Crystal Palace resume their Premier League campaign on Saturday (18th October, 15:00 BST), hosting Bournemouth at Selhurst Park.
Ahead of the Eagles' clash with the Cherries, manager Oliver Glasner addressed the media, reflecting on recent international performances, squad morale, and his pride at receiving two prestigious coaching accolades...
Read on below for the key quotes!
This is not my award. It’s our award
—Oliver Glasner
It’s a great honour. But today was the first time all the players were finally back from international duty.
So, I say thank you to the players and to my staff – because they are the reason I received this award. We cannot achieve anything alone; we can only succeed together as a team. And again, it's the players who have to perform that well.
They have to win all the games. They have to win trophies. Otherwise, it's impossible.
So yes, of course it’s a big honour for me. But all the credit belongs to all of us. I told the players: This is not my award. It’s our award. That’s how I see it.
This call-up wasn’t a gift from France
—Oliver Glasner
I’ve mentioned it so often – he’s just a great guy. A great person.
He’s always smiling, always happy. And yes, he’s working hard. So, it's no gift from the French national team that he was invited. He deserved it.
He’s been performing well – not just for a few weeks, but for months now. Since we arrived – one and a half years ago – he has scored regularly.
He’s always a threat to any defence, even when he missed a few chances in the last game for us. He creates danger. Every manager wants a striker like that – someone who’s always a threat and can score goals.
And he proved it. That's why he deserved it, and he did what he did for us. He played [for France], and he scored. It was great for him – and great for us. And it was just very, very positive.
I have a lot of respect for what Andoni Iraola is doing there.
—Oliver Glasner
Do we have a microphone in here?! Because we had a meeting and I told the players exactly this – it’s time to change it. It's time to score against them.
We haven’t scored in the last four matches against Bournemouth. But I have a lot of respect for what Andoni [Iraola] is doing there.
It’s not just what they do – it’s how they do it. They lead the league in high intensity runs and sprint distances. They press constantly – attackers sprinting all the time, putting pressure on defenders.
That makes it difficult to build up and get into their final third. But we had our chances when we played there.
In the last three games since I arrived, they scored just one goal against us – but we didn’t score at all.
So, I don’t expect a 3–3 tomorrow – but yes, we want to score. Because we want to win.
The most important thing is – don’t talk about the run. Don’t think about it. You always have to win the next game.
It’s like in a casino. If red comes ten times, people think black is more likely – but it’s still a 50/50.
Whether you’ve played 19 games unbeaten, or none, it’s always the same: the next game is the next opportunity.
Now we start again – against Bournemouth. It makes no difference if it would be the 21st game or it's now the first, we can start. It's really to show our performance, to be the best of ourselves and be competitive.
I think we can have 19 games until the end of this year if we qualify for the quarter-final in the Carabao Cup. Then you see how tight the schedule will be in the next two-and-a-half months.
It's 19 games, so it's quite busy. If you ask me on the 1st of January that we are still unbeaten, I would really love it!
Crystal Palace v Bournemouth
