Crystal Palace manager Frank de Boer must change his style of play if he wants to survive at Selhurst Park beyond this month
New Eagles boss must understand that trying to introduce a new style of football at Selhurst Park is virtually impossible
THEY are south London and proud. To stand any chance of keeping his manager’s job at Crystal Palace, Frank de Boer must buy into that.
Palace, with their culturally diverse roots, are traditionally a gritty, edgy, passionate football club.
Playing Total Football and winning 5-0 every week - as De Boer did when he was manager of Ajax between 2010-2016 - is beyond them.
After three straight defeats in the Premier League, they are already re-adjusting their sights at Selhurst Park.
Palace, after four seasons battling to beat the drop, are already in another relegation battle.
Burnley, whose manager Sean Dyche was on the list of 37 names put together by Palace’s American investors to succeed Sam Allardyce in the summer, are next up.
Dyche, you would imagine, is relishing another big scalp.
He has already turned over the champions Chelsea and drawn at Wembley with Tottenham, when Chris Wood scored in the final minute.
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This is unfamiliar territory for De Boer after spending his entire professional and managerial career competing at the top end of the table.
He has a glittering CV, enough to convince any chairman, board or ownership structure that he can take any staggering football club and turn them into a super slick operation.
Palace, apparently, would benefit from the principles passed down at Ajax by their legendary coach Rinus Michels and his protege Johan Cruyff.
At Turf Moor on Sunday, De Boer will perform a Cruyff-turn.
There will be change to personnel and playing system as he attempts to save his job at Selhurst Park.
He is fortunate to still be in it.
After Palace were beaten by Swansea in the last game before the international break, chairman Steve Parish was so angry with the performance that he did not speak with his manager.
Instead, there has been a cooling-off period, a chance to re-assess and reflect after a challenging start to their relationship.
De Boer, with his fixed and firm ideas about playing style, is probably a manager too soon for Palace.
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Tony Pulis and Allardyce made them play a certain way with the players they had available — and it worked.
Between them, they built a solid base.
To change the system, for Palace to make opponents chase all over the pitch for the ball, will take years.
Palace are a classic counter-punching side, skilled in the art of defending and then launching clever, carefully thought-out attacks.
De Boer, unaware of Palace’s recent history or the strong attachment to the area, has overlooked that.
The execution of their 3-0 victory over Arsenal last season is the second- best performance in Palace history.
Nobody was complaining then about a display of shock and awe.
In living memory that raucous night at Selhurst Park is only bettered by the 4-3 victory over Liverpool in the 1990 FA Cup semi-final.
Alan Pardew, Palace’s match-winner that day, tried and failed to change the culture of the club during his stint as manager. The Premier League, with its unforgiving schedule and enormous financial pressures, is no place to experiment.
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De Boer has done that, changing Allardyce’s dogged and well-drilled defensive unit with two inexperienced central defenders.
Timothy Fosu-Mensah, no matter how promising, is 19 and Jairo Riedewald, his central defensive partner on the opening day of the season, is 20.
Predictably, they were both given the runaround as Huddersfield ran out 3-0 winners in the first game of the season.
De Boer has promised changes, with Palace’s defence being restructured as he prepares for Sunday’s trip to Turf Moor.
Players being players, they moan and bitch and snipe when they are out of the side, but De Boer is regarded as a pretty decent guy.
The majority of players and fans want him to succeed, to quietly and effectively change the way Palace do it over a period of time.
To do it, he will have to remember where they came from.