Amidst the breaking news of the Crystal Palace higher up’s disagreement with Pierre Sage’s decision to drop Jaydee Canvot from last weekend’s matchday squad, the manager’s actual quotes on the situation seem to have been overlooked. 

Instead, a supposed frustration from Palace Chairman Steve Parish has been leaked to journalists, as the narrative and media spin begins. 

Sage has won just one of his opening four Premier League games with Palace, but his record is no worse than that of Oliver Glasner at times, and the Frenchman should be afforded time.

The suggestions from this leaked story is that Pierre Sage has somehow stated that Jaydee Canvot will never play for the club again. The reference to Canvot as a value-appreciating asset is quite frankly bizarre, and there is little acceptance of the reality of the situation at hand. 

Canvot, along with a number of other players, was dropped from the matchday squad entirely due to his performances so far this season not being of the expected standard. 

That decision is Sage’s to make, and no one else’s. Wherever this story has come from, it has glaringly overlooked the actual quotes from Pierre Sage in his post-match press conference following the loss to Ipswich Town last weekend. 

When asked about the decision to drop Canvot, Sage described it as a ‘sporting decision’, and went some way further to provide some clarity on the situation. 

“I have to be honest with you, I didn’t take him in the team because of his game at Fulham and what he did in the week. I spoke to him and I want more from him, I’m sure he is able to do this, I wait for a good reaction on this…”

Sage was asked to be upfront about why he has been making these decisions, after also dropping the likes of Evann Guessand and Dwight McNeil. 

“You know when I put eleven players on the pitch, in my head this is the best team in the moment to win or create something. It’s not a pleasure to leave out a player, to not take him with the team and the group, and I always wait for the reaction from them.”

Sage has a deep squad, and with multiple players fighting for the same positions, there is simply no need for him to select players who he doesn’t think are playing well enough. His decision was almost justified too. Despite Axel Disasi getting himself sent off, Palace defended more resolutely than they have before this season, limiting Ipswich to few chances but failing to prevent them from scoring these. 

“I didn’t see a team on the pitch who gave up, I see players who give 100% of what they have to do, they give their best. I think the mentality is here and I have to protect that, that’s why when I think some players are not at the best of their demands, I have to take decisions and it’s not a pleasure to do that.”

When speaking about Jaydee Canvot in particular, Sage made it clear that he’s not attempting to limit Canvot’s ability to influence the game, but more so looking forward.  

“My view is not short term, it’s long term. Jaydee is a young player, he needs to improve. He has a lot of gap with the level he can achieve and I’m sure with time it will be good to do it like this with him.”

So the manager has clearly explained why he made this decision, yet a story about the board’s frustration was leaked? The reality is that when making decisions like this, managers are held to the result alone. 

“You know with this kind of decision when I take it and the result is positive, everybody always thinks it’s a good thing to do, but when we lose it’s more difficult to understand and accept this decision.”

Sage was also asked if this was a method for him to implement his authority on the new squad, but made it clear this wasn’t the case. 

“I don’t care about my authority, I just want the player at 100% of what they are able to do and when they give less I have to shake them! For me it’s really a problem because normally I needn’t have to do that because every player is focused on their job and what they have to do.”

“Maybe it’s my interpretation but they have to understand my demands and why I do that but it’s still not a pleasure. I prefer to make the choice between 25 players ready to play and fit and 100% in mentality.”

When asked what Sage does to make sure the players he’s dropped are not left feeling isolated, the manager made it clear that one decision to drop a player is not decisive for their future with the club. 

“[I reassure them] by giving them the perspective to come back, because some players didn’t play well with us in some games and now they are with us. The most important thing is not to give me a reason or not, I don’t care about reason, the most important thing is for the players to be at their best level, and I think some of them are able to do that more and that’s why I take this kind of decision.”

Whilst Sage has explained that he wants to find his settled team as soon as possible, certain things are making that difficult to do, including Axel Disasi’s red card. 

“We have to continue [changing the team] because of the red card. We need stability, we need stability with a lot of games, that’s why we need rotation for the freshness, but I have to find the best back three of the moment and and just have little rotations to be more balanced than we are.” 

“I think we were more balanced than every other game [against Ipswich], we conceded goals [in a bad way] but we didn’t concede too many chances in the end, less than other games.”

There has been steady improvement, and we are still only five games into the new season. 

There was noticeable improvement in the actual defending of the box for the majority of the game, but there were individual errors and issues defending the channels, which Sage highlighted.

“In the defensive unit yes [there is improvement], but the problem is now in other parts of the play, on the sides, we concede too many crosses and don’t win the ball in the box, so two new problems, but that’s the consequence of what we did well because we close the play inside, but we have to be more efficient in the consequence of that.” 

That feels like an honest assessment of what went wrong, and the benefit of the upcoming international break is that Sage can have a significant amount of time to train with his squad.