Goals from Tammy Abraham and Jordan Ayew sealed the win for the Welsh side on a disappointing afternoon in SE25, but De Boer believes that a lack of confidence in possession cost them dear during the opening 45 minutes, but vows to work on that during the international break.
In his post-match press conference, the Palace boss spoke about a number of topics, including:
Disappointment of result: “You go into every game trying to win and get points, but this is disappointing for everyone who loves Crystal Palace. We want to get off the mark and get some goals and points on the table and we didn’t achieve that.
“In the first half we didn’t show any courage on the ball. We saw a lot of moments where we could play on the ground and we didn’t look comfortable, and I cannot say it was because Swansea did a fantastic job. There were two teams that didn’t play at their best, and as we both played a 5-3-2 then there is a spare man in the back for both teams, so you’re doing to have a lot of duels and the team that makes the least mistakes wins this kind of game.
“In the second half we gave the game away in three minutes. We could have done better with both goals but the biggest thing I’m disappointed about is not showing the courage. We did at 2-0 and we saw a different Crystal Palace, and that is the one I want to see. We created chances and they didn’t, and that’s what I want.”
Confidence issues?: “It could be down to confidence – when there is no pressure on the ball you have to pass to someone in the same colour and a lot of the times we turned and didn’t acknowledge where the opponent was. There were so many moments to hurt them in my point of view but we didn’t succeed at that in the first half. In the second half we did that much better.
“If you are afraid or don’t show courage, you never get what you want. If you show it, you get much more, so we’ll analyse that with the players so hopefully they’ll see we have to show it every game – whatever system we play. If teams press then we have to play faster, longer balls, but if they don’t then we need to play on the ground.”
Fan frustration: “I’m frustrated so I can understand that the fans are too. They want to see points and goals, and they haven’t been spoilt by that right now.”
Injury updates: “Ruben was one of our best players in the last two games and Wilf was the most impressive player in pre-season, so if you miss those players you really miss something. Hopefully they can be back for Burnley but I have no clue right now how long it really takes. Wilf is just in the beginning of his rehab but I’m positive about Ruben and hopefully he doesn’t get a setback.”
Good time for international break?: “Right now it is the best thing to have two weeks to train and get everyone fresh in the head again and go again for Burnley. I’m very happy the international break is there, but I can imagine for Huddersfield Town sitting top of the league right now that they’ll want to play on Wednesday again. That’s normal, and hopefully we can turn things around in the next two weeks and get on the board.”