Frank de Boer must bring the best out of Christian Benteke to save his Crystal Palace job

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Danny Murphy8 September 2017

Crystal Palace are struggling after three successive defeats, so it might be a good idea for Frank de Boer to change the system, as it has been suggested this week that he will.

Why not try to make things a little simpler for the players? It is important for new managers to stick to their principles, but this is becoming a drastic situation for Palace.

They need results - and quickly. Changing tack might be the way for De Boer to save his job.

Why not be a little more pragmatic, at least until they can put a few decent results together?

They have Christian Benteke in attack, and we all know his strengths, so why not play to them?

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Benteke is a highly effective striker in the Premier League, as he has shown with Palace and Aston Villa.

If you can bring the best from him, he will score - and if you have a prolific forward, it is a hell of an asset if you are trying to stay in the division.

I was interested to see the comments by the Palace chairman, Steve Parish, about De Boer’s future. "It’s a results-based business and Frank knows that," he said - not exactly strong backing for his manager.

Yet, it is refreshing to hear Parish be honest about the situation. Far better to do that than say De Boer’s job is safe, only to sack him a short time afterwards.

I feel that, in most cases, the intelligent course of action is to be straight with the media and, especially, the fans, who know when the wool is being pulled over their eyes. De Boer might not like it, but good on Parish for telling it as it is.