Oliver Glasner’s Crystal Palace lost their fifth game of the season on Monday evening, leaving them 18th in the Premier League on just three points.
Glasner’s side remain winless in the league, along with Ipswich, Southampton, and Wolves, as the only four teams yet to win a game.
The Eagles faced Nottingham Forest at the City Ground, and a 65th-minute strike from Chris Wood was the difference between the two sides, as Forest emerged 1-0 victors.
Despite taking 20 shots, Palace didn’t create any “big chances” and remain the lowest goalscorers in the division this season, scoring just five times in eight games now.
But, there were also some poor defensive performances that let the side down against Forest, starting with Dean Henderson between the sticks.
Dean Henderson's error against Forest
In a game decided by just one goal, there will always be a lot of scrutiny around the cause of that goal, and Henderson’s blunder was a poor one.
Despite making five saves, three of which from inside the box, making one high claim, and one punch, Wood’s strike should have been saved by the 27-year-old shot-stopper but it squirmed underneath him in terrible fashion.
However, when you look into the overall performance, it could have been way worse for Palace, and Henderson did make some key saves to keep it close, whereas Maxence Lacroix’s performance has to be critiqued.
Maxence Lacroix's performance in numbers
Lacroix joined Palace this summer from Wolfsburg for around £18m, joining with big boots to fill, as Joachim Andersen left the club. The 24-year-old has made six appearances for the Eagles so far, providing one assist, and totaling 585 minutes.
However, in this game, the Frenchman was perhaps just as bad as Henderson at the City Ground.
The summer arrival just so happened to lose all three of his ground duels, won just one of his five aerial duels, and was dribbled past twice. This meant the defender only won 12% of his duels in the game.
Minutes
90
Touches
65
Accurate Passes
47/53
Long Balls
2/5
Ground Duels Won
0/3
Aerial Duels Won
1/5
Clearances
7
Blocks
1
Interceptions
1
Tackles
0
Dribbled Past
2
When you consider Palace are the lowest scorers in the Premier League after eight games played, and that they play a back three, those defensive numbers have to improve for them in order to win games.
Lacroix is early into his Palace stint and is still settling in at the club, but the fans will expect to see more from the 24-year-old, who averaged 1.83 tackles, 1.34 blocks, and 0.91 interceptions per 90 last campaign for Wolfsburg.
Last term, Lacroix made 31 appearances for Wolfsburg, scoring four goals, providing one assist, contributing to eight clean sheets, and totalling 2665 minutes played. If he can find his feet, start to provide a few goals from set pieces, and improve his duel rate, Palace will start to feel much better about their investment in the young French defender.
For now, however, he is not proving to be an adequate replacement for Andersen.
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