Oliver Glasner says Crystal Palace need to be aware of not just why they have achieved such impressive recent results, but how, with the Eagles' on a five-match unbeaten run ahead of Saturday afternoon's trip to Wolverhampton Wanderers (15:00 BST kick-off).
The manager also discussed reflections on Monday's 4-0 win over Manchester United; Adam Wharton's recent form and international prospects; and this weekend's opponents, ahead of the trip to Molineux.
For Glasner's pre-match team news updates on Jefferson Lerma ahead of Saturday's game, please click here.
I already forgot the Man Utd game because it's not important for tomorrow. Of course we enjoyed the night and we enjoyed the win, but on Tuesday we were still critical of us because we could do some things better, especially in the first half.
We gave them also two big chances after set plays, so we were not as focused s we should be. But of course we had very good moments, we scored nice goals, but it's always about knowing what's necessary to be that good. This is what we talked about and this is what we did in training because we go to Wolverhampton and we want to win there.
We know it's a very good team, playing a similar system, a 3-4-3 with a lot of pace in offence, with good players in the pockets, with a lot of power, so it's important to take the positive things from Man Utd, but not now say, ‘wow, we are the best in the world, because we beat them.’ That’s how we worked this week.
Adam does really well, otherwise he wouldn't play almost every minute, and he starts every game because he always shows great performances and with his passing, with his solutions, with his hard work in central midfield together with Will Hughes - it's very important for us.
But [England manager] Gareth Southgate was at Selhurst watching the game against Man Utd, so he doesn't need any advice from me. He will nominate the best players for England.
Adam does really well and I and we all wish all the best to our players, so of course if he will be nominated [for England] it would be a fantastic achievement, but he's a young guy so he will have many international appearances, but it's Gareth Southgate's decision.
We started building our identity from the first day we arrived and as I said it's our identity, we can just do it together and we try to convince the players, but we also look at what strengths each player has and how the team can benefit from the strengths of every single player.
We also maybe find new positions like we did with Nathaniel Clyne and with several other players, so this is how we work. We don't want to have 15 changes – this is a great group, this is a great team, but it's also important for us, because this is my feeling in the last days and especially the days after the Man United win, but also the weeks, it's a lot of positivity and a lot of enthusiasm and the players deserve it because they had great performances.
But it's just a very short period of time where we were successful, so we are still 14th in the league, so yes, we take the confidence from our performances, but it's our challenge, it's our job to show these performances over a whole season, because we can't be happy being 14th in the table.
So yes, take the positivity, take the enthusiasm, but stay grounded, work hard, continue to work hard, because otherwise it can go very, very quickly in the other direction and this is what we all don't want.
Of course, it's a decision speaking to the Sporting Director and speaking to the Chairman and then we all three decided. Sometimes it's not that difficult – for example, when you take our central midfield, we have Adam Wharton, we have Will Hughes, we have Jefferson Lerma, we have Cheick Doucouré coming back for the next season, we have David Ozoh, we have Naouirou Ahamada, so we have six players for two positions.
Jaïro is also in this position. It’s nothing to do with his individual quality, he's a great player, he's a fantastic guy, a really nice guy, so it's nice to have him here, but we can't sign seven central midfielders if we play with two, so some decisions are not to say we don't believe in the quality of the player, it's just we have to see the whole squad and what's necessary and what's important for the team.
It’s not so, that in England they play different sports. They [the players] don't play cricket, which I don't understand – they play football and they [Wolves] play with 11, so we will play with 11. The pitch size is the same, so it's not something totally different to the rest of the world.
Yes, Wolves have a lot of quality, as I mentioned in offence, they play very aggressively, with high intensities. It will be their last home game, and of course everybody can read the table.
If we win we overtake them, they have their last game at Liverpool, and then we are at home to Aston Villa, so it could be that we overtake them in the table, so everybody knows this, and it's no secret.
How they play… at the end of the season, no team has secrets, you can watch all the games, you can analyse everything, and now it's important to show your best performance, to be ambitious, and if you think you can play with 98%, you will lose the game, because every Premier League game, every league game all over the world – if it’s in the German Bundesliga, in [Spain’s] La Liga, everywhere, if you don't perform at your best level, you will lose the game. This is the challenge that every team has, after a very long season.
I think especially the English teams, you could see it in the international competitions, that it's a very long season, with no break in the winter, and then whatever it is, so our players look fresh, and that's important, because we have to be fresh, we have to be sharp, otherwise it's impossible to take the win.
They've suffered from several injuries in the last weeks, but players are coming back like [Matheus] Cunha, like Neto... [Mario] Lemina's doubtful, so they've suffered from injuries.
Every team, especially in mid-table, can't afford to lose three or four key players due to injuries. If this happens, maybe you can see it in the results, but this is a team with a clear structure in and out of possession, with very good players and a very, very good manager, so this is the challenge we have.
The league position is the result of the game, and the game's result is the consequence of the performance.
I think I was asked several games ago, out of the last seven games, how many points [do you want]? Five, six? I said ‘no, 21’. From the last five we have now 13, so we can't reach 21, but now we want to have six, and therefore we need three tomorrow.
But we never talk about just winning. When we analyse the Man United game, of course it was a great win, but why we didn't have so much control in first-half? I think five to four shots for us, and in second half it was 13 to two – so why is there the difference? Why is there a difference in possession, it was 50-50 in the second half, and I think it was 35-65 in the first half, so why we didn't have more control in the game, in the first-half?
This is what we showed the players, because as I mentioned after the game, we were not that consequent and out of possession, we opened the middle, we were a little bit sloppy in possession, and then it's not our best performance.
The players are amazing, because they could change it at half-time. It's not so easy. Then we could see a totally different performance, and that's important for us, and the result is the consequence of how we play.
We can't influence it, so I'm sure that our fans will be there, will be very loud, and it won't be… I don't know, at Anfield it was 59,000 [home fans] to 3,000 [Palace fans], and we could hear our fans, and there will be let's say 29,000 to 3,000, and we will hear our fans again.
We have to just influence what we do on the pitch, and everything else we have to accept, and we go there to win, we go there to make our fans happy, and make them proud, and having a nice journey back from the Midlands.
