Roberts explains Palace approach to United under Ralf Rangnick
Palace assistant manager Osian Roberts said Crystal Palace will focus on themselves when facing Manchester United under their new manager, Ralf Rangnick.
Rangnick will lead his first game since taking over United in November, having had his work permit approved in time for the fixture.
Roberts - standing in for Patrick Vieira, who was absent due to personal reasons - explained that, while players and staff would prefer to assess Rangnick's style at United over a prolonged period, their attention is not on the opposition but themselves.
"When you’re playing the opposition you want to see some trends that have occurred over a matter of weeks," he said. "It’s not the first time this has happened to us this season [Steven Gerrard's first away game was at Selhurst].
"You have to adapt with less concrete knowledge at your disposal. It doesn’t change anything for us: our identity, way of playing and principles don’t change. We’ll focus on ourselves and if we do that right hopefully we can get a good performance on Sunday."
The assistant manager then drilled more closely in to how Rangnick's arrival might affect Palace, saying: "When a new manager comes in there’s obviously the potential for some changes, even in the short period he’ll have been with the team.
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"We’ll have to wait and see but we’ll focus on what we normally do. That’s what we’ve done today, will do tomorrow; focus on our own performance and ensure we give a performance that will get us something out of the game.
"He’s a highly respected coach, and he’s got a group of players that are highly talented at the club. The options he’ll have are numerous. For us it will still be about our principles of play, the way we want to play with and without the ball.
"If we get that right more often than not it’ll hold us in good stead for the performance we can bring… we have to focus on improving our performance and as long as we do that I feel we can face any team in the league."