FourFourTwo's Crystal Palace season preview 2023/24 – can Roy Hodgson inspire this side without Wilfried Zaha?
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The Crystal Palace season preview 2023/24 has one clear objective: push for the top 10.
Crystal Palace have largely avoided nail-biting relegation dogfights, but after a decade in the Premier League there’s a desire to take the next step. For seven years in a row, they have finished between 11th and 14th – solid but hardly spectacular.
Financial constraints make breaking into the top half tricky, and Leicester’s relegation serves as a reminder that survival can’t be taken for granted, but Palace can ape the success of fellow Londoners Brentford and Fulham.
Key is the Eagles’ smart youth recruitment close to home. Tyrick Mitchell (born in Brent), Jesurun Rak-Sakyi (Southwark), Ebere Eze (Greenwich), Michael Olise (Hammersmith) and Marc Guehi (raised in Bromley from the age of one) all joined aged 16-22 in the past seven years and they feel the connection. FourFourTwo previews Crystal Palace's Premier League season.
Crystal Palace season preview 2023/24: The lesson from last year
Play your best players. Eze ended the season in magnificent form under Hodgson, finishing as Palace’s top scorer and earning an England call-up, but for long periods Patrick Vieira could find no way to get him into the team. Palace must devise a system to bring out the best of Eze and Olise without sacrificing cohesion nor balance.
Hodgson’s 10-match spell showed promise, yielding just two defeats and a sublime second half in the 5-1 romp away at Leeds, having won one of their previous 15 outings. It’d also be handy if they started games quicker. Too often last season, the Eagles hit the ground trudging: they conceded the opening goal 23 times – only West Ham and relegated Southampton had worse records – and were 17th in the first-half table. That has to improve.
The coach: Roy Hodgson
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Roy Hodgson showed that age is just a number last season, having re-energised Patrick Vieira’s drifting squad to steer Palace clear of the drop, while playing surprisingly swashbuckling football. The local lad turns 76 before the opening day of the 2023/24 campaign, but there’s life in the old Hodge yet.
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Key player: Michael Olise
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After a promising debut campaign, Michael Olise added consistency last term. The silky winger can twist the blood of experienced full-backs and his 13 goal involvements – including 11 assists and a stunning late free-kick against Manchester United – contributed to a third of Palace’s goals. The sky’s the limit.
The mood around Crystal Palace
Revitalised, thanks to Hodgson’s front-foot style of play, defined by a celebratory Selhurst Park after the final game of 2022/23.
An inability (or unwillingness, depending on your view) to splash too much cash this summer has left some fans irritated, despite the shrewd acquisition of Jefferson Lerma on a free transfer from Bournemouth, but the broader shift to a recruitment model centred on acquiring young, hungry players with resale value remains popular.
One to watch
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Naouirou Ahamada has played just 88 minutes of Premier League football since his January switch from Stuttgart, but the Londoners have high hopes for the 21-year-old box-to-box midfielder
Most likely to...
Appoint an experienced British boss if things go badly. In their hour of need, Palace have turned to Tony Pulis, Neil Warnock (twice), Alan Pardew, Sam Allardyce and Roy Hodgson (twice) all in mid-season. Is ’Arry available?
Least likely to...
Have a striker get into double figures. Odsonne Edouard and Jean-Philippe Mateta have underwhelmed. Christian Benteke remains the only forward to notch more than 10 goals in a season since Palace’s promotion in 2013.
Last season was saved by the bold call of replacing Patrick Vieira with Roy Hodgson, whose return improved the form of key players and led us safely from a relegation scrap.
The big talking point is what the future looks like without Wilfried Zaha. A lot of pressure will fall upon the young shoulders of Ebere Eze and Michael Olise.
Our key player will be Eze. He was sensational towards the end of last season. Build the whole team around him.
Look out for young Jesurun Rak-Sakyi, whose numbers on loan at Charlton in League One last term were brilliant. He could feature, if he isn’t loaned to the Championship.
Our most underrated player is Cheick Doucoure. Fans’ Player of the Year in his first season, Doucoure went under the radar elsewhere. He’s excellent in every facet.
The active player I’d love to have back is Aaron Wan-Bissaka, if Manchester United don’t want him. F
ans think our owner is playing it too safe but he is, without doubt, the most successful chairman in our history. Steve Parish deserves much better than the abuse he receives on social media.
The opposition player who grinds my gears is James Maddison. At Selhurst Park in April, he threw a game-long tantrum and did his own team no favours whatsoever.
I’m least looking forward to playing Luton away. The rush for tickets is going to be crazy, but for those lucky enough to go the novelty will wear off very quickly.
The fans’ opinion of the gaffer is respectful. Roy’s wiliness will keep us safe, but some see his re-appointment as a real lack of ambition.
We’ll finish 10th: mid-table again, but on the first page of the Match of the Day table.
Season previews for the Premier League, League One and League Two are all available HERE
Greg Lea is a freelance football journalist who's filled in wherever FourFourTwo needs him since 2014. He became a Crystal Palace fan after watching a 1-0 loss to Port Vale in 1998, and once got on the scoresheet in a primary school game against Wilfried Zaha's Whitehorse Manor (an own goal in an 8-0 defeat).
