Speaking in his pre-match press conference ahead of Sunday’s London derby against Chelsea, Oliver Glasner highlighted the areas of Crystal Palace’s recent performances he felt the Eagles needed to improve on to bounce back from their recent run of form.
Palace will be bolstered by the return of Ismaïla Sarr and Daniel Muñoz against the Blues, the Manager confirmed.
In a wide-ranging broadcast section – which can be viewed on Palace TV below – Glasner reflected on Palace’s tough run of recent results, which has seen them gone 10 matches without a win in all competitions, and explained where his team have been focusing their efforts in training this week.
“I went back to Austria because I was already off for a few days after the Sunderland game,” Glasner explained. “I was just thinking about Sunderland, about what happened then, and for me, more importantly, when we met on Wednesday, what I’d tell the players and what we would work on.
“The message was very clear, and I think this is what I think is best, I said: ‘OK, let's forget all the noise around us – let's focus on football.’
“We have to improve our game again – not massively, but in the fine margins. I watched the whole game back at Sunderland, and I think we played really well for 50 minutes.
“I think it's also because of the situation we are in. One or two things don't work like we expect, we get a little bit frustrated on the pitch, and then we don't play well for 15-20 minutes, and I think in those 15-20 minutes, we lost the game.
We have to improve our game again – not massively, but in the fine margins
—Oliver Glasner
“There are one or two patterns we have done much better already. I don't want to talk about detail, but in defending and in attacking, and this is what we showed the players. We said: ‘OK, now we have time to work on the pitch, to improve our game, our patterns again, where we have already been together’.
“The right side was sometimes completely new players [due to injuries]. They don't know each other, they are not so familiar with our patterns, and it's now time to work on this, and this is why I said we had a great week.
“It was funny – on Wednesday, afterwards, the players were really exhausted. They said: ‘I haven't trained like this for months now!’
"We were really talking about the details, about how we want to play, how we want to defend. This, I think, is the best thing we can do.
“For me, we made a good step forward regarding our set-plays. We’re often talking about it. At Sunderland, we scored a goal from the second phase, we didn't concede, and Sunderland are a very good team on set-plays. Chelsea are as well.
“I think we made the first step in improving our set-plays, and I'm pretty sure we will make the first step on Sunday in improving our game again.
"Then, I know the consequence will be that we will get better results, and then hopefully we will talk more about football than other stuff.”
Glasner will come up against recently appointed Chelsea head coach Liam Rosenior for the second time this season, with the Wandsworth-born 41-year-old having led Strasbourg to a surprise win over Palace earlier this season.
While acknowledging the Blues’ strengths as a side – Chelsea sit sixth in the table at this point in the season, albeit just six points ahead of Palace – Glasner is confident his team will have their moments on Sunday at Selhurst Park.
“It’s not just since the new manager came in – Chelsea were a Club World Cup winner six months ago,” he noted. “UEFA Conference League winners, fourth last year at the end in the league, qualifying for Champions League, [and this season] top eight in the Champions League. It's a fantastic team.
“I think Enzo Maresca did a fantastic job there, and Liam Rosenior now continues the job, because I think since he arrived they’ve played every third day, so there's not a massive impact on the training pitch.
“It's a great team, fantastic players. The structure also didn't change massively, you know – it's small margins, but I also watched the Brentford game back. I think Brentford could have won this game. On the other side, Chelsea were very efficient and punished every mistake Brentford made, and this is the quality of the team, this is the quality of the players.
“For us, we will need to be very, very consistent: don’t give them easy chances, because it's quite tough to defend all the quality of the wingers with Pedro, Estevão, Alejandro Garnacho, Jamie Gittens, whoever is playing. It's the same profile – everybody's quick.
“And then, with João Pedro, with Liam Delap, with Cole Palmer, with Enzo Fernandez always attacking the box from midfield and scoring goals from there, and Moises Caicedo the playmaker in midfield… I think it's not a massive change in the way they are playing.
“But on the other side, we faced them three times, I think, since I arrived with three draws – and now we will try to take the first win.”
Crystal Palace v Chelsea