Hodgson explains reasons behind Crystal Palace formation change – with midfield battle key to win over Wolves

BY SAM SMITH

Roy Hodgson revealed that Crystal Palace’s switch to an unfamiliar 4-2-3-1 formation against Wolves was to counteract the visitors’ midfield and to ensure Eberechi Eze had more of the ball.

The Eagles have generally played either a 4-4-2 or a 4-3-3 under Hodgson but set up in a 4-2-3-1 on Saturday. Wilfried Zaha and Jordan Ayew were wide, while Eze played in an advanced midfield role behind Michy Batshuayi.

Palace wanted to prevent Wolves midfield pair Joao Moutinho and Ruben Neves from dictating the game. However, they reverted to their usual 4-4-2 just before Eze struck the only goal of the 1-0 win at Selhurst Park.

Hodgson felt the Eagles were better after making the switch back to their familiar shape. He said: “We knew how good Moutinho and Neves are at coming deep and getting the ball, and they, like Conor Coady, are good at switching play and very good with their long ball so it was good to have someone around them.

“We also think that Eberechi Eze is not a winger. In that position with Wilf to one side of him and Jordan to the other with a target-like centre forward who spent most of his time around Coady, or very central, it might work out for us and get us on the ball more. We might get the ball into him behind their midfielders and give us a bit more pressure on Moutinho and Dendoncker.

“It’s a viable system and we can certainly get it to work but I thought we were probably better when we went back to what we had been doing. Eberechi went out into a position as a wide midfielder and Wilf went up top alongside Jordan Ayew.

“But it’s not something which I wouldn’t try to do again because it has possibilities that way of playing but we probably needed a bit more time to work on it than on this occasion.”

This was Palace’s first win in five matches – but Hodgson does not think the success can be pinned down to the change to a 4-2-3-1.

He continued: “I don’t think it was due to the formation at all, it was due to individual performances. I’m a little bit tired of saying ‘in previous games’. We’re not alone in losing at Man City, it’s going to be hard to go up there and beat them until such time as they become an awful lot weaker than they are at the moment.

“As far as the West Ham game is concerned we played a team that were better than us and played very well and we weren’t as good in the first half as we could have been because we didn’t get better in the second half.

“If you compare our performance today with to the West Ham performance, which is a more relevant thing to do than keep bringing Man City into the situation, we were better in every respect – we passed the ball better, our work rate was very good and some of the individual performances today were very notable.

“Unfortunately, after the West Ham game we didn’t have quite as many notable good performances individually.”