\n In front of a fanatical and fervent home crowd, Oliver Glasner\u2019s men managed to throw away a game that was without question in their hands.\n<\/p>\n
\n Afterwards, home boss Liam Rosenior said that he didn\u2019t feel lucky to have earned the victory, but he knew the Eagles should have been out of sight before his team could respond.\n<\/p>\n
\n That\u2019s not to say that there weren\u2019t uncomfortable moments, there were. The goal that levelled the game was a magnificent team effort, with multiple passes finished by the Chelsea-bound Emanuel Emegha.\n<\/p>\n
\n However, the sixty seconds that led to the winner perfectly encapsulated the evening. Yeremy Pino spurned yet another clear chance with time and the goal at his mercy. His hesitancy allowed Mike Penders to make a reaction save.\n<\/p>\n
\n Within a minute, a free kick at the other end was pounced upon by Samir El Mourabet, who reacted quickly when Julio Enciso\u2019s effort rebounded off the woodwork, to steer the ball home.\n<\/p>\n
\n Strasbourg’s Samir El Mourabet celebrates match-winner against Crystal Palace (Image: UEFA)\n<\/p>\n
\n On the topic of freezing, Palace could be frozen out of the latter stages of the UEFA Conference League, having lost two of their four matches \u2013 the other coming at home against Larnaca, who were a 17\/1 shot in a two-horse race.\n<\/p>\n
Plenty of work to do<\/p>\n
\n Glasner\u2019s men will have to overcome Shelbourne and KuPs in their remaining two fixtures to have a realistic chance of qualifying directly for the last 16 in a competition in which they were installed as favourites to win.\n<\/p>\n
\n Victory in France would have left them in second place. Instead, they sit eighteenth, which, given the way the four matches have panned out, seems unimaginable.\n<\/p>\n
\n With the Premier League match at Leeds pushed back by a day, the plan to give the usual starting eleven two full days of rest has been scuppered ahead of the final game of the initial European schedule.\n<\/p>\n
\n Quite what the revised plan will be, who knows, but Palace only have themselves to blame for the position they find themselves in.\n<\/p>\n
It’s happened again<\/p>\n
\n Regular readers of this column will recognise that, only last weekend, concerns were raised about the team\u2019s lack of ruthlessness in front of goal, even though they had been winning matches in a similar fashion to Wolves. Liverpool, for instance, is one example Oliver Glasner recalled after the match.\n<\/p>\n
\n Home draws with Sunderland and Bournemouth and the defeat at Everton should have all resulted in three points. That\u2019s seven dropped just across three games.\n<\/p>\n
\n Jean-Philippe Mateta after missed penalty against Bournemouth (Image: PA)\n<\/p>\n
\n Now two defeats in Europe in games that should have easily been won on the balance of chances.\n<\/p>\n
\n The latest felt akin to the defeat at the Hill Dickinson last month, which brought the 19-game unbeaten run to an end.\n<\/p>\n
\n The Arsenal game a month ago is probably the only occasion that you might argue defeat was merited. Even then, the leaders did little to trouble Palace, though the Eagles did not lay a glove on Mikel Arteta\u2019s men.\n<\/p>\n
\n The shades of Merseyside were not least because there was a fifteen-minute spell when most of the gilt-edged chances were passed up just before half time. This time out, the moments came after the thirty-minute mark after Tyrick Mitchell gave Palace the lead.\n<\/p>\n
\n The Strasbourg coach referenced the spell afterwards, putting it down to a lack of experience, as Ismaila Sarr and Yeremy Pino passed up gift-wrapped opportunities.\n<\/p>\n
\n Similarly, at 1\u20131, the pattern repeated itself: Adam Wharton missed a gaping net, while Pino \u2013 once again with time to steady himself \u2013 fluffed his lines.\n<\/p>\n
\n Rosenior\u2019s team have an identity. Full credit to him. They will, no doubt, give away cheap goals along the way, with on-loan Chelsea keeper Penders playing the matador in a high-risk strategy.\n<\/p>\n
Lack of forward thinking<\/p>\n
\n Glasner cut a forlorn figure in the Press Room after the game \u2013 and rightly so. What more could he do? He witnessed his team enjoy enough chances to win several games of football. It has become a familiar pattern \u2013 all too familiar for the Austrian.\n<\/p>\n
\n The harsh reality is that it seriously threatens to undermine the season.\n<\/p>\n
\n Externally, Palace are seen as punching above their weight, but Glasner knows that they could and should be all but qualified in the Conference League. Some may see it as far-fetched, but nine points away from Arsenal in the Premier League should at most be two.\n<\/p>\n
\n This is not a new issue that has been discovered halfway through the campaign. It was clear that Palace were completely underprepared in the 10\u2019s position before a ball was even kicked.\n<\/p>\n
\n In the past three summers, Wilfried Zaha, Michael Olise and Eberechi Eze have all departed SE25. The latter two have brought the club more than \u00a3100m and that is the model, losing top talent only to the world\u2019s super clubs. All world-class talent.\n<\/p>\n
\n Eze celebrates scoring match-winner against Crystal Palace (Image: PA Wire\/John Walton)\n<\/p>\n
\n Incoming have been the likes of Matheus Franca, Malcolm Ebiowei, Ismaila Sarr, Romain Esse, Yeremy Pino and Christantus Uche. Those have arrived for around \u00a360m (excluding Uche\u2019s potential fee if the loan option is taken up).\n<\/p>\n
\n At this stage, only Sarr has convinced. Pino has the ability, but his inconsistency means he should not start every game. Uche and Esse don\u2019t seem to have earned his trust, while Ebiowei and Franca are not around for consideration.\n<\/p>\n
\n Glasner has used Justin Devenny and Daichi Kamada there, but they don\u2019t have the characteristics and are better suited to the six roles. Failure to win matches and score goals has invariably come when they have featured further forward. Remarkably, despite all of this, Glasner has continued to progress Palace.\n<\/p>\n
\n Asked what he could do about this post-match, the Austrian pulled no punches. \u201cWe could buy somebody in January,\u201d he said. Palace need to recruit two. The fear is that it may already be too late. The summer was the time. A huge opportunity missed.\n<\/p>\n
\n In a week when the departed Eze underlined his quality, with a superbly composed hat-trick in the North London derby, the pain of not adding quality is biting and making nights like the one in Strasbourg a somewhat recurring theme.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In front of a fanatical and fervent home crowd, Oliver Glasner\u2019s men managed to throw away a game…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":289504,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[218,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-289503","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-football","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289503","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=289503"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289503\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/289504"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=289503"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=289503"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=289503"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}