Danny Murphy has described Crystal Palace's performance against Sheffield United as "tactically unaware", while praising the Blades for how they blunted the Eagles' attack.
Palace struggled to break down a resolute Sheffield United side as Chris Wilder's men claimed their first win since returning to the Premier League, with John Lundstram's goal proving to be the difference between the two sides.
And Murphy, speaking as a pundit on BBC programme Match of the Day 2, said the Blades deserved credit for how they set up to stifle Palace and limit their opportunities at Bramall Lane.
“There were eight players protecting that goal, and they made it so difficult for Palace to play through them," he said.
"[Christian] Benteke and [Wilfried] Zaha played down the middle as a front two, but they had no space. The only bit of space they did get occasionally was out wide, but they got numbers back round to protect their box.
"We know Wilfried Zaha is the main threat and generally if you stop him, you stop Palace. He wasn’t quite at it but that was largely down to the defending by Sheffield United.
"On the occasions when they [Palace] did get men ahead of the ball, there they were with the recovery runs, all eight of them. They got two v one on Zaha, which is exactly what you need, you don’t want to be isolated one-on-one.
"They had five v three in the box and outnumbered Palace, and they were never really a threat on the goal.
"Doubling up on Zaha, with no space, there was no danger. They could not get a shot on target and when Crystal Palace did break, they got back and outnumbered them."
But Murphy said it was not just in attack that Palace struggled to impact the game, adding that in his opinion, the Eagles and manager Roy Hodgson got their approach wrong.
"Look at this, Palace’s back four, against the front two, with two holding midfielders, it was six against two," he said.
"It was very tactically unaware from Palace, very unlike Roy and his team. They didn’t commit men forward, they didn’t get back in the game, but Sheffield United deserve all the credit in the world."
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