Pierre Sage’s failure to fix defensive flaws leaves Crystal Palace seeking new solution
Pierre Sage’s failure to fix defensive flaws leaves Crystal Palace seeking new solution. A losing run, set-piece struggles and a call for help led Steve Parish to cut ties with the manager after five months The moment that summed up Crystal Palace’s season under Pierre Sage came five minutes before half-time at Selhurst Park on Sunday.
A losing run, set-piece struggles and a call for help led Steve Parish to cut ties with the manager after five months The moment that summed up Crystal Palace’s season under Pierre Sage came five minutes before half-time at Selhurst Park on Sunday. After Palace had gone close to taking the lead on numerous occasions against Liverpool, the Frenchman must have feared the worst when Alexis Mac Allister headed in from a soft free-kick conceded by Jefferson Lerma.
The TV cameras immediately panned to Steve Parish in the stands. After the Palace chair removed his hands from in front of his eyes, his expression said everything you needed to know.
The only surprise was that Sage had to wait until Thursday before his inevitable fate was confirmed . Not since the start of the 2017-18 season, after Frank de Boer was appointed as Palace’s first permanent foreign manager and sacked after five matches, have the club found themselves bottom.