Read on below for the key quotes ahead of Sunday's match at Villa Park!
Glasner's pre-Aston Villa press conference: The key talking points
Crystal Palace's action-packed August concludes with a trip to face Aston Villa at Villa Park on Sunday evening (31st August, 19:00 BST) – with Oliver Glasner discussing in detail how he expects Unai Emery's side to approach the contest.
We know how they want to play – but it's not so easy to deal with it
—Oliver Glasner
We always focus on the actual situation.
It's the same manager, it's more or less the same team, so it will be the same structure of how they are playing. So straight after the press conference, I will sit with my analysts and then we will watch Aston Villa.
But I don't expect something completely new, because Unai Emery is so successful and doing such a great job, not just at Villa, also in his former clubs, that he will stick to his principles.
We expect him playing more or less the same style. The players are the same, and I think we will trust what we did against them.
But again, it's not just what we did, it's always how we do it. The intensity, the desire, the awareness, because it's pretty clear what they want to do – and if you are a little bit late, they punish you.
They have their traps, and when you are late, they create space in their pockets. And then they have such great runners in behind, intelligent players moving in the pocket.
And then with Ollie Watkins, with Morgan Rogers, a lot of pace and runs. With John McGinn, or last time Youri Tielemans played on the 10… I don't know if [Evann] Guessand will start for them…
Many players, they want to get them in possession in front of your defence, in front of your back line, and then really threaten with making their runs. So therefore, we know, and every team knows how they want to play, but it's not so easy to deal with it.
On the other side, we did very well [last season] and this gives us confidence. If you have this proven a few times, and also at Villa Park, and not just at home – so there it was a 2-2 and a 2-1 last year – it shows, in every single game against them we scored goals. And this gives us confidence that we are able to do it.
If you had lost five games and never scored a goal, and all of a sudden then you ask, ‘if we do the same, why should we score two or three this time?’ But if you always have scored at least two, this gives you confidence – but that doesn't mean that this happens again.
But preparation for me won't be that difficult because Unai will play his style and he's doing so well there, and I have a really big admiration of how he's playing with his teams.
I think he [Sarr] had his best season in his career last year, and I think he will have a better one this year as well
—Oliver Glasner
I think he stepped up last year in the big boots of Michael Olise. And he did so well in a different way. I think the Villa game, how they play, is to his strength.
We could see also in Fredrikstad’s Astroturf yesterday, maybe that's not where he can show his strengths, ery tight areas, quick passing with one-two touches.
He's a player who comes with his pace. He needs space for runs and then he's really good, and he has this ability and this feeling for the right areas, for the space, and then, of course, he has the physicality to do it.
He has an amazing finish and he has the confidence to score goals. I think he had his best season in his career last year, and I think he will have a better one this year as well. He's now used to the way we are playing.
At the beginning, he struggled a little bit because he had no pre-season. He wasn't allowed to train at Marseille. He had no games.
Now he's in the rhythm. He's doing so well. And I'm pretty sure that he will have a good performance against Villa.
When you have a connection of trust and respect, then the relationship works well, and this is what we feel at the moment
—Oliver Glasner
I think over these months the bonds [between the players and supporters] got tighter and tighter. It’s like in a relationship. A bond can never be tight just from one side, so if the other side steps away, you never come close to each other.
It was really from both sides, from players, club, staff, making step to step to each other, and having this bond and now feeling ‘hey, together we can achieve things we never thought we can achieve’.
Everybody knows this is maybe the non-measurable foundation of our success: this bond, this support. Again if you're just being a clinical football fan, and watching yesterday's game, I think at half-time I would have switched to another channel. It was not the best entertainment honestly! 0-0, not many chances.
But our fans were celebrating before the game, during the game, after the game, so they were enjoying it. They were supporting the team, and it's no bad comment: ‘why you don't play better? Why you missed this chance? Why this?’
No. [It was]: ‘We appreciate it. We could see again you give 100%. Today, okay, it wasn't maybe the best performance. But we can see hey, you, this group, you are the reason why we are here today.’ And I think this is what the fans are appreciating and of course the players feel this.
When I saw Maxence Lacroix after the game, it felt like we won the next trophy! This emotion. And the players really appreciate that the fans always stick to us and are always supporting us.
This is the best thing you can have in a relationship, when you have appreciation of each other. When you have a connection of trust and respect, then the relationship works well, and this is what we feel at the moment – and of course we hope that this continues for a long time.
Match Details
Aston Villa v Crystal Palace
- Sunday, 31st August
- 19:00 BST
- Premier League
- Villa Park
- Live audio commentary on Palace TV+.