Sky Sports presenter Joe Thomlinson has been speaking on the Football Daily YouTube channel about how he believes Crystal Palace have underachieved this season.
Crystal Palace underwent a whole host of changes during the summer as they saw 11 players leave and a host of new faces come into Selhurst Park, while they also handed Patrick Vieira his first crack at managing in the Premier League, which could have seen them struggle this season.
Have Crystal Palace underachieved?
Yes!
No!
However, they find themselves nine points clear of the bottom three and just three off the top half, though they have now recorded a league-high 12 draws this season, which has slightly halted a potentially good season.
This is what makes Thominson believe Palace have underachieved this season.
He said: “I do think that with the quality of player that was bought in, in the summer – and I’m going to be a bit controversial, here – I really think that they should be higher up the table.
“I admit that it takes time for that number of players to gel, but when you put that starting XI out on paper, I think it’s really strong.”
TIF Thoughts on Palace’s season…
Vieira has seemingly changed Palace around almost overnight as he’s dropped the average age of their squad – which was the highest in the league last season at 28.8 years old, whereas this season, it’s just 26.9 years old.
It’s what he’s done on the pitch as well that has been impressive, bringing in young and exciting talents such as Michael Olise, Marc Guehi and Conor Gallagher all impressing with standout WhoScored ratings throughout the season, and that should make for a great future at Selhurst Park.
So while their habit of drawing matches may have halted their progress somewhat, there has been plenty to be pleased about this season for Palace. Therefore, we would tend to agree with Thomlinson that a higher position would be more representative of their quality, though to say they’ve underachieved amid the swift turnaround at the club in recent months is perhaps a little harsh.
In other news: Crystal Palace drop jaw-dropping Zaha training footage