Crystal Palace boss Oliver Glasner has urged his side to seek the killer pass more often after falling to eight games without a win in the Premier League.
The Eagles have scored five goals this season, taking three points from eight games while crafting just eleven clear-cut chances.
Creativity has been Palace’s biggest issue this term; the Eagles have struggled to find the right formula in attack with a lack of width and pace abundantly clear.
Against Nottingham Forest on Monday, Palace had 20 shots at goal but failed to create a clear-cut opportunity in the game. Glasner’s side had their best efforts from outside of the box, with Eddie Nketiah’s long-range strike rattling the crossbar.
A symptom of Palace’s season has been the struggle to breach the opposition's backline and exploit teams in the penalty area. Since the start of the campaign, Palace’s entries into the opposition box have decreased by 17%, while carries into the penalty area have dropped by 33%.
Ahead of facing Tottenham at Selhurst Park on Saturday, Glasner insisted that his side must become fearless in possession and refrain from passing backwards.
“Against Nottingham Forest, we had 20 chances in an away game, we had seven on target. We had our situations.
“It’s not that we don’t score goals, don’t create chances, we don’t create situations. I don’t know the last time Crystal Palace had 20 shots in an away game.
“In some parts, we are going in the right direction, but on the other side, we have to analyse why we didn’t have clear chances in the box. This I can understand because we are human. The players are human.
“Very often, we had the situation where we could pass into the box. We had good runs into the box, but we always took the riskless pass, cutting back and playing the safety pass.
“We had many situations entering the final third, but we could play more directly into the box. Sometimes, we didn’t have the numbers in the box, and then we passed; sometimes, we had the numbers in and we didn’t pass.
“Now we need to combine this, and we will have more situations where we can score more goals.”
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here