Danny Higginbotham: Crystal Palace pair Wilfried Zaha and Ruben Loftus-Cheek have been on fire in Eagles resurgence under Roy Hodgson
Hodgson has made the team solid after their historically bad start - and Zaha and Loftus-Cheek clearly bring the best out of each other
CRYSTAL PALACE have been transformed under Roy Hodgson and I cannot see them getting relegated.
After a dire start to the season, they’ve lost only one of their last 11 league games — and a form table of the last ten matches puts them in seventh behind the ‘Big Six’.
Hodgson went in there following Frank de Boer’s sacking, looked at the squad and, instead of imposing a style of play, he adapted to the players at his disposal.
The Eagles vary their system slightly but the fundamentals remain the same.
The average position map from their 2-1 home win over Watford typifies their approach.
They play with inverted wingers, ensuring that, when they don’t have the ball, they are compact in the centre of the pitch.
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They often sacrifice the wide areas, trusting themselves to deal with crosses coming in.
And the key to their upturn has been the partnership of Wilfried Zaha (No 11) and Ruben Loftus-Cheek (No 8), although the latter has missed a few games recently.
There’s a really good understanding developing and they clearly bring out the best in each other.
When Palace are in possession, Zaha is given freedom to roam.
And while Loftus-Cheek often starts on the left, he invariably ends up far more central.
He naturally plays as a No 10 so will drift infield into that space from the left wing.
This drags the opposition right back in and creates space on the left for Zaha to cause havoc.
But it’s not just these two who are at it — Palace are benefiting from partnerships across the pitch working in tandem.
As Loftus-Cheek drifts inwards from the left, space is then created for left-back Jeffrey Schlupp (No 15) to move into.
And he generally plays higher than the right-back — either Martin Kelly or Timothy Fosu-Mensah (No 24).
This is because Andros Townsend (No 10) remains wider on the right and is always looking to take defenders on. Therefore, the right-back does a supporting job and doesn’t push as high.
And in the centre of the pitch it’s more of the same.
Luka Milivojevic (No 4) has been outstanding recently and keeps the shape solid.
He protects the two centre-backs so, when they sit deeper as a team, he is the one picking up anyone dropping into the No 10 position, — ensuring Palace’s central defenders don’t need to come out.
Milivojevic provides great stability, as does James McArthur, who has also been in great form recently when called upon.
I watched him when Palace beat Leicester 3-0 away and he was superb, breaking up play all game and keeping things simple when he had the ball.
With one or both of Milivojevic and McArthur keeping things tight, extra licence is given to Yohan Cabaye (No 7), who is the one with an eye for the through pass.
These partnerships — without even mentioning the centre-halves — have been pivotal to Palace’s recent form and boss Hodgson deserves a huge amount of credit.
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He’s found a system that works for them and has stuck to it.
They have got a bit of an injury crisis at the moment so I expect him to do some business this month.
But I can’t see him buying players who won’t fit into the way they are playing. It’s worked a treat so far, so why change it now?