The past few months have laid bare Crystal Palace’s problems with their lack of squad depth. That had been highlighted by manager Oliver Glasner publicly and privately, as well as summer transfer window failings acknowledged by the chairman, Steve Parish.
A humiliating defeat by non-League Macclesfield in the FA Cup on Saturday once again put the attention on those problems, even if the entire Palace squad — the bench largely consisted of academy players — should have been more than good enough to win.
Before that defeat, though, Glasner explicitly set out for the first time that there is a distinction between calling for more players and the fact that he prefers to work with a smaller squad.
It is, he says, about a squad where everyone is on a similar level and is ready to affect games immediately. Glasner has never been a manager keen to elevate young talent for the sake of it. Rather, that comes if he believes they are good enough to make a difference. He has said on many occasions that he does not give “gifts”.
That presents a dilemma, though. Do Palace have the financial clout to be able to furnish him with a squad of primarily ready-made talent, even if that is only 20 players, especially if they are trying to go deep in multiple competitions as they have done this season?
Their model is to buy young, develop and sell for a profit before starting the cycle again. That can only be done alongside more experienced players, but an entire squad in the way Glasner seems to want is difficult to reconcile with the longer-term objectives of the club.
That includes finding a way to produce talent through the academy, something Palace have struggled with in their Premier League spell. That does not necessarily mean producing superstars, but at least players dependable enough to have in the squad on lower wages who do not command a fee, or to sell on for several million in the future.
Palace’s squad is extremely thin. That offers an opportunity for youngsters elevated to train with the first team to make their case. There is a dilemma, as Glasner alludes to, in that they will potentially miss out on matches for the under-21s, but the intensity and skills learned from first-team training at a young age may outweigh that.
It was close to a full-strength XI against Macclesfield, given issues around availability. It would have been tempting to throw in more of the youngsters who played against KuPS in the UEFA Conference League, knowing the level of the opposition would be a test for them, but not such that it would be too much and guarantee defeat. Instead, only Joel Drakes-Thomas started, although, like the senior players, he was ineffective.
There is always a clamour for academy products to be given opportunities, and Palace need to improve their pathway into the first team. Most youngsters do, though, break through during injury crises. For all that the squad clearly requires bolstering with numbers — so long as the profile is right — the side benefit has been the emergence of Drakes-Thomas earlier than anticipated.
Brennan Johnson’s arrival is helpful and he looks like a good signing. Further additions are necessary, but Glasner has long been clear privately that his squad does not necessarily need to be a large one.
Brennan Johnson is an example of the kind of ready-made first-team player Oliver Glasner wants to recruit (Alex Livesey – Danehouse/Getty Images)
He always intended to work with a squad where the majority of the players are on the same level, something he indicated in that press conference.
That may be an unrealistic expectation at a club such as Palace, though, and does lay bare the dilemma they have in hiring coaches who are less prepared to nurture younger talent than they might prefer, but who still deliver results. It is also true that the gap between academy and senior football is huge and trying to find a balance is challenging.
“It was not about adding another body,” Glasner said before the Macclesfield game. “It’s just getting maybe more options on a higher level than inexperienced ones. When you have young players, they need game time to improve and develop. We couldn’t guarantee it because of our schedule. We couldn’t provide training time, what is needed to improve.
“It’s better bringing someone in who can play more minutes because it’s more experience right now on a higher level. Not just to bring in bodies, but the kind of quality that helps us immediately. That’s why we signed Brennan Johnson. He has proven it from game number one. At the moment, he is our biggest threat in attack, always creating chances. He has had a very good start for us.”
Glasner is clear that his priority is the immediate fortunes of his side rather than integrating youngsters. The 19-year-old Jaydee Canvot has shown his inexperience but also flashes of potential. He, too, has been handed opportunities sooner than might have been expected, but that is how development occurs.
Further arrivals, be it in January or the summer, will likely make it harder for those young players to move into first-team spots, and when they do, there will be pressure on them. Glasner insists they must not feel it, that they are pursuing the wrong career if that is their attitude. But it exists, however they handle it.
In some ways, Glasner’s desire to work with a smaller squad makes sense for Palace, but only if he can accept that it is unlikely they will all be of similar ability and he can trust the younger talent. Otherwise, there will always be a conflict between shorter-term and longer-term aims.