Glasner on Villa, Eze & Olise, and the feeling heading into the summer....

First-team

17 May 2024

Oliver Glasner says Crystal Palace are creating an environment of enjoyment and fulfilment, as they look to conclude the 2023/24 season on a high against Aston Villa this Sunday (19th May, 16:00 BST).

The Eagles, victors in five of their last six matches and unbeaten in that time, are taking on an Aston Villa team whose qualification for the UEFA Champions League was already assured earlier this week.

In his final pre-match press conference of the campaign, Glasner spoke of he and his players have built an environment of positivity around Copers Cope, and how he hopes that will translate into one final memorable victory at Selhurst Park this season.

For Glasner's pre-match team news updates on Will Hughes and Jefferson Lerma ahead of Sunday's game, please click here.

Pre-match press conference: Aston Villa (H)

On five wins from Palace’s last six games..

I think it's a combination of several things. The players are really hard-working, and still are in the last week. But it's also what we demand from them: not to be satisfied, to stay ambitious.

It's confidence, it’s injured players coming back, it's a very good spirit in the team, a very good energy in the club. It's all together.

I think the players also feel on the pitch that we always can create chances. It doesn't matter if we play at home against Man City – we lost that, but we can create chances. Or it's away at Liverpool, or it was now at Wolverhampton [Wanderers].

We can be very stable in defence, so we have at the moment a good balance in the game, defending well, so we don't give the opposite team many clear chances. They also have to work very hard to create chances.

I think all this together is that we really show good performances. The players feel well on the pitch, but the basic thing is that they are really hard-working during the week.

On Palace potentially finishing the season in the top ten…

The Eagles go into the final day of the season in 12th, two points off Brighton & Hove Albion and Bournemouth in 10th and 11th places respectively.

I didn't say, when we arrived, that we should be 10th at the end of the season. I'm pleased with the performances we’ve had, and the result of the good performances, of how we play and what the players are doing on the pitch, are the wins, are the points.

It's the same now in the last game against Aston Villa. We want to win, but Villa wants to win too. Although they’ve qualified for the Champions League, it's no vacation trip for them to London, so they will be here to try to win the game.

But we always focusing on what we can influence. This is what we do in possession, what we do out of possession, the confidence we are playing with, the trust we are playing with, the togetherness we are playing with, how quick we play, how direct we go to the goal, how consequent we take the finishes, how consequent we defend. This is what we can influence.

And if we do this on a very high level, at the level we did in the last weeks, we have good chances to win the game. And this is our focus at the end. And then we have 49 points, and then we see what happens, if it's definitely 12th, maybe it’s 10th.

But if we don't do our job, if we don't win, we can't be 10th, so it's all about what we are doing, what we want to do, and to show it again.

And I think we have a good motivation in the last game at home at Selhurst Park also to say thank you to the fans. Not just to say, also to show them with another good performance.

On Villa having already finished fourth…

Of course we analyse the opposite team, but we can't influence them. We don't know how they start, if they start with their best team, or if they give some other players a chance. But always we can see it as an advantage or a disadvantage – if they are maybe more motivated, or not.

I don't care about it. We didn't talk about it, yes. We saw their game [on Monday], I watched the game. It was a very nice game to watch against Liverpool. Many chances, it was 3-3, could have been 5-5.

And yes, I know the result, what happened, especially the next day when Tottenham lost. But for us, we watched the game and we analysed what gives us chances, what we have to take care of, what we have to do to prepare the team as well as we can.

On Villa manager Unai Emery…

Moving 17th to 4th in a little bit more than one-and-a-half years, it says everything. The way they are playing, for me, is what I always appreciate.

When you see how the team is playing, you clearly see how they want to play, what they want to do in possession, what they want to do out of possession, how quick they are in transition with their players in offence… there is a clear structure in their game, over 100 minutes, always. And this is the responsibility of Unai Emery.

It's not just that he shows it now at Villa, he showed it in all the clubs before. I don't know how often he won the Europa League, he was in the semi-finals with Villarreal in the Champions League.

He is a great manager and he does an excellent, outstanding job at Villa.

When they go from 17th to 4th… we are now 12th, so we should be better than first! We will make the same steps – I expect us winning the Premier League next season, definitely!!

On the Olise and Eze partnership…

Of course, everybody knows that they are great players, but what I also appreciate is that they are great guys, great humans. They had to show me their passports this week because I thought they are brothers! But they aren't.

They love to play football. This you can see on the pitch. After training today – it was a short session because we had two tough trainings the last two days – everybody went off the pitch, but I think they were 30 minutes longer on the pitch and having fun together, doing some finishing, trying some tricks and whatever.

You can see how much they enjoy football. This is the basement for being successful: enjoying what you do, loving what you do, loving the sport you are doing.

Of course, today it's 20 degrees. The grass is like a on the golf course. It's everything perfect.

You can see that they are having fun and enjoying it. I was standing outside and just sometimes watching them, how much fun they had. This is the environment we want to create, that everybody feels well.

Everybody likes to come in the morning and work hard, having fun together. They show it at the moment. This is also crucial for their performances on the pitch and in the games.

On the good feeling around the club going into the summer…

I'm convinced that you have to feel well to show your best performance. If you come every morning and say ‘Oh my God, I have to go there, to my job. I have to fulfill my job.’ It's not the best way you perform at your highest level. It's when you say, ‘Oh, cool, I can go there.’

Then you also go to the edge. It's tough for the players sometimes, but this is what we demand. It's easier when you like what you do. Then from the first second, it's all boom, boom. Then everything is really hard and tough for the players. This is the environment we want to create.

Yes, they can express themselves. They are allowed to make mistakes, but then, we are a team, and we work hard together to get the ball back. It's the best thing.

We have it very often and we show it to the players. One player loses the ball and three or four others win the ball back immediately. This is the best feeling you can have.

You are never alone on the pitch. In possession, a guy gets pressure. He gets pressure from two or three players. Three or four other players want to have the ball to support him. It's the best feeling you can have on the pitch.

This is what we want to create. This is the environment we’ve started to build. It all depends on the character of the players, I will repeat always, because it's the truth.

We have great characters here in the dressing room. We have great characters in the club. This is the basement, the basics for being successful.

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