Saturday 11 February 2017 18:38, UK
Sam Allardyce believes his Crystal Palace team are starting to adapt to his style of play after a narrow 1-0 defeat to Stoke City on Saturday.
Palace switched to a 4-5-1 formation for the game at the Bet365 Stadium after suffering a heavy 4-0 home defeat to Sunderland when playing with three at the back, and held off Stoke pressure until the second-half.
Joe Allen's 67th-minute strike proved enough to condemn Palace to their sixth defeat in eight Premier League games under Allardyce and the former England manager admits time is running out for his side to turn performances into points.
"Wherever we play, whoever we play, we have to pick up points now," said Allardyce.
"We have to stop defeats and we haven't stopped it today. So even though the performance was there it's really disappointing that the lads haven't picked up the point that they at least deserved today.
"When you're asking a team playing away from home to contain a team, when you see the second-half stats that Stoke only had one shot on goal, it shows you how good we were defensively today."
Andros Townsend cleared Bruno Martins Indi's header off the line just before half time to ensure Palace went in level at the break, but Palace - who left Mamadou Sakho on the bench - were eventually undone in the second half despite creating more opportunities of their own.
"We were in control," said Allardyce. "We weathered the storm at the back end of the first half when Stoke put a bit of pressure on and managed to cope with that well.
"We then came out in the second half and started to pass the ball again and caused Stoke one or two problems, but it seems one slip for us ultimately ends up in a goal at the moment."
Allardyce was able to call on all four of his January signings for the first time, but only made two changes from the side that lost to Sunderland last weekend, and waited until the 68th minute to bring on Jeffrey Schlupp.
The Palace boss did hand a start to defensive midfielder Luka Milivojevic and insists his team are beginning to understand his game-specific plans.
"The message is getting there," Allardyce added. "We've got to be variable in the way we play and who we play against.
"We had to contain Peter Crouch today, which we did for the main. That's their main focal point for their attack at this moment in time.
"Luka, for his debut, looked okay as well. We've got four new players that are integrated into the squad and hopefully they can make the difference.
"If we keep believing in what we're doing then hopefully it will turn our way. From a personal point of view it's very disappointing that the results over the last six or seven games since I took over have ended up with too many defeats. I've got to stop that as quickly as possible."
