Talking points from Crystal Palace’s 1-0 defeat at Nottingham Forest – Slight tweak in shape needs more drastic change with next handful of games set to determine Glasner’s future

Crystal Palace are winless in their first eight Premier League games of the 2024-25 season after Monday night’s 1-0 defeat at Nottingham Forest.

Chris Wood’s 65th-minute shot, which slipped between the hands of goalkeeper Dean Henderson, put more pressure on Oliver Glasner and kept the Eagles in the bottom three.

Here are the talking points from the game.

CHANGE IN SHAPE FAILS TO FIND WINNING FORMULA

Glasner has been wedded to a 3-4-2-1  formation since arriving in South London but while he had trialled a back four in a behind-closed-doors game against Ipswich during the international break, there was just a slight change to his favoured set-up.

Eberechi Eze moved forward to play as a second striker behind Eddie Nketiah, with Daichi Kamada coming in as another central midfielder alongside Will Hughes and Jefferson Lerma.

Palace set up 5-3-2 in defence and 3-1-4-2 when attacking.

There were some moments that offered promise – Nketiah hit the outside of the post from distance and Eze and Jeffrey Schlupp forced good saves out of Matz Sels.

But after Wood gave Forest the lead it emphasised that Austrian boss Glasner is yet to grasp how to get his side to click. He chucked on Jean-Philippe Mateta, Jeffrey Schlupp, Ismaila Sarr and 19-year-old Asher Agbinone for his senior debut, and changed formation once again – this time to 4-2-2-2 in the final stages of the game.

At one point Daniel Munoz, their best right-back, was playing on the opposite flank and had to keep checking back on to his favoured foot when attacking – it became predictable.

Glasner was handed a grace period after the four late signings on transfer deadline day but the Premier League is cut-throat – he is running out of time to find a winning formula.

WILL LIGHTNING STRIKE TWICE?

Palace’s have equalled their worst Premier League start ever, their last being in the 1992-93 campaign.

Roy Hodgson’s longest winless run in the Premier League with the Eagles only stretched to seven games over his 200 during two spells in charge.

Patrick Vieira was afforded 11 Premier League games without a win before he was sacked following the 1-0 defeat in March 2023.

The Eagles are heading into a crunch period of games before the next international break in November which will determine whether former Wolfsburg manager Glasner will still be in charge after that period.

Palace host Tottenham on Sunday and then head to Aston Villa in the last 16 of the EFL Cup – where wins against Championship sides Norwich and QPR have presented some positivity.

But should the South Londoners lose to Ange Postecoglou’s side and exit the cup, history shows Palace ‘s hierachy tend to take action, especially with league games against Wolves and Fulham to follow.

LACK OF CONFIDENCE IN FRONT OF GOAL

The Eagles had chances against Nuno Espirito Santo’s side but the stats make for grim reading and highlight just how contrastingly different this Palace side is to the one that was scoring for fun at the back end of last season.

Palace are the lowest scorers in the division with five goals.

They look low on confidence when presented with an opportunity to find the back of the net – Kamada’s weak effort into the hands of Sels, after a great team move in the first half, highlighted that.

A PROMISING CAMEO

If there was one slice of solace that Palace fans could take from the fruitless trip to Forest then it was Agbinone’s outing.

The winger was subbed on with two minutes of normal time remaining and instantly looked to make an impact and inject some pace.

Forest’s wide players, Anthony Elanga and Callum Hudson-Odoi, showed everything Palace have been missing at the start of the season – a threat from the flanks and not afraid to drive at goal.

While it would be unfair to place the responsibility of digging out Palace’s poor Premier League start on the shoulders of an academy graduate, due to the small squad and lack of firepower in the creative positions, Glasner might just have to.