Crystal Palace: How to successfully turn your season around

With Crystal Palace's morale seemingly at an all time low at the start of the season, they have somehow turned their campaign around through the winter period of the season and find themselves within five points of the top half of the Premier League.

The start of the season was nothing short of dreadful for Palace. They were winless in their first eight premier league games before beating Tottenham 1 - 0 at the end of October.

Since getting this first win however, they have skyrocketed up the table, having only lost four league games since. For many mid-table teams, this would be the norm. A poor run at one point of the season and an excellent run later on. But Palace are not typically that team.

The Eagles have been the stalwart of Premier League mediocrity for a decade, finishing between 10th and 15th every single season since their promotion in 2013.

But since Oliver Glasner took over at Selhurst Park, aside from that awful run at the start of the season, Palace have set their sights a little higher.

One of the reasons widely blamed for the drastic drop in form was the departure of French winger Michael Olise. The 23-year-old was a mainstay in the team and a part of what looked to be a promising attack for years to come before his move to Bayern Munich last summer.

In his last season for the London club, he had his best league output in his three seasons for the club, scoring ten goals and assisting six in just 19 games of Premier League action as Palace finished 10th in the league, their highest league finish since the 2014/2015 season.

Despite this, manager Olivier Glasner has done a wonderful job adapting to his new-look team and making tactical changes which best suit the personnel of the team.

For starters, Palace were having their three main attackers press forward, leaving many glaring holes in the midfield for their opponents to easily exploit. However, Eberechi Eze and Ismaila Sarr have dropped back into the midfield area to restrict the freedom their opponents have in the middle of the park, which is key for blocking the fluidity of opposition attacks.

In addition to this, the South London side have also taken a more direct approach once they have possession. Crystal Palace are a team who don't keep the ball for long and maximise their time with it as much as they can.

Jean-Philippe Mateta is a key part of this who uses his strength to hold the ball and allow his quicker teammates to find space and spread the defence following this quick transition from defence to attack.

Glasner's work with the team cannot be understated, especially how he has transformed them from what seemed to be a relegation fight without the talents of Michael Olise to being back at mid-table with more morale than ever before.