From France: Pierre Sage in divorce that benefits nobody at Crystal Palace

While Pierre Sage insists that everything is fine at Crystal Palace at this point, it doesn’t appear that way from the outside.

With a disappointing start to the season, reported fallouts with the owners on selection choices and some players seeming not happy, the pressure appears to be mounting.

It’s early days for the Frenchman – who faced a tough task replacing Oliver Glasner as it was – and there’s still plenty of time to turn things around. A good start to their Europa League campaign will help on that front as well.

But there’s more negatives than positives. And those negatives are being hyper focused on back in France.

France is watching closely

Earlier this week Sport Witness reported how Lyon fans are keeping a close eye on how things are developing at Selhurst Park. They’re ready to welcome Sage back with open arms if he is sacked.

Now it’s the turn of L’Equipe. They say that ‘some divorces benefit no one’. As far as they’re concerned, Sage’s move from Lens to Crystal Palace ‘falls into that category’.

While there’s unrest at Selhurst Park, Lens are also in crisis. They’ve just parted ways with Sage’s replacement, Dino Toppmöller, after a handful of games in charge.

Sage is currently on course to perhaps follow him as well. While he has played down reported issues with Steve Parish – based on him dropping Jaydee Canvot – it’s clear that there are issues behind the scenes.

The fluid defensive trio he’s been adapting and the high press are not working at present. His failure to settle on a defensive trio is an issue. Dropping players like Canvot as well as Dario Osorio, Evann Guessand and Dwight McNeil has also raised eyebrows.

Sage is confident

There are also concerns in the Eagles camp that Sage’s footballing ambitions – particularly his high pressing strategy – may not be suited to the ‘quality of the opponents he now faces’.

Behind the scenes, Sage is confident he can turns things around. That is a part of his ‘characteristic unwavering confidence.’. He is pointing to what happened to him at Lyon, where he led them from relegation trouble to Europe.

Then there’s his time at Lens, where he turned them into title contenders and cup winners. His argument, perhaps, is that he needs time.

But time is hard to come by in the Premier League. And at this point, Crystal Palace have the worst defence in the league and have allowed the highest number of opposition touches in their penalty area. Those are damning numbers, never mind concerning.

They are, perhaps, what is leading to the current questions being asked about him. Meanwhile, back in France, they’re very much seeing the decision to leave Lens as a divorce in which nobody has won.