of operating with two strikers, who they affectionately dubbed “Matetiah,” the manner they have been shoehorned into the same team has been fruitless. 

(Image: PA)Although Eddie Nketiah has a well-rounded game and is capable of being a technical forward, he is not an inverted ten. Palace lose too much creativity trying to force their £30 million man into the team with Jean-Philippe Mateta. 

Against Everton, the duo racked up just 58 touches. A creative spark is absent from Palace’s play. Yes, Glasner’s side had 17 shots at Goodison Park, but the reality is that just one of those was a clear-cut chance. Palace need a creator, somebody capable of producing chances for their number nine to finish. They have one in Eberechi Eze, albeit he cannot run the show on his own. 

Glasner must decide whether he prefers Nketiah or Mateta and deploy one through the middle, rather than pragmatically trying to accommodate them into the same team. 

A front three of Eze-Nketiah-Sarr is probably the most attractive proposition, Ismaila Sarr will offer Palace speed - something they have lacked in transition for the majority of the campaign - with Eze and Nketiah both capable of technical play and most importantly, putting the ball in the back of the net. 

On the other hand, Glasner could deploy the so far misused Kamada as the right ten, creating a highly technical front three of Eze-Nketiah-Kamada, which would allow Palace to play highly incisive football on the attack. 

However, the drawback with the latter is the reliance on width from the wing-backs, which has been one of Palace’s most prominent issues this season. It is expected that Tyrick Mitchell and Daniel Munoz provide the width, while the two tens are inverted and ready to receive the ball. Although, due to the nature of Palace’s wing-backs, it has been largely imbalanced. 

Munoz gets up and down the flank, attempting to take players on, but the lack of quality in the right ten role has seen his good work dissipate. On the other side, Mitchell struggles to take players on, often reverting to passing backwards with Palace renouncing their openings in transition. 

The lack of balance has seen their play become too predictable, teams shut their options down and Glasner’s side get stuck in the frustrating cycle of passing backwards and sidewards - as regularly seen in the second half against Everton. 

Where Sarr has played as a right-winger, he could come in handy for Palace. Firstly, he would offer the side a bit more width, which Palace have missed this season. But most importantly, defenders will have to be wary of his threatening pace. The threatening aspect of Sarr’s game would unquestionably create more space across the pitch for Palace, allowing their so-far ineffective attack to become more penetrating.   

Most concerningly for Palace, Glasner’s side rank fourth lowest in the league for creating clear-cut chances - producing just four in their opening six games. Palace have been profligate in possession, when they get into good positions they fail to break into the box or get a testing shot away, often it is half-hearted efforts at goal or sloppiness with the ball resulting in a turnover of possession. 

Currently, Palace are stuck in the same cycle of careless, aimless and predictable football. They must find a rhythm soon or risk being left behind for yet another season of failure.