Oliver Glasner says Crystal Palace’s players are determined to top last season’s FA Cup victory – and that includes giving everything in Tuesday evening’s Carabao Cup quarter-final against Arsenal at the Emirates.
The Eagles go into the game off the back of a disappointing defeat against Leeds United at Elland Road but – delivering his pre-match press conference in the immediate aftermath – Glasner highlighted that he expects his players to shift from a mindset of disappointment back to determination ahead of Tuesday’s match.
Read on below for the Manager’s key pre-match quotes…
It's the next opportunity for us
—Oliver Glasner
A Cup competition is always do or die – and yes, it's a big opportunity.
We know which team we are playing. But yes, again, it's [Saturday] to be disappointed, thinking about solutions, and then tomorrow [Sunday] is head up and showing a different face at Emirates.
We played there a couple of weeks ago. We gave them two finishes from open play, and lost with the second phase from a set play.
If you play these teams, you have to be top in every single phase of the game, and this will be the challenge.
This is what we can show. I think we showed it many times. It's the next opportunity for us.
We are in four competitions, and we want these games. We want this amount of games, and it's not to complain about it. And it's the same, we want to win.
That would mean at least two more games in the Carabao Cup. The players don't tell me that they want to lose because they want to save these two games in January and February – so we will go to win it.
We want to play the best season in Crystal Palace history
—Oliver Glasner
I just have to look at the table. 26 points, eighth position. I don't know how often Crytal Palace have been in these areas of the table after 17 rounds – I don't think so often, even though the schedule is so tough and so many games to play. I think they are doing well.
They show it, they prove it that they are doing well. [Against Leeds] we were not able to match their physicality. This is what we have to accept and what we have to do better, let's say in other games where we face it a little bit similar.
But again, I think the best thing to convince the players is that they look at the table and see, ‘hey, I don't know how often we had 26 points after 17 rounds’. I remember last year we had 53 points, it was our point record in the Premier League. We haven’t played half of the season and we have already 50% of the games.
We want to play the best season in Crystal Palace history – we’re completely on track. We have to accept this defeat, take our lessons and then do it better.
For me, there's always two possibilities to act when you're weak in defending set-pieces like we were [at Leeds].
One is to have concerns and be worried about the next game. Then, my feeling, my experience, tells me we will get the next punishment.
Or it’s ‘okay, see that there's a challenge’. I don't know how many setbacks I had in my life, and okay, we were knocked down in round three, but still nine rounds to go. If you're always concerned about everything, it's the wrong mindset.
It’s about taking the lessons, seeing it as a challenge and say, ‘OK, we will do it better in three days.’ [There’s] no training, but we will do it better. We know we can do it better. We showed this so often.
We have a chance to do it better. If we feel like victims or concerned and worried and scared, no chance.
I think the game will be different to [Leeds]. Arsenal will have a few set-pieces. I know that we can defend them better, and it's also not always talking about big problems. We have a chance to do it better.
We have to give the players solutions. That's the job of myself and my staff. And then we’ll give them the confidence that they can defend it and also score goals. We won against Brentford with two set-piece goals, and defended there very well. They’re a team that's really good in set-pieces.
It's always a good challenge, and if we take this challenge, we can grow and learn from it. This will be our approach.
This is the mindset of the players
—Oliver Glasner
Yes [we have that mentality], otherwise we couldn't have won the FA Cup. When you lose 5-2 at [Man] City and also there, they could have scored six or seven, and they had so many chances.
If you then don't have this mindset [to bounce back], you have no chance to beat Man City in a final at Wembley. This is what we did.
Again, this team is very self-critical. After their frustration has settled, tomorrow [Sunday] we will try to get the turnaround. But also, again, it's not always just to hug each other. It's also to be very, very honest and say, ‘hey, I can do this better and the next time I will show it again.’
This is the mindset of the whole staff. This is the mindset of the players. I'm sure we will come back.
Arsenal v Crystal Palace