Glasner rues result but pleased by intent against City
Oliver Glasner has given his verdict on Crystal Palace’s 4-2 defeat to Manchester City at Selhurst Park on Saturday afternoon.
After a bright start in which the Eagles scored inside three minutes and went blow-for-blow with Pep Guardiola’s side in the first-half, City pulled away in the second period to claim three points.
Glasner said after the game: “For me it's a little bit difficult, because when you lose 4-2 I'm never satisfied or happy with the result, but I could see many positive things today in our game.
“What I told you in the press conference is that we’d go for the win. I think you could feel it from the first second of the game and we scored an excellent first goal.
“Then, maybe the equaliser was too fast and then we could see the dominance in possession [from City]. But we always looked to be dangerous and we had a second good opportunity in the first-half.
“Then the [goal from City to make it] 2-1 was also too quick again after starting the second-half. This is the top teams: they had 15-20 minutes, they had four chances and three goals. In this phase they decided the game. But I'm really pleased with the energy we had then.
“The fans were very positive to the team and the substitutes brought in also new energy. We scored a nice second goal and we had the big opportunity just before that. Maybe everything would have been possible, but this is why I said it could have been, but has not been.
“But yes, it's obviously not so easy to win against City because they last lost their a game in December. The performance in many situations was really good. But of course when you concede four goals, it's too much.
“We could have defended, especially goal two and three, better. But yes, it's always a little bit the result of the quality of Man City.
“We can see if we do our job, how we want to play on a very high level. We are competitive against any team and this gives me confidence again. Also, in every single game since we are here, we’ve had three, four, five great opportunities to score. We scored two today, but at the end we have to be more compact to win such a game.”
Glasner praised goalscorer Jean-Philippe Mateta, who found the back of the net for the fourth time in his last six matches.
“JP is in very good shape. He scores goals, he has confidence and he makes these runs in behind. This was the topic of the analysis: make the runs in behind, because they play very high and he did it. And then we know that he has speed, he has pace and a great finish.
“But I don't want to talk about single players after a game because somebody has to win the ball before, somebody has to solve the situation because they go into counter-press. We played three times with one touch, and Adam Wharton had an excellent pass with one touch in behind.
“JP is the guy who scores but there are also some other players involved in the whole situation.”
Glasner also challenged his players to sustain their performance levels within matches.
The manager said: “We are able to keep the level for 95 minutes high, I'm sure, because all my teams had it, so we will train a lot, we will work hard for it.
“I mention it very often: the character of the players gives me the confidence that they will train hard, so it's nothing that we do, it's what they have to do. And they will do it, I'm sure.”