Frank de Boer knows the Ajax way - but can he adapt to Crystal Palace?

Frank de Boer came to Crystal Palace this summer advocating “evolution not revolution” which happened to be the same thing that Alan Partridge famously promised Tony Hayers in one of British television’s finest comedy moments, although not before Alan had first endorsed the opposite.

The way things are panning out it may not be long before the 112-cap Dutch international is running through a south London car-park with a major grievance and a large block of cheese on the end of a fork - figuratively speaking, of course. There is a good chance that after three straight defeats he will be sacked during this international break, making his reign the shortest of all Premier League managers.

Should it happen then De Boer will doubtless suggest that Palace were not courageous enough to see his brand of play through its difficult birth into a glorious maturation, and many will mourn modern football’s ruthless short-termism. The problems with De Boer, however, go much deeper than his belief that a Republic of Total Football can be built overnight on the more pragmatic foundations laid by Sam Allardyce, Alan Pardew and other recent Selhurst Park predecessors.

Frank de Boer has had a rough start to his Palace career Credit: AP

The harsh reality is that players lose managers their jobs, and much more successful individuals than De Boer. One only needs to recall the fate of Jose Mourinho at Chelsea or Claudio Ranieri at Leicester City to see that if the dressing room is not carried along then events can spiral out of control. Harnessing your players’ confidence and faith is not a variable that lies outside the manager’s compass, it is a fundamental part of the job and De Boer’s track record in his short time at Palace has been lamentable.

In pre-season he decided that Martin Kelly and Damien Delaney would be banished to train away from the first team and were out of contention for his squad. Instead he preferred to begin the season against Huddersfield Town with his new 3-4-3 formation featuring two 20-year-olds among his three centre-backs, the new signing Jairo Riedewald from Ajax and Manchester United loanee Timothy Fosu-Mensah.

To put that in perspective, there were no centre-backs starting games on the first weekend of the Premier League younger than Riedewald and Fosu-Mensah, in fact the nearest was Rob Holding, 21, at Arsenal. In a position in which experience is crucial, Palace kicked off the season with two 20-year-old defenders who had 12 Premier League appearances between them – all of them for Fosu-Mensah who is, strictly speaking, a specialist full-back.

Kelly was recalled to the bench for the game against Liverpool and came on as a substitute in the third defeat at home to Swansea on Saturday. On some levels it is admirable that De Boer should have such faith in the likes of Jason Lokilo, the 18-year-old winger, who found himself briefly part of the first team squad but Kelly might wonder what he has done wrong. He started 29 league games last season and played at centre-back in the wins over Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool that did so much to ensure Palace’s survival.

James Tomkins was left out then brought back. Fraizer Campbell was deemed surplus to requirements by De Boer and sold to Hull City, in a squad that is now badly short of strikers without the injured Wilfried Zaha and Connor Wickham. Andros Townsend had been deployed at right wing-back with moderate success during pre-season and was then left on the bench on the first day of the season.

At the heart of De Boer’s failings so far has been the 3-4-3 formation that he abandoned at half-time against Swansea and which has proven so spectacularly ill-suited to the players at his disposal. The Premier League-durable Palace of the previous four seasons have been an imperfect team in pursuit of an imperfect goal: survival in the division, a few scalps of bigger rivals along the way and an uplifting cup run. At their best they have done so in a hectic, hard-fought style that cannot be replicated every week, but is enough to keep them in the top 17.

The heart of Frank de Boer's failings so far has been the 3-4-3 formation Credit: GETTY IMAGES

Often the instinct in a manager to change radically a team’s style of play to a passing game is regarded as brave, not least when, like De Boer he comes from a country that trademarked one of the game’s greatest advances in that regard. But at Palace it seems that they have a manager unable to accept the limitations of the club he is at and the nature of the annual battle they find themselves in. He knows the Ajax way, but does he know any other?

When the 3-4-3 system was tested in pre-season training at Palace, a team playing that style would be pitted against a shadow side in a more conventional 4-4-2 system and it was the latter which routinely won those contests. De Boer pressed on with it. On one occasion the squad were surprised, to put it mildly, that there was no place in either XI for Joel Ward, who started every league game last season. Then on the first day of the season, Ward was suddenly brought in as a right wing-back and, like many of his team-mates, struggled with the formation.

With no goals scored in their first two games, and the system malfunctioning there was general disbelief when De Boer opted to persist with it against Swansea. Dougie Freedman has come in as sporting director to try to offer the new manager some experience of English football and to suggest viable signings in the last weeks of the transfer market. The club wanted nothing more than to make De Boer a success and would take no pleasure in sacking a manager after such little time, but then there are some who refuse to be helped.