Glasner on belief, Manchester United & Lacroix fitness

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Oliver Glasner hopes to have Maxence Lacroix fit and available for Sunday’s trip to Old Trafford, as Crystal Palace go in search of a third win in-a-row to continue their recent resurgence.

The Eagles were victorious in their first-ever major European knockout tie last night, after goals from Lacroix and Evann Guessand sealed a 2-0 win at Selhurst Park – 3-1 on aggregate – over HSK Zrinjski Mostar in the UEFA Conference League.

That display built on a hard-fought but important 1-0 win over Wolverhampton Wanderers last weekend, with Palace now set to travel to Old Trafford full of belief, seeking to build on four wins in their last six visits to the famous stadium.

Delivering his pre-match press conference at Selhurst Park in the aftermath of last night’s European win, Glasner believes his side could pose problems for Michael Carrick’s Manchester United team, the Red Devils themselves having won five of six games under their interim manager.

Read on for Glasner’s key pre-match talking points…

Pre-match Press Conference: Manchester United (A)

On a quick turnaround from Thursday…

The players will be ready, with two days of recovery and training, and then we go to Manchester on Saturday.

We’re looking forward to playing at Old Trafford last year. We have great, great memories winning there 2-0, and it's a fantastic stadium.

On whether Lacroix will be fit enough to play twice in three days…

That's the big question – I don't know. Hopefully the goal helps a little bit!

He did very well. Also defending was important, having him, also Jaydee [Canvot] played a very good game today, and we needed his pace, because they're very quick up front.

They will be the same at Manchester – they're so quick in their attack, and then we need quick defenders, physically strong defenders.

Right now, it looks okay, but let's see how the reaction is.

On two wins in the space of five days…

It's a long week – but on the other side, it's a short week when you have three games!

Often you can talk about everything, you can train everything, but the most important thing for getting confidence and getting belief is to win games. This is what we did now twice.

I was a player for many, many years, and I know the games where everybody is expecting you to win are sometimes the most difficult ones.

Of course, we played Wolves at home, but I still think, three days before, they drew against Arsenal, a very good side. Every Premier League game is very tight, and you need a very good performance to take the win.

Against Zrinjski Mostar, everybody expects us to win, but sometimes they are the most difficult ones, so therefore these two wins helped us and will help us to gain confidence again.

We need confidence at Old Trafford. Manchester United are on a good run. I watched their game Monday night at Everton. It was a fantastic transition goal [from Benjamin Sesko], and you can see the pace they have in their attack.

On the other side, I also have seen that Everton caused them some problems, so I'm looking forward to Old Trafford.

On the potential for an open contest on Sunday…

We have to accept how it is, and of course when Man Utd play at home at Old Trafford against Crystal Palace, it's the same: everybody there is expecting a win.

Again, they are a very good team, they have a very good balance. It's a very experienced team. When I see Luke Shaw, when I see Harry Maguire, when I see Casemiro, Bruno Fernandes, Matheus Cunha, Bryan Mbeumo – really very, very experienced Premier League players. And then I see Diallo, I see Kobbie Mainoo – very, very young players with huge talent.

It's a good mix they have now, but I think the most important thing for them is they are consistently playing with their team and have a clear structure in the way they are playing, so this is what I could see against Everton.

And they have a great spirit right now, as I mentioned. For me it was really impressive seeing Matheus Cunha celebrating winning a duel in their own box, because I think this is what Michael Carrick brought into his team.

On whether there are lessons to take from our home defeat to United earlier this season…

It's a little bit different, so let's see.

I will watch them back, because it could be, for example, that they just decided to build up into a back three because Everton defend in a 4-4-2. It's a common tool you can use, when they have two strikers you build up into a back three.

It could be that they are expecting us up front with three so they go into a back four. That's what many teams are doing. I think we know what to do. On the other side, we don't know if they’ll press us man-to-man with their wingers, so we will analyse them in detail.

What I have seen is they are very good in set-plays as well, and I have seen it looked like a very tough battle in how they defended the corners against Everton. Everton had 12 corners, and every time it was interrupted because two or three players were laying on the grass.

We will analyse them in detail tomorrow afternoon after training, and then let's see. We know it will be a different game than today, and we know that we have to defend very well.

The two clean sheets will help us. The clean sheet at Brighton will help us, where we gave them one finish in the entire second-half at Brighton. And let's see where the spaces will be to create our own chances.

Match Details

Manchester United v Crystal Palace

Sunday, 1st March
14:00 GMT
Premier League
Old Trafford
Live audio commentary on Palace TV+.

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