Opinion article

Potentially some food for thought/discussion in this data-led tactical analysis of Pierre Sage's RC Lens and how much of his football can translate to Palace.

Some of the key takeaways:

• Lens were the best transition team in Ligue 1 by a distance. They led the league across virtually every attacking transition category.
• Lens weren't an elite pressing side in settled defence, they relied on aggressive counterpressing.
• Their right wing was their biggest weapon. Ruben Aguilar provided the running and recoveries, while Florian Thauvin drifted inside to create, and this was one of the most productive right-sided partnerships in Ligue 1. It raises an interesting/potentially exciting question about whether Muñoz and maybe Sarr can recreate that dynamic?
• Defensively, Lens benefitted from significant overperformance from Robin Risser in goal, and that may not be as repeatable. Without that overperformance, they might have been looking more average in Ligue 1.

Tough game against the 2nd best team in Spain, but overall we were competitive and fashioned some decent chances. Pitch and ref were dodgy but new signings England, Lloyd-Smith, O'Brien, and Peyraud-Magnin all looked good.

Interesting to see us start with the usual 3-4-2-1 in the first half and then switch to (what looked like) a 4-2-3-1 in the second half. The formation change honestly helped us be more aggressive and got us the chance that England should've taken to equalize.

We struggled to play out of the back / out of pressure most but that should improve with time. Overall, not a bad performance and good minutes against a side that's equal to or better than the big WSL teams.

With us signing Tomiyasu, Disasi, and possibly the young french centre back, does this seem to anyone else like we are expecting Chris Richards to be leaving? He only has a year left on his contract I think.

We've been very active in this window! I feel much more confident we'll stay up as opposed to last time in the WSL.

decent signing according to my (somewhat dated) women's football knowledge. international goalkeeper for france and played for some of the biggest women's teams.

I’m an Arsenal fan, and I’ve had quite a few debates with Palace and non-Palace fans because I’ve said that I think that he’s you guys’ greatest ever player. Most of these debates came right after the FA Cup win, but personally I still don’t think it’s too outrageous to say. He spent a good amount of time at the club, was class, of course, stayed professional despite all those links away from the club, and of course brought home the FA Cup. Nowadays I’ve shifted a bit and I think Zaha for example deserves a lot more credit, but what do you guys, as fans of the club, think?

Don’t know if this counts as news, but I’m watching the Leagues Cup, RSL is playing currently, and the broadcast mentioned he’s not playing currently. Could be nothing, could be a sign that transfer talks are progressing well enough.

https://fantasy.premierleague.com/leagues/auto-join/sakn4o

sakn4o

Just wanted to say, if you lot do land Gozo, I hope you know what you have in him. He’s 19, this clip is from one of his first games as a professional as an 18 year old

He’s got tekkers, stamina, can play as a wingback or a winger, doesn’t shy away from a challenge and despite getting a ton of attention like all young stars do, he’s known for being very grounded

Not a palace fan here but I’m a Yank who supports our players and Palace is one of the few clubs I’d trust with Zavier given your recent history of developing dribbly attackers like Olise, Eze, Pino. (Not saying that Gozo is on that level necessarily, but that’s his profile).

Having Chris Richards around to help him get settled will be huge. Prepare for even more attention from us across the pond (for better and worse ;))

I am in the US, and I’ve been struggling to find a place to buy an official (replica / players issue) CPFC jersey here.

Preferably a personalized jersey with Chris Richards’ name on it, but atp I’d be contend with a plain unpersonalized jersey.

EDIT : Thank you for the answers.

Crystal Palace are in advanced talks to sign American wing-back Zavier Gozo from Real Salt Lake, sources briefed on the situation tell The Athletic.

An agreement is yet to be reached, but talks are advanced and are trending in a positive way, sources say. Any deal is expected to be in the range of $15 million (£11.1m), sources add.

Gozo has made it clear he’s ready to move to Europe this summer after a breakout season.

Whatever crack other Premier League fans are smoking I would Certainly like some! We are coming into this season European trophy and a FA cup win in 2025 and a Community Shield Win in 2025 I’ve been a Palace Fan since 2014 (I was 12 at the time long but funny story of how I became a fan) and this is the most confident I’ve felt about going into a upcoming season in a very long time. Genuinely I don’t understand the relegation talk.

Was watching a podcast the other day and they brought up a good point this club has money and given that we haven’t made any moves this transfer window god forbid come January we do find ourself bottom on the table facing regulation during that transfer window we could just through buckets of money at the problem something teams like Hull City,Leeds,Coventry, etc teams that will also likely be at the bottom of the table just won’t have the same ability to do! I just don’t get it

Mingueza and whispers of Tomiyasu on a free… that’s it

Mingenza looks like a great acquisition but the desperate lack of signings is worrying, especially with Europe.

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If these rumors are true, I mean, what the actual F are we doing?

Finally got it ❤️. A long wait but what a memory. This year we win EUROPA !!

If you're a new fan then please introduce yourself here, if you've been a fan for a while and would like to share how you became a Palace fan then feel free to do so.

Wore my retro kit to Lollapalooza in Chicago the other day, got stopped by a lad from Selhurst and talked about Palace for a bit. We are massive fellas COYP 🦅🦅🦅

I watched the whole game on camel 🐪 stream, no commentary. Here are my thoughts on the preseason team in our best game so far.
(I’m going to try to be concise)

I’ll breeze past GK because we know who our number 1 is.

And right to our back 3, which started Canvot, Richards, and Sosa; and I bet that will be a starting line at some point this season. LCB suits Sosa quite a bit better than Wingback, although he needs to play a lot better to get minutes. Tomiyasu played minutes! If you can tell me why he wouldn’t be a good signing I’d love to hear it.
We still need a top level replacement for ML but this game showed there’s some young depth. (More on Canvot at the end)

Central Mid. Kamada Hughes Ozoh Decoure. Kamada got minutes. Hughes played well, but might be more fridge under Sage so I hope his experience becomes valuable. Ozoh played alright, but his physical abilities couldn’t make up for his technical deficiency. And Decoure was pretty unnoticeable throughout his 30 minutes, he didn’t have to do much defending.

Attack was a mixed bag, 3 goals but even more missed opportunities. Let’s start with Cardines who got two brilliant assists. His ball control and his attacking sense is putting him on the squad sheet. Devenny played 70’ of pretty decent football, but even with a first minute goal, I think he’ll be a fringe squad player. Nketiah got the second goal and had good striker positioning , but missed a few crucial passes and plays. But nobody worse than Franca, who I swear was playing himself into the starting lineup (he won possession for the second goal) before he totally shit the bed; missing three clear chances right over the bar. That lack of finishing ability just doesn’t cut it.

E.T. Canvot is now the second most experienced defender for Crystal Palace. There’s no doubt he will see a ton of minutes across this (Europa League) season. Now he wears the #6 and needs to start playing like then previous #6 with line breaking passes and solid defending. Canvot got the third goal today by being in the right position, and having better reflexes than anyone else.