Set pieces, fitness and more: Inside story on Crystal Palace’s response to fixture cancellations

Crystal Palace have now gone into a mini-preseason mood after the death of the Queen led to the postponement of their game against Manchester United.

The Eagles are also not in action this weekend after they had already been granted a request to have their game against Brighton and Hove Albion cancelled due to an anticipated rail strike.

The recent happenings in the country and the unexpected time afforded to manager Patrick Vieira and his team is now being used to cover for all the disjointed preseason they had.

Vieira has been very strong on  the fact that they did not enjoy the best of preparation and by the time they hosted Arsenal at Selhurst, there was a feeling that the Gunners were well ahead of them in every aspect of the game. Fitness, focus, squad depth intensity which ultimately led to a 2-0 defeat at home.

As the games have piled up, so has the fitness of the team and the Eagles have gotten better and looked smooth with each passing game, highlighted by their gritty performance at Anfield and their sparkling display against Villa at home that brought the first three points of the season.

They showed intent against Manchester City before collapsing and even though they profited from a controversial VAR call to earn a point at Newcastle, for large parts of the game, their fitness, their concentration and team spirit was on full display as they came out of St James’s Park with a point.

There is a point to be made on if match fitness would have helped the team and they would have been better just getting on with the games but Vieira and technical team are making sure that the break is not affecting momentum and have used the time in working on the supposed weakness so far.

More set-piece work

The Eagles have conceded four goals already this season from crosses coming from wide, two against Arsenal, one against Manchester City and the other against Brentford.

There is an unspoken feeling that they will have to improve on their shape when they are dealing with balls being pumped into the box, and this fallow period has allowed the coaching team to work on some of the clips from the early lapse in concentration that has resulted in goals.

Marc Guehi and Joachim Andersen have been rock solid since they started playing together last season, but the scariest thing about them is that there is still a lot to come from them. Their ceiling is incredibly high as a pair but more as individual players too.

Andersen particularly is a silent leader and he is not afraid to point out things from clips where he feels they could do with a bit more help from the full backs and the overall shape of the team.

Vieira has also been polishing the three at the back he deployed at Anfield where Zaha was the striker. He tried it again against Brentford and even though they conceded late on, there is no doubt in the mind of the technical team that this is the best way to take points off the big six and they will continue to use it.

Working on fitness to cut out late goals

One of the Achilles heels of the side since Vieira has taken up is conceding late goals. Star player Wilfried Zaha lamented their loss in concentration after the 1-1 draw against Brentford where they dropped deep and deep until the Bees equalised.

There has been a lot of work done in the last few days on fitness as there is this belief that one of the causes of the loss of concentration late on in game is partly down to fitness.

The break also has given the team a chance to catch up on the fitness issue of players like Tyrick Mitchell and Wilfried Zaha who were carrying a few knocks and playing through the pain barrier.

It’s been a decent start to the season and the game will resume again soon in south London but for now it’s business as usual at Copers Cope Road in Beckenham.