Why doesn’t Oliver Glasner trust his bench?
Liverpool are stuck in mid-table, with Spurs and Manchester United also outside the top seven. Their vacated positions in the top six are being taken by other clubs. Among them are the Eagles. In our Fulham vs. Crystal Palace prediction, Oliver Glasner’s team starts in fifth place in the table.
The Glaziers have managed this so far with a fairly thin squad, which will definitely need to be broadened in the winter. 17, maximum 18 fit players are available to the visitors in our Fulham vs. Crystal Palace prediction. However, Glasner prefers to keep his starting eleven on the field for as long as possible anyway.
On average, the 51-year-old only sends a fresh professional onto the pitch in the 62nd minute – only Burnley and Brentford wait longer with their first substitution. In addition, only West Ham (46) has brought on a player from the bench less often than the Eagles (47).
So far, the fifth-placed team has done an outstanding job of concealing its limited personnel resources. If even the expected table has the reigning English Cup winners among the top four teams in the English Premier League, the Eagles must be doing a lot right.
Fulham – Crystal Palace Head-to-head record / H2H record
At the end of March this year, Crystal Palace won the last match against the Cottagers and advanced to the last four teams in the FA Cup by winning the quarterfinal (3-0). The subsequent triumph earned Oliver Glasner and his protégés a place in the Eagles’ history books.
Crystal Palace has won its last two competitive matches at Craven Cottage without conceding a goal. In addition, the visitors have lost only one of their six previous encounters with the Whites, so they travel to the next match in good spirits.
Fulham – Crystal Palace Tip
Crystal Palace has won just over 50 percent of its competitive games this season (12/23). The Eagles have earned fifth place in the Premier League table and have impressed with their excellent defensive work. Only Arsenal have kept more clean sheets (8) and conceded fewer goals (7) in the English top flight than Glasner’s side (7 clean sheets, 11 goals conceded).
The expected values support the successful performance in the first months of the season and indicate a continuation of the strong performances. The limiting factor at the moment is the thin bench and the tightly knit squad, but this has been well compensated for so far.
Fulham, on the other hand, are in a difficult position. The Cottagers are stuck in the bottom third of the table (15th), have not achieved impressive results with 16.4 expected points (13th), and show glaring weaknesses, especially in attack.
Marco Silva’s team has only scored 0.09 expected goals per shot, which is a sign of below-average chance quality compared to the rest of the Premier League. In addition, the Whites have scored a maximum of one goal in nine of 14 league games. Only a few opponents have been able to compete with Crystal Palace’s high-quality defensive work.
