Crystal Palace is not only in the FA Cup final, but they are also among the most tactically interesting teams of the Premier League. Manchester United tries to make it work 3-4-3, but they can do worse than the Oliver Glasner team as a template.
The praise was not so appearing at the end of November when Palace went through their worst start ever from a Premier League season. At that stage they were only one place from the bottom and had picked up fewer points than both Leicester and Ipswich.
The Olympic obligations of Jean -Philippe Mateta may have been a factor – he scored in just two of those first 13 games. Half a dozen other regulars from the first team were involved when their respective countries reached summer final. Michael Olise was of course also missed.
But Glasner has since spectacularly reversed. Since then, after picking up 37 points of their 22 Premier League matches, it is form that they would have had on the edge of Champions League qualification if they had started stronger.
The Austrian is completely justified in sticking to the formation that he has long preferred, but what is it that it works so well while Ruben Amorim Stutters is stuttering? The explanation is certain that Glasner has so many players who are suitable for the system.
The wingbacks are the key and in Daniel Munoz and Tyrick Mitchell, Palace have a pair that enjoys the role. They are unusually good in one-to-one situations, both are among the top 10 players for tackles made this season in the Premier League.
Palace waits before you press and refuse to be hurled, and gives the preference to use the inside forward to force the opposition wide, to lead the ball to their combative wing backs. From there they can break into those tackles and end many of the attacks.
The supporters of the palace have welcomed that increased intensity, an approach that is not only embodied by their wingbacks, but also in the form of cult hero Maxence Lacroix on the back. For them they know that the quality is there if they can keep him tight.
Glasner has not been completely able to match last season's performance – the best score campaign in the Premier League history of Palace – but the addition of Ismaila Sarr, a summer signing from Marseille, because the replacement for Olise has been a success.
It is a new role for the former Watford wing player, which was used much wider during his previous two stints in the Premier League. But now 27, he has adapted to playing more central, which contributes to the competition and four more goals in the cups.
It helps that Adam Wharton can find him. The progressive passing rivals of the midfielder of the English midfielder the best in the Premier League. Only Bruno Fernandes, Kevin De Bruyne and James Maddison play such passes regularly and Wharton does it from deeper.
Both he and Will Hughes are among the top 10 midfielders for passes played between the lines per 90 minutes, revealing that this is something that Glasner wants to see on his side. Not for him the kind of sterile property that is favored by some in the Premier League.
No team in the competition has had fewer build -up attacks this season – defined by OPTA as a pass series of 10 or more that end in a shot or with the team that works the ball in the opposition box. Palace usually does not need 10 steps to manage that.
They also play with the least width per passing series of each team and also have the lowest pass voltage rate in the Premier League. A characteristic of Palace's game is that they often work the ball vertically and prefer to look ahead when they are in possession.
From there, SARR and the excellent Ebereechi can capitalize. Both are responsible for feeding Mateta, a striker with 14 Premier League goals this season and 27 since the arrival of Glasner – surpassed by only Alexander Isak, Erling Haaland and Mohamed Salah at the time.
The importance of the role of Mateta in Palace can hardly be exaggerated because he not only finishes the movements of himself, but it is his movement, the stretching of defenses, which creates the space with which Eze and the rest they can build in the first place.
He has made 329 runs that challenge the back line this season. Only three Premier League players have made more than that and only one of them – Ollie Watkins from Aston Villa – makes a higher percentage of their total runs in this way. That hard work harvests rewards.
Palace puts this forward from behind. They have endured a shaky start, but have shown to be a team in which each player knows his role, one that can cause problems for every opponent. That Oliver Glasner template works.