Pierre Sage has come under further pressure following Crystal Palace’s 0-2 defeat at home to Newcastle United on Sunday. 

The Toon came into the game off the back of two away defeats where they conceded a combined eight goals to Leeds and Coventry. Like Palace, they needed a response, but unlike Palace, they showed up. 

The result has heaped further doubt over Pierre Sage’s future at the club, and the Telegraph revealed after the same that Sean Dyche is the ‘front-runner’ for the job should Palace part ways with Sage. 

But should Palace take the jump and part ways with Sage, and if they do, is Dyche the right man for the job. 

During their early years in the Premier League, Palace often opted for the safe bet when it came for managers, and it paid off. The likes of Tony Pulis, Sam Allardyce, Alan Pardew and Roy Hodgson all played a role in Palace becoming a consistent Premier League side. 

They flirted with the idea of what were supposedly more exciting options, firstly with Frank De Boer. The less said about that the better. 

Patrick Vieira was successful at times, but the club resorted back to Hodgson to settle the ship when things went sour. 

Oliver Glasner was an extremely ambitious acquisition, and it paid off immensely. The Austrian led Palace to three trophies, and completely transformed the club, bringing consecutive seasons of European football to South London. 

Losing Glasner was a huge blow, but Palace made it clear they were committed to another project, hiring Pierre Sage who had achieved unprecedented success with RC Lens in France. 

To throw that away in chase of pragmatism, and purely betting on survival, would be a shame, and would essentially put Palace back to square one. 

In a season where the club are competing in the Europa League for the first time, it’s immensely disappointing that we’re in a position where these conversations even need to be had. 

That project was always going to take time. The combination of a disrupted summer due to the World Cup and an insufficient transfer window in which Palace did not replace the likes of Maxence Lacroix has amounted to a stuttering start to the season. 

There have been improvements in the performances, but not the results. Aside from the 5-0 defeat away to rivals Brighton, which was somewhat of an outlier, the actual play has improved. 

Palace were shipping far too many chances in each game and were dangerously open in transitions. In their last two games, Palace limited both Beşiktaş and Newcastle to just two shots on target. Unfortunately, the efficiency of each side saw both score twice from those attempts. 

In the majority of Palace’s defeats, individual errors can be pointed to as a direct catalyst for the results. Periods in games where the entire side simply switches off, as they did for fifteen minutes against Newcastle, have been a huge issue so far, but how much of that is on Sage? 

It’s difficult to say, but judging from the reactions of the players to these defeats and the things they’re saying, a fair chunk of the negativity is on the players. Whether that be brief lapses of concentration or longer spells where heads drop and focus evaporates, the players are not doing their job on the pitch. 

Of course, the buck ultimately stops with the manager, and therefore if results continue their current form it will likely see Sage lose his job. But there is a huge element in the facts that suggest he has not only been dealt a tough hand given his start to the season, but that he has also been immensely unlucky at times too. 

If this happens, it will be nothing more than a stop-gap as the hierarchy bid for Premier League survival. There would be other options out there, such as Thomas Frank, where the club would once again be committing to a long term project, but that doesn’t seem to be the desire right now. 

Pierre Sage is a good manager. He did well at Lyon and was successful with Lens too. He hasn’t come to Palace and suddenly lost that ability. That means you do have to look elsewhere too. 

In January, UEFA’s SCR regulations reset, and Palace will be able to spend up to 85% of their income on transfers. Those same limitations were crippling for the side in the summer, which is why they never replaced Lacroix. 

Appointing Dyche doesn’t even guarantee instant success either. Across his managerial career, he’s averaged 1.33 points per game - Sage has averaged 1.94. 

When he took the reins at Everton, they won just three times in their first 14 games under his leadership, conceding 24 goals in that time. 

When he was sacked by Everton, just hours before a cup game against Peterborough, the side sat 16th in the Premier League, having won just three of their opening 19 games in the season. 

During a short spell with Forest, Dyche won six of 18 games, and was sacked after winning one in the final seven games of his tenure. 

He’d be a stop gap solution, but until the real issues at Palace are solved, there won’t be any chance of progression. The club needs to spend big in the January window. They need to address the issues off the pitch that have set Sage up to fail. Without doing so, they’d just be putting another manager in the firing line.