Real Football Man All of the Football, All of the time
Two men make their Premier League managerial debuts at Selhurst Park this afternoon as Frank De Boer’s Crystal Palace side go head to head with newly promoted Huddersfield Town with the man who masterminded their promotion, David Wagner at the helm.
For Crystal Palace chairman Steve Parish the appointment of Frank De Boer will have undoubtedly been quite the coup as the hope and expectation will be that the former Dutch international will stay around to build the platform required to see The Eagles move further up the league.
There’s no doubting that Palace have the personnel to not be involved in a relegation battle this season, it is just sometimes that they lack the application in which to get the best out of themselves, this is something that De Boer would have identified as he looks to put his own stamp on the team.
This will mean a change of playing style from the own that saw Sam Allardyce once again engineer another survival mission. How quickly they can adapt to these new methods will be a barometer to just how successful they will be early on in the campaign.
The transfer window has perhaps not been the busiest in South London but admittedly they do not have the biggest of budgets either. There was some activity on Thursday when Timothy Fosu-Mensah joined on loan from Manchester United but Palace fans will hope that there will still be a couple more new faces before the end of the month.
As for their opposition Huddersfield they move into the great unknown as they make their Premier League debut this afternoon. Of course this is not the first time the Yorkshire club have been in the top flight but what with Football being invented in 1992, this will be a whole new world for them.
The task for The Terriers this season is obviously survival but will it be survival at any cost. David Wagner obviously has his own ideas of how football should be played and these were prevalent last season when he secured what was a very unlikely promotion.
The question now is will he have to sacrifice these ideas in order to get points on the board or will Huddersfield be able to adapt to step up quickly. These first few weeks are going to be something of a culture shock but at the same time perhaps these are the games that they will identify as where points can be won.
Both managers will want to get off the mark quickly so as to show their worth at this level and it will be interesting to see just how these two teams not only line up but also set themselves out over the 90 minutes this afternoon. I think it will be close but I think Palace will just nick this one with both teams scoring. Home win for me.
Here is what social media reckons will happen at Selhurst Park
Who will be celebrating out of #CPFC and #Huddersfield
— Dan Tracey (@dantracey1983) August 11, 2017
