Wharton: It’s a strong point & clean sheet
After Crystal Palace fought their way to a 0-0 draw against Leeds United at Elland Road, Adam Wharton felt his team were fully deserving of the result.
The midfielder – wearing the captain’s armband once again in Dean Henderson’s absence – was part of an industrious unit which covered plenty of ground at Elland Road and helped battle to a first Premier League clean sheet of the season.
At the other end of the pitch, Palace’s passing – particularly in the second-half – was generally incisive, and the Eagles enjoyed the better of the opportunities after the whistle to take all three points.
As it was, they head into the September international break the beneficiaries of one.
Wharton said: “I think we know how difficult it is to come here, away from home. With the crowd, the atmosphere, it’s difficult to come away with anything really. Last year we felt that, and we had a battering really.
“We wanted to make it difficult for them to play against us, be hard to break through, limit their chances, and also try and create ours.
“I think it was a tight game. I think it could’ve gone either way at the end. It was quite end-to-end, but it’s a strong point and we’ll take it back with us.”
I thought we did that excellently
—Adam Wharton
Wharton put Palace’s solidity in Yorkshire down to how they handled Dominic Calvert-Lewin with: “Just a mentality: our centre-backs being aggressive, not letting him get a run, because when he gets a run he’ll beat anyone in the air. Just trying to be aggressive.
“When we are attacking, trying to be on the front foot, and also defensively so when it does come out, he can’t hold it up and get them the ball, then obviously we’ve got to do more running to get back.
“I thought we did that excellently. The defenders were very aggressive getting in front of him and trying to stop him from being effective.”
And as for the defensive solidity overall, Wharton noted: “If you’re attacking and you’ve got the ball it’s far away from our goal and they’re going to fewer less shots and be less offensive.
“We were trying to keep them in as much as we could. I thought we did it a lot better than we did at the start of the season.
“We’re still getting used to the new manager. It’s not going to happen like that, but I think you can definitely see today we were a lot more compact, probably conceded a lot fewer shots or lost a lot less dangerous opportunities, which is massive for us, and a clean sheet.
“We got one midweek as well, so there are definitely positives to take and we’re happy with the point.”