Palace columnist for the Advertiser, Robert Sutherland, submits his latest thoughts on the Eagles style of play...
We Want Pretty Football, We Need to Play Ugly
We love pretty football. We point out how beautifully the Barcelonas, Arsenals, Bayerns of this world construct their attacking movements. How smoothly they execute their passes, how quickly they move the ball. We point it out and we want it ourselves. We have ideals that we would like our club to meet. We want Palace to be the force for attractive good in a league of cloggers.
The reality however is starkly different. In every league there are those fighting to win points with whatever means they might have. Crystal Palace are currently one of those sides. It's not that they want to be, it's that they have to be.
When you go into a division that is so significantly different in quality, you face a dilemma. Try to play the kind of football that the top teams play, or try to enforce your kind of football onto your opponents. If you're a club like Palace, after ten or so games of trying to compete in style, with the substance lacking, you see logic in playing a more utilitarian style.
Now, Palace don't play for style but for substance. And that substance showed at Sunderland. It might have been turgid. It might have been depressing. But it was needed. Firstly to put an end to a run of defeats and secondly to get an unlikely away point.
The promised land of attractive football will have to wait on the horizon; for now, winning points is more important than winning accolades for style.
