After a handful of days’ rest over Christmas, Crystal Palace’s busy run of festive fixtures will pick up once more this Sunday (28th December, 16:30 GMT), as the Eagles tackle Tottenham Hotspur at Selhurst Park.
With Oliver Glasner and his players enjoying some well-earned rest in recent days, the Manager’s pre-match press conference was held immediately after our Carabao Cup quarter-final against Arsenal on Tuesday evening.
There, Glasner spoke about the wider squad’s fitness amidst a packed schedule of matches, as well as the challenge of facing Tottenham – whom the Eagles, of course, recorded a first-ever league double against last season…
Read on below for the Manager’s key pre-match quotes.
[JP is] good, good. Again, if we just play the players without any issues, I would play against Tottenham, definitely!
We have now 29 games played in five months, and the internationals have even more. Then you have knocks, you have some pain, and it's part of professional sport.
Again, we have a great medical department, and he [Mateta] is coping really well with it. It's the same, there's no risk at all. We would never take any risk, so it's really from the medical department.
It’s just a reaction, maybe to all the games, and there was a slight impact when he played for France, but it's okay.
I’ve mixed feelings [about how we performed], to be honest.
Of course it was maybe the worst performance in this season against Leeds, but also maybe we have to accept it with all the games. I know this group, that's why we all were disappointed, but maybe we have to accept that this can happen, and it happened at Leeds.
But playing three days later, or switching during a game like we did, three days later here at the Emirates, just shows what they can do, and I think the KuPS game was a chance for many young players who showed up.
We have now an injury with Chris [Richards]. We hope that it's not so serious.
Everything else, we came through these five games quite well, but also that's what it has to be, as I mentioned, so no injured player will come back the next two weeks when we have these five games [against Tottenham, Fulham, Newcastle, Aston Villa and Macclesfield].
That means we have 16, and if Chris is missing 15, plus a few from our Academy. This group, we have to go through it all together, and we will go through it.
To be honest, the last months have just been resting and playing. Again, since 22nd November we’ve played every third day, we have no training sessions.
That makes it difficult, especially for players who are not in the rhythm, and I think we could see it today [against Arsenal], players who are not in the rhythm and not getting many minutes, especially when you are a young player, it's not the perfect situation, but there is no other solution.
Of course, every Manager will tell you the same, if you have three games in five days, you just play and rest, and prepare on the screen.
Now, when we meet on 26th December, we won’t have a high intensity session because it's just not possible, because we play two days later, and then on 1st [January against Fulham], and then we have four games in nine days, always just two days in between, with travelling and everything, so it's resting, resting, resting.
The best thing is to win a game, because then you get confidence, and we will go it for the Tottenham game.
I think it's important for everyone, and we always try to find these days, and sometimes it's not so easy, but now everybody visits his family, or the family is here, and then spending the time with them, then you start thinking about different things.
That's important, because even when you're off and you're at home, but then when you always think about football, it's not really psychologically recovering.
I think with the Christmas celebrations, the family, you have different topics to talk, hopefully everybody leaves the players and are not talking too much about football. I hope the same as well when I go home [on Christmas Eve], and then we will start to prepare.
It's a great team, a very good manager [Thomas Frank] there. They invested a lot of money.
I think they have different goals than Crystal Palace, they have different opportunities than Crystal Palace, and to win against them means that we have to show a great performance.
I think they have two banned players against us, [Sergio] Romero and Xavi Simons, but when I see their squad, in attack, it's just amazing.
It will be like every single Premier League game: a nice challenge for us.
That's true, 1-0 [at home] and [2-0 away], we had two clean sheets… let’s make it three in a row!
Like always, we go to win the game, but they deserve respect, and they’ll get all our respect, and then it will be a Premier League game, a nice one.
Crystal Palace v Tottenham Hotspur
The best thing is to win a game, because then you get confidence
—Oliver Glasner
To win against them means that we have to show a great performance
—Oliver Glasner