Premier League season preview: Crystal Palace

Crystal Palace endured a woeful second half last season, despite an impressive run to the FA Cup final. Improvement will be necessary in 2016-17.

INS: Andros Townsend (£13.1 million, Newcastle), James Tomkins (£9.8 million), Steve Mandanda (free, Marseille)

OUTS: Dwight Gayle (£10.1 million, Newcastle), Chris Kettings (free, Oldham), Alex McCarthy (undisclosed, Southampton), Brede Hangeland (released), Marouane Chamakh (released), Patrick McCarthy (released), Emmanuel Adebayor (released), Adrian Mariappa (released)

THE STORY: Crystal Palace seemed to have established themselves as a solid mid-table Premier League side after getting promoted to the top flight ahead of the 2013-14 season, but an abysmal run of form in the second half of last season served as an abrupt reminder that there are no guarantees at this level.

Palace’s run to the FA Cup final — where they lost late in extra time to Manchester United — was an impressive and much-needed distraction, but a quick glance at their league form before and after Christmas makes for scary reading for Eagles fans.

Palace looked excellent to start the season and were fifth at the halfway point, but a run of 13 games without a win saw them plummet toward the drop zone. In truth, they were never really dragged into the relegation dogfight, but that had as much to do with the incompetence of the teams below them as it did with any quality of their own. They must improve if they want to reestablish their mid-table status in 2016-17.

The squad, or the starting XI anyway, will look much the same. Manager Alan Pardew is likely once more to rely on the pace and skill of Yannick Bolasie and Wilfried Zaha on the wings. Yohan Cabaye, Mile Jedinek, Jason Puncheon and James McArthur form as a good a collection of central midfielders as you will find in the bottom half of the table, while Scott Dann and Damien Delaney are both reliable Premier League defenders.

In short, this is a team with more than enough quality to finish in the top 10. But then we’ve heard that before. Being good and playing well are two very different things.

The first question, then, is what went wrong in the second half of last season. The simple answer is that the goals completely dried up for a team that wasn’t scoring a huge number to begin with. Palace averaged less than a goal a game in the 19 games from December 26 to the end of the season. They scored only 23 in 17 before that.

Those numbers reflect Pardew’s lack of options up front. Dann, a center-back, was tied with Bolasie and Connor Wickham as Palace’s top goalscorer in the league, with five. Emmanuel Adebayor, in the way only Emmanuel Adebayor can, showed glimpses of promise after joining in the middle of the season, but ultimately failed to impress, and has since been released. This team needs goals, and so far they haven’t bought any.

Andros Townsend should be a solid addition, and gives Pardew three pacy wingers to choose from instead of two. That would’ve come in handy last season when Bolasie, probably Palace’s best player, was restricted to only 26 appearances due to injury. But the other additions — Steve Mandanda, a keeper, and James Tomkins, a defender — while good players, will not help Palace solve their problems up top.

The defense was not great last year, but it conceded only 51 goals, the same number as West Ham, who finished seventh. The 39 goals Palace scored, however, was tied with Norwich as the third fewest in the league. Of the four teams with fewer than 40 goals, two were relegated (and one of those was Aston Villa, who barely qualified as a team by the end of last season), one was managed by Tony Pulis, and the fourth was Palace, blessed with some of the most exciting attacking players outside of the top six, and yet apparently incapable of finding a consistent goalscorer.

Palace should be fine in 2016-17 — there is a chance that they will be dragged into a real relegation scrap, though it feels slim. But they must find a reliable source of goals if they are going to make the push for the top half their talent is capable of.

CHESTER, PA – JULY 13: Connor Wickham /

KEY PLAYER: Wickham is not Palace’s best player, but he may be their most important. The Eagles have already parted ways with three center forwards this summer — Dwight Gayle, Marouane Chamakh and Adebayor — which means Wickham is the most legitimate option left. He managed five goals in 21 league appearances last term; not a terrible number, but it will have to improve if he is going to establish himself as the first choice. Wickham is a hard worker and should do a good job opening up space for Bolasie, Zaha and Townsend, but the upper limit to what a striker who doesn’t score can achieve in the Premier League is low. This is a big season for the 23-year-old.

MANAGER: It is often hard to see past Pardew’s smug narcissism, but somewhere in there is a capable Premier League manager, if not the world’s greatest PR man. When Palace are playing well, they are an athletic, high intensity team with two lightning fast wingers and an excellent playmaker in Cabaye. Pardew will presumably adopt a similar approach this term, but his biggest task will be restoring this side’s confidence after last season’s league collapse and heartbreaking FA Cup final loss. If Palace get off to a bad start, don’t be surprised if Pardew has another meltdown.

BEST CASE: Wickham scores 15+ goals, Bolasie stays healthy and the Eagles finish mid-table after challenging for a Europa League spot.

WORST CASE: Wickham scores five goals, Bolasie, Cabaye and Zaha can’t pick up the slack and Pardew talks himself out of a job by Christmas.

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