Sam Allardyce, after winning one point from his first two games in charge of Crystal Palace, has called for the Premier League fixture organiser to be “sacked”.
The former England manager, who left his position with the national team after only one match following an undercover newspaper investigation, is now pointing the finger at fixture congestion.
Yohan Cabaye, Christian Benteke and Andros Townsend were all substituted by Allardyce with Palace losing 2-0 at Arsenal on Sunday afternoon as the manager began to turn his attention to Tuesday’s home game with the bottom side Swansea City.
“We’ve been dealt the blow of not having enough recovery time between now and Tuesday night, why can’t we play Wednesday?” asked Allardyce. “I don’t know who does the fixtures but he needs sacking really.
“Swansea played yesterday, have 24 hours on us. They’re such big games with so much at stake, you want a fair crack at it, and it’s unfair when you’re playing [Sunday] and Tuesday night. I was disappointed in our first-half performance [against Arsenal].
“We gave much too good possession away. None more so than the [Giroud] goal. That was simple possession given away on one of our attacks in the first half. It was a brilliant piece of skill, how he took the goal, but our passing wasn’t good enough.”
Allardyce is now looking to the transfer window to help out his Palace squad. “Two things [need] to happen for the team to get better and produce more results: get the team fitter and buy players in. Two if possible, three if the finances will allow,” he said. “I want to lift the squad. It lifted the whole place last year at Sunderland.”
