Andersen reveals mentality needed to match Man City

First-team

6 Feb 2024

Joachim Andersen says Palace cannot afford to play with any fear when they take on Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City side at Selhurst Park.

The Denmark international has played his part in a number of eye-catching performances for Palace against Saturday’s visitors.

He helped Palace keep clean sheets both home and away in 2021/22, including a 2-0 win at the Etihad; scored his first goal for the club in a 4-2 defeat at City the following season; and played every minute of the Eagles’ impressive comeback in the North-West earlier in 2023/24.

Andersen told Premier League Productions: “Man City is Man City – it's always difficult. I think we have a quite good record against them. I'm not afraid of anyone. I don't think anyone in the team is afraid of anyone.

“We play at home. We're in a good place, I think. Hopefully, we can get three points because at the end of the day, you go into the game to get three points and that's what we want to do.”

The Denmark centre-back reflected on the draw earlier this season: “That was a little bit of a crazy game. We defended a lot in the game, then we were 2-0 down.

“We just kept sticking to our plan and hoped to get some kind of equaliser. If you don't kill the game, everything can happen.

“We scored in the end for the 2-2. That's the Premier League, everything can happen if you're not alert all the time. I don't think City were 100% concentrated the whole game, so hopefully we can take advantage of that again.

“I think we have some great guys, good spirit within the team. The meaning of sticking to the plan is not to run out of your position when it's still 1-0, 2-0. You just need one goal, then you're back into it.

“You need to keep focused all the time. If we do that, I know we have such a good structure, we have such a good desire to fight. To be honest, I think in most of our games we limit the teams to few chances, and also against City.

“And of course they have so much quality that we need to be really ready to defend, and that's what we have to do again, to be honest.”

The centre-back has started all five of new manager Oliver Glasner’s matches in charge of Palace so far, and admitted he is relishing working under the Austrian thus far.

“I think it's been really good,” Andersen said. “Obviously, we won the first game [against Burnley] and we’ve had the lead for four of the five games, then we didn't kill off the game. When we don't do that, then everything can happen in the Premier League.

“We've been a little bit unfortunate, to be honest. I think [Nottingham] Forest didn't have any chances really until their goal. Same against Luton, we limited them to really few chances. Tottenham, the same until their goal. So, just a little bit, we missed that last quality to either kill the games, or hold firm for the 90 minutes.

“We're trying to improve that and we've been speaking about it. I think we've seen a really positive direction with the coach. We play better with the ball now and are creating good chances. I think we have a good future here with the gaffer.

“I feel like he's really on top of everything, whether it's the injured players, it's the training, it's the data, or it's everything in the game. He's really into the details and you cannot rest.

“You need to be on your toes and switch on all the time because he sees everything. You cannot hide. I really like that about him.”

MATCH DETAILS

Saturday, 6th April
12:30 BST
Selhurst Park
Live on TNT Sports
Live audio commentary on Palace TV+

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