Crystal Palace vs Leicester: Roy Hodgson admits his experience offers no protection against worries over form

Roy Hodgson insists his years of experience offers little protection against the worries and anxieties generated by a run of poor form. In fact, the manager says the older he gets, the more painful it is to handle defeat.

Hodgson, 71, is battling to reverse Crystal Palace’s poor start to the season that has seen them win just one of their last 11 Premier League games ahead of today’s visit of Leicester City, leaving them just two points clear of the bottom three.

Having steered Palace to safety last season despite the club having failed to take a point from the opening seven games, Hodgson accepts the optimism generated by that unlikely survival bid has quickly evaporated and he again faces a fight to keep the Eagles from sliding into the Championship.

He does not accept, though, that his lengthy career in management means he is immune to the pressures of the job. “I think any manager who tells you ‘I am very good at keeping my equilibrium, I’m always calm and reasoned, and results don’t affect me particularly, I can take the good with the bad and I can put the wins and the losses in perspective’, you will find a special person,” he said. “I’ve never met one.

“All of the top managers I have come across during my career and befriend, they suffer as much with the defeats and when things don’t go their way late in life as they did early in life. In fact I would say, probably the opposite.

“You can get over it a bit easier when you are younger because then maybe you haven’t got a record to protect, you haven’t got a period in your life when you have been successful and won games. Those periods are still to come, they are still in front of you so you have got that optimism if you like that ‘yeah it’s going badly at the moment, but my day will come’.”

Wilfried Zaha’s absence at Selhurst Park does little to strengthen the belief Hodgson’s side can start their climb up the table today. The forward is suspended after collecting his fifth booking of the season in last weekend’s defeat at West Ham United and the last time Palace won without Zaha was over two years ago. Since then, they have lost all 13 games when the Ivorian has been out, failing to score on 11 occasions.

“All curses have to be lifted in some way,” said Hodgson. “There’s only one way to lift the curse, and that's to win the game. It's another opportunity. It's a fact, and will be a fact, until such time as we play a game and win without him. It's another opportunity on Saturday, and we'll try and take it.”

Hodgson maintains his side’s performances have been largely satisfactory, results. “It can all change again with two victories so I remain always optimistic and the only thing that could ever provoke me to lose that would be if I didn't see in the group of players I work with, the desire, the determination and quality to make certain they stay in the league,” he said. “We have started badly in terms of points but we haven't in terms of our players performance.”

The fact only Huddersfield have scored fewer than Palace’s total of 13 has contributed to Hodgson’s team sitting only two points above the bottom three, but the former England coach insists he retains faith in the players already in the squad to get goals.

“We have Christian Benteke coming back from injury," he said. “We have Connor Wickham trying to recover from a two-year absence. We’ve still got players like Alexander Sorloth and Jordan Ayew, bona fide centre-forwards. We still believe that we have players to score.

“I have faith in the squad, faith in the group. Until these last two games, people were telling me how well we were playing. Now I get the impression I’m being told we are absolutely hopeless.

“New faces, maybe perking up the squad and giving you another arrow to your bow, that can be a help. But in January that can be difficult.

“You need to bring someone in who will make an immediate impact. We don’t need extra bodies. We have 20-22 outfield players. Anyone who comes in would have to be a considerable improvement on what we’ve got.

“I still see the bigger picture. I see the players we have. I believe the way we play and the players we have will be more than sufficient to stay in the league.”