De Boer has one game to prevent Palace sacking

De Boer could be sacked if Palace fail to beat Burnley on Sunday.

“That we are still with no points – nobody expected that”, he admits.

The hosts are favourites to win the game, and we are backing them as our prediction.

One sign that may not be a good one for de Boer is Parish’s response to fans saying the team has not done well enough in the transfer market to properly compete. “Everybody was pleased about the performance – we could have drawn”.

De Boer planned to inject a fresh dosage of ideas, implement a new playing style, and in turn propel Palace to a top-half Premier League finish for only the second time in their history. We have to reward ourselves and we didn’t do that today. “I have belief that we’re going to do that”.

Just by looking at the managers that Palace have recently hired over the last couple of years – Tony Pulis, Alan Pardew, Sam Allardyce- managers who are not known for wanting their players to be able to keep the ball, to pass the ball around and hold onto possession like De Boer wants.

Burnley manager Sean Dyche said he had some empathy with De Boer and conceded they had deserved more.

“Ive played throughout the Football League and in time Im sure success will come.

“Normally you have ten games and we are at seven or eight including pre-season and the Carabao Cup”, he said. We know what we want.

His side drop to second from bottom with four defeats in as many games – Palace still yet to score a single goal this season in the Premier League. They have to recognise “Okay, now we have to do this, now we have to do that”. That meant a Premier League debut for Nick Pope and he made a confidence boosting save just before half-time, holding on to Townsend’s deflected effort. “Normally we are scheduled to come together one day a week to see what’s happening and how we can improve”. He objects to the claim he is a dogmatist trying in vain to impose an Ajax model on Palace, pointing out that he has not used the 4-3-3 formation that he favoured at his previous club and that Palace have frequently passed forward more quickly than Ajax did. It’s a CV, he feels, which stands him in good stead to handle the level of scrutiny he’s now under.

He also added: “People are frustrated, I’m frustrated, so are the management and players”. Steve and all the board know that. He believes that, this time, he will be given the time to see the job through. For a team who’ve used counter-attacking tactics for a majority of their stay in the top-flight, it’s hard to say if “Total Football” could ever thrive in SE25.

“The most important thing I think is if you play every week like this, you will get what you deserve, and that is going to be points”.