Crystal Palace’s Oliver Glasner has brought back the ‘Glad All Over’ factor – but can it continue in the 2024/25 Premier League season? | Football News

When Crystal Palace are at their best, Selhurst Park comes alive. The stands shake with joy, The Dave Clarke Five’s ‘Glad All Over’ is sung like an anthem, fans pledge their allegiance to the Eagles.

And in the final quarter of the 2023/24 season, it became a regular feature – a pleasant change from the many previous months.

Fans had, once again, become disillusioned with the direction of the club under Roy Hodgson as Palace hovered perilously close to a relegation battle. There was a lack of the creative spark so desperately needed at Selhurst Park, despite having nurtured a squad of the brightest young talents.

Then came Austrian Oliver Glasner as Hogson’s replacement. “He’s an underrated coach, tactically a mastermind and he has his own mind,” said Sky Germany’s Philipp Hinze.

It took a while for the Europa League-winning coach to find his feet. He needed time to implement his own way of working and adapt to a new competition. That is something football managers are rarely afforded.

But once Glasner and his player clicked, it was a spark.

Glasner’s Palace boost

They were unbeaten in their last seven games, winning six of them, including against Liverpool and Manchester United, with only Fulham taking points from them in a 1-1 draw.

Glasner has played 13 Premier League games in total, with only three defeats. Even in defeats or draws there have been signs of improvement – scoring twice against Manchester City is no mean feat.

And when we compare his 13 games with the 25 games before that, it turns out that Glasner’s Crystal Palace scored more, created more big chances and kept just as many clean sheets.

The Eagles attacked with intent, confidence and creativity, which led to a glut of goals, conceding just four in that period, and that was without the injured Marc Guehi.

As you can see from the comparative heatmaps, Crystal Palace played significantly further forward under Glasner, with a much darker hue in the opposition half.

Mateta the big winner with Glasner’s arrival

One of the players who has benefited enormously from Glasner’s arrival is Jean-Philippe Mateta.

It’s hard to believe he’s been at the club since January 2021. Mateta was seen primarily as a team player, usually brought in when the Eagles needed a goal. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn’t.

Last season he played 25 games in the Premier League and with the arrival of Oliver Glasner, Mateta is in good form.

In the 13 games he scored more league goals (13) than under Hodgson (5 in 35 games) or Patrick Vieira (6 in 44). That included back-to-back doubles and a hat-trick on the final day against Aston Villa.

He continued his form into the summer, playing for France at the 2024 Olympics and scoring five goals as Thierry Henry’s side won a silver medal. It’s a perfect example of how sport is fuelled by self-belief.

Glasner agrees, saying in April: “When attackers score and have confidence, they make better decisions.

“He gets chances in every game and makes excellent runs. He invests a lot and is really hardworking. He runs 10 times if he doesn’t get the ball, but he does it (anyway). This helps the team to create space, create chances.”

Returning to Palace after such a successful summer should be music to the ears of fans and staff alike, and the experience of being coached by one of the best attackers the Premier League has ever seen will surely bring added benefits.

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How will the ins and outs influence the new season?

Palace would not have wanted the season to end. But nothing lasts forever and the question now is can the Eagles maintain their form into 2024/25?

It was already set to be a summer of change. Not only is it Glasner’s first transfer window to form his team, a number of his star players have also been linked with a move away.

One has already left in Michael Olise, who joined Bayern Munich in a £50.8million deal. Glasner’s success so far has largely depended on the fitness and availability of both Olise and Eberechi Eze.

Both had suffered from injuries in recent years and were absent towards the end of Hodgson’s tenure, but formed the powerful duo that led Crystal Palace’s unbeaten run. Their link play behind Mateta allowed Crystal Palace to play with flow and creativity.

Now Glasner must find a way to replace not only Olise, but potentially Eze as well. While there are few concrete links yet, it would not be a surprise if the English midfielder ends up on the transfer market for a lot of money this summer.

Guehi’s high-profile Euro 2024 campaign has also caught the attention of Newcastle and Liverpool. Another player who flourished at Crystal Palace, there’s no denying he would be a huge loss, but the team have proven they can survive without him.

Due to a knee injury, Guehi has only made three appearances under Glasner, starting only the final game of the season. Daniel Munoz and Joachim Andersen have been a good central defensive pairing, before adding the £14m signing of Chadi Riad from Barcelona this summer.

But Andersen has also been the subject of bids from Fulham – where he spent the 2020-21 season on loan – and losing both centre-backs in one transfer window would be a tougher proposition.

Then there is Jordan Ayew. So often a quiet workhorse for his team, he too has been linked with a move. Palace have already brought in Ismaila Sarr, who is likely to limit Ayew’s playing time on the right.

Sarr is less of a direct replacement for Olise, although that is not to say he cannot bring other qualities, but the club are keen to bring in another winger. One of them could be Wilfried Zaha, who only left Palace for Galatasaray last summer.

While it may sound nostalgic, Crystal Palace’s transfer strategy has long been about identifying young talent and developing them into top players, and we’ve seen it happen time and time again.

A recent example is Adam Wharton, whose meteoric rise has seen him named in England’s squad for Euro 2024. He only joined Palace from Blackburn in the January transfer window, but his intelligence and technical ability quickly made him a must-starter.

There were other clubs interested in the 20-year-old this summer, but Crystal Palace are probably the best place for a player of his age to develop further.

Glasner hopes that despite losing some real talent, he still has the right players in his squad to execute the game plan that proved so effective at the end of last season.

And the window is still a few weeks away from closing. It would be a win to retain some of their key talent while working on other deals to bolster the roster.

But ultimately it is a period that will largely determine Palace’s success this season.

Eagles must now push for further success

There is cautious optimism among fans that the ‘Glad All Over’ factor can continue. They have an intelligent and dynamic coach at the helm and have already made moves to replace the players who have left or will leave the club.

Glasner will be well aware of the transfer cycles that come with a club like Crystal Palace and he has already proven his winning credentials as a coach. Now we will see if he can make the same adjustments in the Premier League and, more importantly, take the Eagles further.

A relegation battle should be ruled out. Perhaps the Eagles should have more realistic goals in the cup competitions, where they have had some success in recent years.

It was a successful pre-season too, but the real proof comes on Sunday when Crystal Palace open their 2024/25 Premier League campaign with a trip to Brentford, live on Sky Sport.