Crystal Palace vs Leeds United
Date: 07/11/2020
K/O: 15:00
Venue: Selhurst Park
Referee: Chris Kavanagh
TV: BT Sport Box Office
Saturday’s afternoon fixture encapsulates two sides with completely different styles of play as Crystal Palace welcome Leeds United to Selhurst Park.
Leeds have had a topsy-turvy start to their season. Scoring three against the Champions, hosting the world’s most expensive team for a draw, defensively discombobulating to concede three to relegation candidates, Fulham, and besting the league’s form team at the time, Aston Villa. For match-week eight, they encounter an opponent unique to any other they have face in the Premier League thus far.
Palace boast a structure that is only rivaled in rigidity by that of the carbon-based diamond. This season tactical attacking tweaks have seeped into their style of play to accompany the vast array of forward talent they now have on offer to complement their solidity at the back. Disparagingly, inconsistencies have riddled their season; much like their visitors this week.
So far this season, Leeds have struggled against sides that are stereotypically defensively adept. Losing out to Wolves and only narrowly triumphing against a struggling and depleted Sheffield United side. While they have had no trouble scoring against more free-flowing, or more offensively-inclined, opposition. Such is their style of play. They are set up to exploit chinks in opposition structures created by a more lackadaisical defensive approach, compared to other sides (e.g. Wolves, Sheffield United and Palace).
At Liverpool, they homed in on the right side of their defence, notably the reigning champions’ weaker side. Against Aston Villa, they aimed to move the ball quickly against a side who do not seem comfortable receding from their structured press.
Crystal Palace are much more of the former. They aim to frustrate opponents, conceding a high number of low-quality shots. Conceding an expected goal per shot of 0.08, the equal-second lowest this season. Coincidentally, this weekend they’ll face the only side better than them in this metric.
Nonetheless, unless performances against Wolves and Sheffield United were mere coincidences, it will be interesting to see whether Leeds’ performances against sides more capable defensively blossoms into a pattern against Palace.
Quick attacking movement is something that has also managed to worry Leeds. Fulham found their way back from 4-1 down after they switched to a less cross-focussed style and made their attack more variable. Liverpool are notoriously quick movers in possession and on the counter. While not much has to be said about the pace of Leicester City’s attack, spearheaded by the ‘in-behind’ king, Jamie Vardy.
Roy Hodgson, for much of the past three seasons, has commanded his side to play similarly to this. To leave the opposition in the dust while on the counter. Accordingly, when Palace have been at their best this season, which has been sparingly at times, their counter-attacks have been confidently efficient. The positive performances produced from their opening three games are a testament to this.
But when they are bad, it is tough viewing. Over the last four games, except against Fulham in match-week seven, these positive performances have been lacking. Michy Batshuayi’s three offside goals and a penalty – also disallowed by VAR – due to an offside in the build-up, has certainly not helped their confidence. In saying that, this cannot detract from their distinctly negative offensive performances – mainly due to the way the management set the players to play.
To exploit opposition frailty – as Bielsa loves to do – Leeds may benefit from analysing the ploy employed by Wolves last week. If they can set up to drop quite deep as soon as the counter-attack is initiated, and allow Palace to struggle through possession, they could profit from this. This would be contradictory to the way Leeds play, however. Bielsa’s side averages the third-most possession in the league, preferring to dictate play starting from defence. But for Leeds to beat Palace this weekend, they may have to alter the way they play slightly, to better negate Palace’s strengths.
Both sides are typically bipolar in several tactical aspects. Palace are more talismanic, happy to defend deep in numbers and don’t create many opportunities but when they do, they are high quality (with an expected goal per shot of 0.12, they rank sixth in the league). While Leeds attack more methodically, live for the press and create many opportunities (the fourth-most).
Thus, it will be interesting to see how this game develops and how each team adapts to the other.
Team News
Crystal Palace
It is the same absentees as the previous week, with Tyrick Mitchell, Joel Ward and James Tomkins predicted to return within the next couple of match-weeks (assuming there are no more setbacks).
The left-side of midfield remains a place of contention for Hodgson, and Palace fans alike.
Jeffrey Schlupp is more defensively able, while Eberechi Eze can provide that much needed link between the forwards and defenders, which has been missing since Wilfried Zaha made the switch to a more centralised role. Palace could benefit from Eze’s speed and nous on the counter, but this will most likely be seen only via a cameo appearance later in the game.
Leeds United
The same goes for Leeds, with the injury news much the same as it was last week. However, Raphinha may be fit enough to feature on the bench, pending a fitness test. Kalvin Phillips could soon return to training, with reports suggesting he has spent sporadic time with the first-team as early as this week.
Predicted Starting XIs
Crystal Palace (4-4-2): Guaita; Clyne, Kouyaté, Cahill, van Aanholt; Townsend, McArthur, Riedewald, Schlupp; Batshuayi, Zaha
Leeds United (4-1-4-1): Meslier; Ayling, Cooper, Koch, Dallas; Klich; Hélder Costa, Hernández, Schackleton, Harrison; Bamford
Score Prediction: Crystal Palace 2-1 Leeds United
Leeds struggle against defensive sides and Palace thrive on frustrating attacking opposition before punishing them on the counter. Kalvin Phillips remains a huge miss, especially his leadership, while Palace are set to regain a plethora of leadership in Gary Cahill, which will further calcify a strong defence. However, the hosts will find it tough to completely nullify an opponent that is quick, persistent and goal-hungry.
