What can you tell us about Palace? Matt Woosnam, The Athletic
Continuing our 'what can you tell us about...' preview feature, where we take a closer look at our next opponents with the people who watch them week in, week out.
Next up, it's Crystal Palace in the Premier League at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Saturday (5.30pm UK) and to give us the lowdown on the Eagles, Matt Woosnam, Palace writer for The Athletic, previously a freelance for the South London Press and MailOnline.
From the outside looking in, it looks like Palace are in a tough spot at the moment - how do you see it?
Matt: "Yes, Palace are in a difficult situation. We're very early into the season, but it's been tough. They've conceded a lot of goals and the defensive structure and organisation hasn't really been there. They've looked better going forward, but it hasn't really clicked. They've also had injuries to key players like Dean Henderson, goalkeeper, captain, such an important player (he returned from injury in the midweek Carabao Cup win at Fulham) and Ismaila Sarr. They beat Fulham in the Carabao Cup, but again they looked incredibly vulnerable in defence. They probably should have beaten Ipswich when they lost 3-2 (12 September), but Axel Disasi was sent off, which is another thing that's been difficult for them. There's been a lot of mitigating circumstances for the manager, but it's been a tough start and they're not in form at all at the moment."
How does Pierre Sage look to set up, tactically?
Matt: "He's quite dogmatic in his approach. He doesn't really change it much. He wants to have a lot of possession and to win the ball back high up the pitch, which means Palace are playing a very high line, which also then exposes their defence. When it gets going, it's absolutely fantastic to watch. It's really exciting and we've seen some great attacking football. Unfortunately for Palace, it hasn't really got going too often and they've collapsed a little bit defensively and found themselves two goals down or obviously more in the case of the Brighton game (lost 0-5). Sage's style of football is very much an attacking style, even more so than Oliver Glasner. It's a high press. It's an intense press. It's different, but it's more attacking and it's something that Palace haven't really done before. So, it's very new and interesting."
Who has caught your eye so far this season?
Matt: "Tyrick Mitchell has been really good this season at left-back. He's still really solid defensively, but come on in an attacking sense. He did under Glasner, but he's progressed even further under Sage. He's such an important player and he's been at Palace a long time, came through the Academy, established himself and has been a really crucial part of the team. He's got that knowledge of the club, that familiarity, and after a lot of change in the summer with 11 new signings - another mitigating circumstance for the manager - I think having someone like Mitchell is really important, even if he's not the biggest voice or the biggest leader."
How do you expect it to play out on Saturday? Will Palace look to sit in, or, as you suggested earlier, will Sage look to attack?
Matt: "Palace don't sit in. Sage has spoken a lot about his style, how he wants to play and not giving up on that, and that the best way to defend is to attack. So, I would expect Palace to be quite open. That said, they were more compact against Fulham, but that was a significantly changed team. Fulham made changes as well, so maybe not too much to read into that. It will be interesting to see if Sage does adapt it. He hasn't really done that too much so far. There was a sign of it against Newcastle (0-2 loss last week), but they collapsed in the second half and it all went awry. I think it'll be a fairly attacking, open game, and Palace will try to take Spurs on."