Pierre Sage defended his tactical ideas, believing that Crystal Palace had shown some encouraging signs with his style of play, despite a 4-1 loss at home to Manchester City, condemning the Eagles to two defeats from their opening two Premier League games.
The Eagles created some good chances against Enzo Maresca’s side, particularly during the first half, however lacked any sort of efficiency in front of goal. The opposite can be said for City though, as they ruthlessly punished the hosts, with braces for both Rayan Cherki and Erling Haaland.
It’s the first time the Eagles have lost their opening home game of the season since 2022/23, when they were beaten 2-0 by Arsenal on the league’s opening night.
During their opening two games, Palace have managed 14 shots (six against Everton, and eight against Manchester City), yet their only goal has not been directly scored by themselves, with the consolation goal against the current FA Cup holders going down as a Gianluigi Donnarumma own goal, despite the brilliant free-kick that Yeremy Pino took.
Sage admitted that Palace needed to be more efficient in front of goal, but also took positives from how his side were playing under his tactical guidance.
“I think you saw how we want to play for 60 minutes, 65 minutes this time, last time it was 45 minutes.
Now, the next game, I think we will be able to play the entire game in the way we decided, and that’s why we need to continue to work.
We know that’s a process,we know we are late in our pre-season, and that’s why we need to continue in the same line but with more efficiency, because in our two games we had a lot of opportunities and we don’t score too much.
Sage also believed that Crystal Palace’s performance was not reflected by the gulf in scoreline
“I think the score is heavy because we existed in this game during 65 minutes, and we created some chances from the beginning to the 65th minute, when they scored the third goal.
“At this moment, I think the psychology of the game changed because when you can hope for something, it is difficult, and the substitutions, for me, don’t change things too.”
One of the more concerning aspects for Sage will be his side’s defensive fragilities, so far they’ve conceded six goals in their two league matches, which is a joint low alongside the 1994/95 season, when they lost 6-1 to Liverpool and drew 0-0 to Fulham.
Sage defended the way that Palace set up, but admits one of his concerns around the defending was that even after making five substitutions at 3-1, fresh legs did not seem to improve the situation.
“I think it’s general, if you want, because we decided to play in a certain shape. I think we play as we decided, but when we did less, if you want, it was really difficult to keep our idea and our aim.
“That’s why I did the substitutions, and I thought that things would be better because some players were a little bit tired at this moment, but things didn’t change, and that’s a problem.”
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