Alan Pardew has backed his ailing Crystal Palace team to “show its true colours” over a critical three-game period that could determine whether his tenure extends into a third year.
Palace travel to bottom-placed Swansea City on Saturday having lost their past five league games, a run that has dragged them to within a point of the relegation zone. The manager retains the support of the club’s major shareholders – the chairman, Steve Parish, and the American investors, Josh Harris and David Blitzer – and there is no desire at present within the hierarchy to instigate a change in the dugout.
Pardew spent time with Parish this week and the chairman is understood to be planning long term with the current coaching staff still in place. Yet concern has been expressed at the recent downturn in results, not least at a meeting of the major shareholders attended by the manager in New York over the recent international window, and the need to instigate a revival is increasingly clear.
Beyond the game at the Liberty Stadium Palace confront Southampton at Selhurst Park – where they have beaten only two teams in the league in 2016 – before a trip to Hull. Barring a heavy defeat in the first two of those fixtures, Pardew’s position is unlikely to be reviewed until after that run of matches. The manager conceded that the results gleaned from this trio of games will determine “the ambitions of our season”.
“I have sat in awkward positions before, with a team not as good as this one, and got out of it, so I am pretty sure that this team will show its true colours in the next few games,” Pardew said. “I am realistic about it – if you lose five games in the Premier League you are going to get a certain amount of pressure, and no one is immune to that. Certainly not me. But I have been in this situation before and I have never asked for assurances from the board, ever, other than when Joe Kinnear came in at Newcastle [as director of football] and I had to ask the question of what his role was.
“I have every confidence in my staff and this group of players that we can get out of this position sooner rather than later. I’ve never made excuses to the chairman or the board, ever. It’s there for them to see and assess if they feel I’ve lost the group or that the team are not functioning and having the problems that I suggested we’re having for various reasons. They might have a bit more understanding about a couple of issues going on in the team, a relationship not working in the group.”
That appeared to be a reference to the disruption caused by Pape Souaré’s long-term injury, sustained in a car accident, which has robbed Palace of a senior left-back. The Senegalese’s back-up Zeki Fryers has not started a Premier League for the club and has been carrying an injury of late.
“But in the five games there has not been a performance where we have come off and said we have been bad,” said Pardew. “We have been decent in every game. I am strong with my opinions. I think that the board and the chairman know I am doing everything I can to get us a win. I know what this division is about and I know that we are under pressure. We’ve got to deliver.”
Pardew and his coaching staff have spent the week working on defensive drills as Palace are without a league clean sheet in 17 games, stretching back to mid-April. The manager has put posters on the walls of the training ground detailing Swansea’s strengths and weaknesses – one points out Gylfi Sigurdsson has contributed to 53% of the Welsh team’s league goals while another reveals no side have surrendered possession more often in their own half – to remind his players of what awaits, a tactic he first employed at West Ham earlier in his career.
Yet a manager who is always intent on sending his sides out to attack appeared to remain realistic about their current defensive capabilities. “I can’t see us winning at Swansea unless we get two goals, so we have to do that,” Pardew said. “Sometimes you want your players to just grow a little bit more and that is what I will be looking for on Saturday. Just a little bit more grabbing the game by the scruff of the neck, whether it is by a centre-half or a wide player.
“We have had great performances where players have done that – Yohan Cabaye at Burnley was magnificent and James McArthur a couple of times in this run has been outstanding. But we need four or five doing that on Saturday.”
