Oliver Glasner has challenged his Crystal Palace players to fully refocus on the Premier League – in which they have 10 matches remaining – after their FA Cup quarter-final win, with their next league assignment away at Southampton on Wednesday, 2nd April (19:45 BST).
The manager also discussed the form of players such as Adam Wharton and Eddie Nketiah; his target for Palace's final 10 Premier League matches of the season; and the threat that the Saints will pose at St. Mary's Stadium...
It was the changes in summer, the tournaments in the summer, our late signings, then also some injuries at the beginning. Often [the players had] very short times off and especially international players struggled a little bit. Then we had to get each other known again.
And then it was, I think, the great working mentality, the attitude of the players. We always stayed calm, we stayed patient and said: ‘OK, we have to improve. It's not a lot that we are missing, but there are a few things.’
We just worked on these things and we got the reward in the last weeks and months. It’s important now to keep this level, to keep this working intensity, to keep this work rate on our top level.
I think it wasn't his best performance [against Fulham]. I think Adam can play better than he did. But yes, he has a lot of potential. We could see it last year.
But we also can see when you have just a very short time to recover, not just physically, also mentally – he struggled for six, seven, eight months with several injuries.
And when I see all the upcoming… not just the games in the season, there's the Under-21 European Championship in summer again, next year it’s the World Cup again. It's important to keep all our players fit, especially the young players.
They are not used to playing at this level. And again, I'm not just talking about their bodies. It's also when you play in January for Blackburn and then you're at the finals of the Euros with England.
There's a lot that's going on, and this influences your body. We all know that you can't separate your mind from your body, and this is what we all have to consider. But yes, he has a lot of potential, definitely.
It’s not just in the last games – I think in our last four games, Eddie Nketiah has scored three goals.
We talked about it when we arrived about JP [Mateta]. It's confidence. The most important thing for a striker is being confident that you can score goals.
I think Eddie had his chances, but he missed a few. But now, he looks to get more confidence, and that's very important for us – that we don't rely on one or two players who can score goals.
And when we see the three goals from Fulham, we played with four very attacking players. Matheus França just got a few minutes, but of the other four, three of them scored, and that's always good – that these players get into the situations for scoring goals.
We need every single player until the end of the season.
It’s easy: we have 10 games to play. That means the goal is getting 30 points.
But we don't talk about 10 games. We're just focused on Southampton. We know how they play. We know what we have to expect. A lot of duels, a very aggressive side.
And also, they have some players like [Paul] Onuachu – very tall, very physical. With [Kamaldeen] Sulemana, very quick with dribbling. With Tyler Dibling, one of the players who is hyped in England this season – so they have many very good players.
It just makes no sense thinking about the table position. It's always important to think about what we can improve, what we have to work on, what we have to show in every single game, and that's a challenge for us: to have this mentality and to switch from the Cup game at Fulham to Southampton tomorrow.
Crystal Palace have won their last six away matches in all competitions without conceding a goal – a joint- top-flight record in England.
It’s something I never did before!
Most of the time we travel on matchday. We go tomorrow morning to Southampton.
Before the Fulham game we met the evening before in the hotel. But also we didn’t have dinner together – it's optional – but they had a latest report time, as we want to give them also time with their family.
I mention it quite often. We're talking so much about football and we want the players to be focused when they're here. And we all know this, to focus you also need your time off, because it's impossible to be switched on for 24 hours a day. Even with the schedule we have, without having a break for many of our players.
Especially the international ones – they started in August and had no time off. Then it's important to give them these days to recover. Maybe this is the reason.
But it's also I think the belief of the players that we can win everywhere. What I liked in the Fulham game is we didn't get nervous after really struggling at the beginning. We relied on our quality, on our system, on what we were planning.
We know when there are moments in a game where we have to fight for each other, then we fight for each other. There are moments when we play together, then we play together. And I think this really developed over the last months.
It's what we're always working on, and it's not just about young players – it's about everyone knowing what we want to do.
And I tell the players quite often that when we defend, this is the first way to attack. You can't attack without defending. We prepare our attacks even when the opposition has the ball.
It looks like everybody knows what they have to do, and then this gives you confidence that you know when I do this, my teammate does his job, so everybody is involved in our game. But on the other side, it's so important that everybody does his job, because if one doesn't do it, it drops like a card house.
I'm always thinking about the defence, because we know that we can score goals from different situations. If we need a set-play, we take a set-play, and we're working on this.
But as I mentioned, our defensive shape is already starting for the attack and the players know and can see it, and we’re getting the evidence that when they do their job in the defence, that they get the chance and the opportunities to score in our attack.
When you see the second goal at Fulham, it's Eberechi Eze who wins the ball close to the halfway line. And then we have Ismaïla Sarr, the far 10, great runs in the box with him and JP switching – one goes near post, one goes far post – Dani Muñoz in the box and Ebs gets the ball where we want the players to have and to run.
But before, everybody was in his position and from this, we start our attacks. That's what we're really working on almost every day.
This week, not so often because we don't have time to train. It's more about recovery. But that's also when it just takes time that we get this implemented into the group, into every single player.
Maybe we ask them to do something different than they had to do with their former clubs, but we want them to do this for the team especially.
To be honest, I don't expect a very tactical game because they are playing, especially when we have the ball, more or less a man-to-man defence.
I expect many duels. We talked about it today: it's about winning your duels. Sometimes you try to create an overload on one side or whatever, but it doesn't work when you're man-marked, because then it's always equal. For this we have to prepare.
They're playing very aggressive. They're, as I mentioned, very physical. But on the other side, this is the strength that they always get pressure on the ball. You always get pressure on the attacking players. But on the other side, if you lose a duel, you can have very quickly an underload, and so that means always risk and chance.
We have to find the right balance in playing and also in going into the last line very quickly. And on the other side, we need to be switched on in defending, because they also have different styles of their attacks. Sometimes they go straight from [Aaron] Ramsdale to the striker, Onuachu if he plays again, a very physical player.
Sometimes they, especially, they were used to building up every single ball. And then they are very, very good in possession, moving the ball quickly, and also you can see the stats in many games. They have more possession than the opposition and so that would be a good challenge for us.
But the most important thing is that we find the switch from the Cup game and we’re not talking about Aston Villa and thinking about Aston Villa, so really being in the game tomorrow – and then I think it's possible we celebrate a seventh consecutive away win.
Southampton v Crystal Palace
