Seriously though, Glasner doesn't check any of the boxes I can think of even though Palace have been my favourite non-Spurs team to watch in the league since his arrival there.
- Has exclusively been using a back 3 for nearly 2 calendar years now,which by itself is a deal breaker for a significant number of people here. Would be the first and most definite stick to beat with him in case things started going south.
- Palace under him have always been reactive in the sense that their game is built upon capitalizing on the opponents' mistakes, albeit quiet skillfully and beautiful to the eye when it clicks, rather than taking the game to them from the first whistle. I could live with this I think, but I can't say the same for others if this experiment with another highly reactive manager in Frank ends miserably.
- He has been willingly surrendering the possession during his time in Palace: 17th last season, and only above Burnley this season. Prefers a quite direct football, not synonymous with hoofball and like I said could be very pleasing to the eye, but during the natural ups and downs of a manager's tenure it could very well degenerate into a poor man's version of Conteball or Joseball even. Again, not many could stomach this for month(s) if worse came to worst.
- Palace actually had little difficulty replacing two quality attackers in Olise and Eze, but arguably the two key pillars of their game have been Wharton and Mateta.The former is vital for launching their breaks as a deep playmaker, while the latter is a tremendous decoy of a target man who does a great job of collecting those passes to link up the play in addition to holding his own in goal scoring department. Glasner wouldn't be replicating this with the players we [don't] have at the moment.
- Has had his own fair share of fall outs with the boards, so not sure what his expectations and demands would be here.
Would be like JM or Conte in terms of going for one of the lowest hanging fruits against all odds. I just don't see the fit.
Yeah I broadly agree. To play devils advocate, though, I'll try and make some counter points:
- If we ever want to catch up with the top teams, we're probably not going to beat them at their own game. It might be antithetical to "the Spurs way" but getting a guy that has a fairly unique system that big teams often struggle against might not be the worst idea. Maybe Glasner could be our Diego Simeone?
- Unlike most other potential candidates he IS a winner. Europa League at Frankfurt and FA Cup at Palace are genuinely stunning achievements. The guy has got that hard, winning drive and mentality that I don't see in Frank who is a bit too nice imo.
- While our squad is hugely lacking a passing mid (or two) I think it's otherwise not a bad match for Glasner. All 3 of our full-backs made their names as wing-backs, we have a lot of CBs (especially with Vuskovic next year), and I think RKM is a decent Mateta replacement if we sign him permanently. Xavi's the Pino, Bergvall/Gray could do the Kamada role. Kudus/Odobert for Sarr... We just desperately need some lads that can pass the ball in the middle.
- I think his main issue at previous clubs' boards has been lack of ambition and he'd have far more money to play with at Spurs. A big thing for him is intensity, and we at least have solid depth and legs, even if the quality isn't there across the squad.
It could absolutely blow up in our faces - especially if he goes on a mad losing run like he did in his first full season at Palace - but I think there's a case to be made for him at least.
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