Saturday's match is Palace's third consecutive home game, with the side looking to make it three wins out of three, before heading to Marbella for a mid-season training camp...
The key quotes from Glasner’s pre-Ipswich press conference
Ahead of Palace’s sole Premier League game in March, against Ipswich Town (Saturday, 8th March, 15:00 GMT), manager Oliver Glasner faced the media and gave an update on the squad’s approach and mentality ahead of the upcoming gap between games.
On the challenges posed by Ipswich…
No, I don't think about Ipswich being the only [league] game [this month], because I can't influence it. We have known for several weeks now that we can't play Newcastle United, and I think we can't train for 10 days because many players go to their national teams.
In my head we still have two games: we have Ipswich and then we have Fulham in the FA Cup.
I told the players it was like I felt it a little bit, after this three-game week, three wins, and with all the emotions in the Millwall game, the result, the injury, and then two days off – it felt like a little bit of [a relief] for everyone, me as well.
Then when we started training again on Tuesday, now it's important for us to find the focus, and it's not: ‘we don't have games for many days,’ no, we have Ipswich tomorrow, and we need to perform at our best to beat them.
The players showed it this week in training, it gives me a lot of confidence that they will be ready tomorrow for this game, and Ipswich – they are fighting for survival, in the Premier League they need some points, the games get less and less...
We will face a very good Ipswich team, very aggressive, well-organised, and we could see it away from home [in December]. It was a game where JP [Mateta] decided it with one situation. They did very well.
I watched them at Man Utd, they conceded three goals after set-pieces, but they did really well. I watched them, I think it was eight players rotated, at Nottingham [Forest], and they lost on penalties.
We know how difficult it is, everybody knows how difficult it is to play at the City Ground, so they are a very good team, and we need to perform at our best. Again the players really, from Tuesday when we started, it looked like everybody had to take a breath, but the players are ready.
I didn't watch every [Ipswich] game, so of course whenever we prepare, I don't judge the results. I always want to see the style of how they are attacking, the style of how they are defending, what are they doing in set-plays, and this is what we look at.
They don't have the results, maybe sometimes they deserve it – I think they were the better side at Man Utd, but they lost in the end. In the Premier League, as I mention quite often, it's about efficiency: you have your opportunities, and if you are efficient and take them, you can win.
I think we could see it in the Champions League. You can win when you have 2-27 shots [as per Liverpool's win against PSG], you can win with one great finish, and that's how football is, and I think it's richer, and in many games they have deserved more, but in the end it's how it is.
On his philosophical approach to the game…
I think if you always lose 4-3, I wouldn't be entertained. I have to be really be upset. At the end it's quite easy: when you don't score, that means you can't win, I think we all agree, and when you want to win, you need to score.
We always want to score. We know that we are doing really well defensively, it's not so easy to score many goals against us, it's not so easy to create many chances against us.
That means we know, if we score one or two goals, we have a good chance to win the game, and I'm not really pleased when we have a lot of possession and play in the land of nowhere – then it starts getting boring.
I always wanted to play forward. I think we are one of the teams, with Bournemouth and Nottingham Forest, who play most directly to the opposite goal, and I think it's also not a coincidence that these teams are doing well in this season.
This is how we want to play, and this fits our players that we have in our squad, and we were quite successful in the last weeks, and that's why we're doing it.
On the desire to pass forward…
The players always decide, but the first thought should always be passing and playing forward, and for the players also asking for the ball which runs behind into space.
For the most dangerous ball, it also means you have to take a risk. I think it also sometimes explains our passing percentage, but I was told, by a very experienced manager: ‘I don't care if you have 95% passing when you always pass backwards, because that's easy, I can do it with 50%' – but the quality of passing is: do you threaten the defence?
Then you have to take risks, and it's also important to take risks – but also not too many risks. The players are doing better and better in this, but yes, we want the players to find the players who can score goals.
I think it was Ernst Happel who told me, it was one of his principles. He's the most successful Austrian manager, but he is not alive anymore. He won the Champions League twice, the old format, with Hamburg and Feyenoord, so I think this was 40 years ago.
On numerous Premier League award nominations…
Everything we achieve, we achieve as a team, and as a manager, you're nothing without your players. So everything I achieve as a person, I have to give 100% of this to the players.
It's to their credit, because if they wouldn't perform like this, if they don't play like they're playing, if they don't score all these goals, if they don't entertain, if they don't win games, it's nothing for me.
So that's why I never care about personal awards, because everything is about the team, everything is about Crystal Palace, so I'm more pleased for JP [Mateta] and for Dani [Muñoz].
Match details
- Palace v Ipswich
- Saturday, 8th March
- 15:00 GMT
- Selhurst Park
- Live audio commentary on Palace TV+