Paddy McCarthy on preparations

First-team

17 Mar 2023

Paddy McCarthy was pleased with Crystal Palace’s preparations in training ahead of their trip to face Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium on Sunday (19th March).

The former club captain, and current U21s Head Coach, led first-team training this morning along with U21s Assistant Coach Darren Powell and goalkeeping coach Dean Kiely, and will lead the side for their Premier League fixture this weekend.

Speaking to Palace TV, McCarthy said of the session: “Under strange circumstances, the lads showed good energy and enthusiasm.

“We tried to implement some ideas, but we’re obviously mindful that they’re still recovering from the game the other night at Brighton, and we’re preparing for Sunday against Arsenal.

“It was good to get on the grass. The boys were excellent. They received our messages really well, so I was pleased coming off the pitch.”

Having previously coached with the first-team during pre-season, McCarthy knows the squad’s talent well, recognising: “There’s an abundance of talent in the group – I know that, I think everybody knows that – and they’ve shown it in games over the course of the season.

“They showed a lot of quality last year getting to the semi-finals of the [FA] Cup, so there’s definite quality in the group, and we just have to try our best to get that out of them.”

After a 15-year association with the club, the 39-year-old noted that, while he will be proud to lead the club against Arsenal on Sunday, there will be a greater point to the fixture.

“Obviously it’s a massive moment for myself, but ultimately it’s not about me,” McCarthy noted.

“My only focus at the moment is about getting the team prepared and ready for Arsenal in the short space of time that we have, so everything’s just going to be geared into that.

“I’ll push all of that emotion to one side. Yes, it’s going to be a great opportunity for myself and Darren [Powell] to manage at that level, but the focus is solely on setting the gameplan and implementing that on Sunday.”

As an Academy coach, McCarthy was pleased to see 19-year-old goalkeeper make his first-team debut in midweek – one of four Palace Academy graduates to start against Brighton & Hove Albion away.

He smiled: “The pathway has always been there: Tyrick [Mitchell], Clyney [Nathaniel Clyne], Wilf [Zaha]… and then Joe the other night against Brighton.

“It just shows that the pathway is there for these young lads. Also, Joe will give the rest of the boys across the road [at Copers Cope training ground] the confidence that they can go and perform on this stage.”

Ahead of Sunday’s away game against the Premier League leaders, McCarthy granted further insight into how he hopes to see Palace perform in north London.

He noted: “We’ll try and implement an aggressive style out of possession in different ways. We’ll look to be aggressive when we don’t have the ball, and we’ll look to progress the ball up the pitch in possession.

“That obviously said, we’ve only got a short amount of time to implement a few ideas, so I don’t want to flood the players with too much information. But ultimately, at this football club, part of our identity is that we’re aggressive out of possession, and certainly quick and fast in the attacking third.

“We’ve got some excellent attacking players here and we want to get the ball up to them, in control, as many times as possible. I’m sure that up against any defenders, with their quality, they can be a real problem.”

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