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Streetwise Hodgson
all smiles as he plots
another Palace coup
R
oy Hodgson could do
nothing but smile
when informed in his
post-match press
conference that he
had become the first
Crystal Palace manager to beat
Manchester United in the Premier
League after their stunning 2-1
victory on Saturday.
At 72 years old, Hodgson could
quite easily be sat at home enjoying
life with his family, but he remains
at the cutting edge of management,
still putting to good use all the
lessons he has learnt from more
than 40 years in the job.
Palace’s win was their first in
the league at Old Trafford since
December 1989 and their first in
the league over United since May
1991 – a run of 23 games.
Having not scored a goal and
collected only a point from their
opening two games, few were
expecting their poor run against
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s side to end.
But that is to underestimate
Palace’s ability on their travels.
In the past 12 months, they have
won at Manchester City, Wolves,
Arsenal and now United – results
for which every club in the top
flight would be proud.
They were the only visiting team
to take any points at the Etihad last
season. Nobody has won at
Molineux since their success on
Jan 2. Palace put a big spike in
Arsenal’s chances of reaching the
Champions League with that win
at the Emirates in April and now
they have burst United’s bubble.While they did not win at Anfield
last season, their three goals in the
4-3 defeat accounted for 30 per
cent of the total Liverpool
conceded on their own patch all
season. From their past 12 away
games in the Premier League,
Palace have won eight times.
Only the league’s top two, City
and Liverpool, can better that.
But what are the keys to this
unlikely run of success? Perhaps
the best word to describe them is
streetwise.
On Saturday, Harry Maguire was
one of United’s oldest players in
their starting line-up at 26.
That would have made him one
of the youngest in the Palace team,as Jeffrey Schlupp was the baby of
the group at 26.
While Palace rode their luck
with a number of penalty shouts
and Marcus Rashford’s miss from
12 yards, they were determined
opponents once Jordan Ayew had
put them in front with their first
attack. Using a 4-3-3 formation, the
midfield three of captain Luka
Milivojevic, Cheikhou Kouyate and
James McArthur offered physical
and tactical intelligence in
knowing when to break up play
and how to manage the tempo of
the game.
It was an example of a Hodgson
team at its best. Aided by his
long-time assistant Ray Lewington,
time will have been spent on the
training ground working on teamshape for tests like these. These are
battle-hardened players who know
their jobs inside out.
But to win matches, you still
need a piece of magic or a stroke
of fortune. Think of Andros
Townsend’s wonder goal against
City. Here they had that bit of luck
as, shortly after conceding a Daniel
James equaliser, Patrick van
Aanholt adventurously charged
forward from left-back in injury
time, his shot squirming through
David de Gea to secure their
unexpected victory.
There was also personal
satisfaction for Gary Cahill, who
started his first Premier League
game since May 2018 after being
frozen out by Maurizio Sarri in his
final season at Chelsea.
Hodgson worked with the
centre-half during his four years in
charge of the national team and
decided to use Cahill’s big-game
experience at Old Trafford.
The 33-year-old was perhaps
lucky to escape with a yellow card
on the stroke of half-time when he
brought down Anthony Martial
just outside the area when Palace’s
last man, but apart from that, Cahill
delivered what Hodgson wanted.
“This has been a long time
coming and it feels great to be back
out there,” Cahill said.
“It would have been easy for us
to crumble at 1-1, but to hit them on
the break was great. Coming to Old
Trafford always has that feeling of
a huge game. The stadium with
75,000 people, these are the games
you want to play in.
“It’s still intimidating in terms of
the crowd and the players they
have, but for someone like me it’s a
great place to come and play.
“You are up against these top
international players and there are
threats all over the pitch, so that’s
why the result is more special.”Pogba: Racist insults make me stronger
By Adam Lanigan
Paul Pogba has vowed to fight rac-
ism “for the next generation” after
being the target of online trolls.
The Manchester United mid-
fielder was subjected to racist abuse
on social media after missing a pen-
alty during last week’s 1-1 Premier
League draw with Wolves.
Team-mate Marcus Rashford suf-
fered similar attacks after also miss-
ing from the spot in Saturday’s 2-1
home loss to Crystal Palace, while
Chelsea’s Tammy Abraham and
Reading’s Yakou Meite have been
targeted in the past week.
Pogba wrote on his Twitter ac-
count: “My ancestors and my par-
ents suffered for my generation tobe free today, to work, to take the
bus, to play football. Racist insults
are ignorance and can only make
me stronger and motivate me to
fight for the next generation.”
The spate of abusive posts aimed
at players prompted anti-discrimi-
nation campaigners Kick It Out to
call for “decisive action” against of-
fenders. United want to meet with
officials from social media platform
Facebook this week to discuss what
can be done to quell the worrying
incidents.
Manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer
was angry and exasperated when
informed about the latest incident.
That stance is shared by every-
one at Old Trafford as United sent a
note to both Facebook and Twitter
last Tuesday following what hap-pened to Pogba after the match at
Wolves.
They do not believe that the
problem is as bad on Facebook as it
is on Twitter, but they still want to
speak with them to hear what meas-
ures are being put in place to try
and clamp down on this anti-social
development.
Kick It Out also responded to the
abuse of Rashford at the weekend,
writing in a statement: “The vile
racist abuse on social media contin-
ued today. This problem will not go
away and needs decisive action -
that’s what we’ll be making clear to
Twitter when we meet.
“Without immediate and the
strongest possible action, these
cowardly acts will continue to
grow.”With 2-1 loss, United join
City and Arsenal as teams
humbled by the manager,
writes Adam Lanigan
‘It would have been
easy for us to
crumble at 1-1, but
to hit them on the
break was great’
How underdogs stunned United in up
Manchester CityLiverpoolTottenham HotspurChelseaCrystal PalaceManchester United1 2 3 4 5 6Roy Hodgson's side struggle at Selhurst Park
but they have had great success away from
home since the start of last season. Their
record is the fifth-best in the Premier
League.Tough visitors
1
Crystal Palace's results on the road owe
much to defensive discipline. The players’
average positions against United shows they
stuck to a compact formation to negate
their opponents.Solid in defence
2
Average positions against Man United
Direction of play9
1118
48153
24
34231Top six away from home
PldBrighton and Hove AlbionSouthamptonCrystal PalaceFulhamCardiff CityHuddersfield Town212020202021W191815121311D 2 1 3 7 2 6
L 0 1 2 1 5 4
Pts595548434139Pld212020191919W 6 5 5 6 6 2
D 6 8 6 3 2 3
L979101114Pts
24232121209151617181920Bottom six at home
5
A decent slice of luck
Fortune favoured Hodgson’s side, too. Gary
Cahill was given only a yellow card after he
brought down Anthony Martial while clear
on goal (right), while David de Gea made an
uncharacteristic mistake in allowing Patrick
van Aanholt’s stoppage-time winner to beat
him at the near post (below). On another
day United may have had more than the
one penalty which Marcus Rashford struck
against the post.14 *** Monday 26 August 2019 The Daily Telegraph
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