Can Pierre Sage Find Success While Bringing Back the “Tricky Winger” Archetype to SE25?

For more than a decade, Crystal Palace wingers came with an expectation: engage with intensity, attack your man, and entertain. Pace, trickery, and an appetite for confrontation became part of the club's DNA. Under Oliver Glasner, that tradition faded - although most supporters happily accepted the trade-off as it came with Palace's first pieces of silverware in club history. With Pierre Sage, could the Eagles bring back the "Palace DNA" without sacrificing on-pitch success?

Going back to their time in the Championship, Crystal Palace have been known for wingers with an affinity for taking defenders on. Ever since their promotion to the Premier League in 2013, Crystal Palace have had at least one player rank in the Top 10 for Successful Dribbles – up until the 2025/26 season. Palace had eleven consecutive seasons – from 2013/14 to 2023/24 – where they ranked in the top half (often top 7) for attempted take-ons. Players like Yannick Bolasie, Wilfried Zaha, and Andros Townsend dazzled crowds with quick feet, shifty maneuvers, and relentless aggression. Due to these tendencies, Palace engaged opponents regularly – never dropping below 5th in ground duels attempted - and dictated the pace of the match to their advantage by winning fouls at a high clip. This style of play reflected the area Palace called home and the supporters they represented: bold, intense, unapologetic. No matter the situation on the pitch, Palace had fans on the edge of their seats whenever they had the ball at their feet. The unpredictability led to excitement, but it often led to a lack of control and organization.

While the unpredictable component made for entertaining football, it also made it difficult for Crystal Palace to control a match. When Oliver Glasner took over in February of 2024, he brought with him a pragmatic approach rooted in defensive organization and direct, vertical play. Glasner’s intent was not to give the opponent space to exploit, while moving the ball from Palace’s backline to their forwards as quickly as possible upon re-winning possession. Glasner eschewed dribbling and began to distance himself from Palace’s familiar style of play. In both his full seasons as Crystal Palace manager, the Eagles were 20th of 20 Premier League clubs for take-ons attempted. Shockingly, under Glasner’s tutelage, Ebere Eze still managed to rank 8th in take-ons attempted during the 2024/25 season despite Palace ranking dead last as a team in the metric. Eze’s 60 take-ons were nearly one-third of all Crystal Palace’s attempts that season, showing just how rarely all other players looked to take opponents on. Additionally, Palace’s ranks for ground duels dropped into the bottom half of league rankings for the first time in nearly ten years. There was also a shift away from drawing fouls, a natural byproduct of a system designed to release the ball forward quickly rather than promote individual confrontation.

Before Glasner, Crystal Palace had never won a major trophy (with apologies to the 1991 Zenith Data Systems Cup!) His system led Palace to their most successful seasons in club history – winning a domestic cup (2025 FA Cup), a domestic Super Cup (2025 Community Shield), and a European trophy (2026 UEFA Conference League). While Palace drifted from their traditional identity under Glasner, their supporters were not too bothered. Winning, as they say, is the best deodorant. Fading away from their ethos very well could have divided more fans had Glasner not brought on-pitch success, but three pieces of silverware in just 375 days was enough to get most supporters on board with a more workmanlike and less flashy style of play.

In some ways, Crystal Palace made a Faustian deal with Oliver Glasner: sacrifice a piece of their identity in exchange for trophies. Under new manager Pierre Sage, this type of dilemma should not be necessary. In Sage’s lone season at RC Lens, Les Sang et Or put up high league rankings for dribbles attempted (4th), dribbles completed (6th), and ground duels attempted (2nd). This wasn’t merely to entertain, as Lens finished 2nd in Ligue 1 (only behind back-to-back European Champions, Paris Saint-Germain) and won the 2026 Coupe de France, their first domestic cup in club history.

Sage’s system has similarities to the one Oliver Glasner deployed in SE25 for 2.5 seasons. Both use a 3421/523 as a base shape, both stress organization and defending in unison, and both look to get the ball forward early and often. However, at Lens, Sage preferred to get the ball to wide playmakers who use individual creativity to generate their own opportunities as well as chances for teammates. Florian Thauvin was often sought out and excelled in these scenarios, ranking 5th in all of Ligue 1 for successful take-ons. While Sage has stated he does not want to “reinvent the wheel” too early, one wonders if he will allow players who were prolific dribblers before Glasner to rediscover that aspect of their game and take on defenders 1v1 more often. Players like Yeremy Pino and Evan Guessand immediately come to mind here, and it will be interesting to see if (or even when) Sage will give them more attacking freedom.

If asked whether Palace supporters would rather keep the club’s traditional identity or win, the ideal answer would be, “yes.” That may not have been possible under Oliver Glasner, but there is reason to believe that Pierre Sage can continue Glasner’s success while honoring and utilizing the tenets of “Palace DNA” that established the club as a Premier League regular.