Three Boxing Day lessons learnt, feat. Chelsea and Crystal Palace

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Sam Allardyce won’t be changing anytime soon

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Allardyce made his return to football after he was sacked by the FA as England manager due to embarrassing footage of him advising businessmen on how to circumvent transfer rules in place in relation to third-party ownership. His Palace side drew with Watford 1-1 in a pseudo-London derby. Inheriting Alan Pardew’s Crystal Palace is an easier job than it may seem. Pardew, despite his dismal 2016, left Allardyce with the strongest Palace squad in a long time. With talents such as Scott Dann, Yohan Cabaye, Wilfried Zaha, and Cristian Benteke to name a few, Allardyce’s job is really a matter of defensive organization.

Palace improved defensively and was unlucky to concede a clumsy penalty that Troy Deeney tucked away but nevertheless the match reflected how Allardyce is conceding nothing in terms of his football philosophy. Route one football was the definition of the match. Compare Chelsea’s crispy 85% pass completion ratio in their match with Bournemouth and Palace’s 60%. 38% of passes attempted by the Eagles were long balls.

A comical thirty-second video clip emerged on Twitter of the ball rather humorously bouncing between both halves incessantly, epitomizing the match.

Big Sam arguably lost his job at West Ham when his industrious brand of football made the supporters fed up. Sam Allardyce pondered back in 2012 why he wasn’t Real Madrid manager, claiming that he would win it all and that it was a matter of him being British. I’d say it’s a matter of his side’s 60% pass completion.

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