SELHURST PARK — Pierre Sage survived the aftermath of a 5-0 defeat to Brighton, but he has surely run out of road now. The evidence of this season so far suggests that there is only one thing this Crystal Palace team is good at: making their opponents look better than them.
For 45 minutes against Newcastle United, themselves in suspiciously poor shape, Palace were the better team and were let down by a poor final ball. From then on they shifted to being poor at everything.
Sage’s team have conceded in clusters this season: two in 10 minutes vs Everton, two in six minutes vs Manchester City, three in 10 minutes at Brighton. They conceded twice in four minutes against Newcastle, had the second of those disallowed for a marginal offside call and then promptly lasted only six minutes more.
The good moments generate no momentum and the desperate moments, many more in number, are defining the mood. Then the heads go down and resentment at Selhurst Park goes up.
The defining characteristic is panic in all four corners of the pitch. It is so often the vibe of a haunted team. With the ball you overhit passes and make the wrong decision. Without the ball it just feels like your opponent has introduced an extra player without anybody noticing. The swirling disillusionment in the fanbase only makes it worse.
Selhurst can be a great place to play your football, an authentic old home where the short distance between terrace and turf is reflected in an earthiness that gets under your skin. When the sun shines, these thousands can lift the soul of a player.
But the opposite is also true. At 2-0 down, there were no songs or chants. It was deeply flat. The voices you heard rising above the general unhappy murmur of the Arthur Wait Stand were individual cries of angst and anger. Sage will have heard them all. For his sake I hope that the English lessons haven’t yet reached industrial swearing.
Sage has proven himself unfit for purpose, most probably. He is hardly an inspiring touchline figure, clapping his hands while everything burns in front of him. There is no bank of goodwill to rely upon with players or supporters. The suspicion is that most are on the same page and the reviews for this French coach aren’t good.
Palace’s manager has also been let down by a club that has missold him a dream. Over the last 16 months, Palace have sold Maxence Lacroix to Chelsea, Daniel Munoz to Nottingham Forest, Marc Guehi to Manchester City and Eberechi Eze to Arsenal. All four appeared wedded emotionally to the project but all four felt they needed to leave to match ambition.
Their replacements are failing, but is that surprising? Crystal Palace wildly overspent on subpar forwards in January and spent the final days of the summer scrabbling around for free transfers and loan deals. This squad was never good enough to guarantee staying up if the promoted clubs overperformed..
More on Crystal Palace
Dan Cook (aka HLTCO): Crystal Palace have left me with a nagging worry
Special report: The ‘upsetting’ row over Crystal Palace’s controversial new training ground
With 10 minutes remaining, the lowest moment. One old boy in the Arthur Wait, no doubt a season ticket holder who has seen it all, stood to his feet. You waited for the verbal assault containing the capital’s finest curse words: “Come on Palace – this is just so rubbish,” he shouted.
An occasion, performance and situation so limp and lacklustre that it doesn’t even provoke proper anger from supporters at the end of their tether. You can’t say with any confidence that this gets better for Crystal Palace quickly, a storm of their own making. You can conclude that it won’t be Pierre Sage’s problem for much longer.