Crystal Palace welcome Manchester City to Selhurst Park on Saturday, 7th December (15:00 GMT), seeking back-to-back Premier League victories. Find out what manager Oliver Glasner had to say about the game below.
The Eagles showed plenty of grit and character to overcome Ipswich Town at Portman Road on Tuesday evening, and now turn their attentions to the visit of the reigning Premier League champions to SE25.
Ahead of the game, manager Oliver Glasner discussed a range of subjects at his pre-match press conference – so catch up on the key quotes below…
We have two wins, two draws and one loss [in our last five Premier League games], so it goes in the right direction. The performances look quite stable at the moment, but we have to show it again against City, even on a better level than we did before.
There are more reasons than just confidence. The players are getting into the rhythm without pre-season. We are physically in much better shape than we have been at the beginning of the season.
The structure, how we are playing, we have new signings… it's getting more into their mind and into their body than it was at the beginning. It's a process where we are, but we are still [near] the bottom of the table. We still have many parts in our game that we can improve.
Yes, it gives us confidence, the results, the performances, but it's no time to lay back and relax.
It is what we can and have to improve: to be more efficient. But on the other side, another opportunity is to create more chances. Then you can miss more, but you also score more goals.
It's also sometimes to be more confident with the ball. We give the ball away too easily in several moments, and then we have to work very hard to get it back. The positive thing is we work very hard to get the ball back, but it would be easier to play if we reduce these easy or unforced errors.
But we are still, let's say, not even in the middle of the season, in the first half of the season, and we will work on it.
You always go with confidence into games, otherwise if you don't believe in yourself that you can win a game, it's better you don't play it, because then you have no chance.
We always enter a game with the belief in us, with the belief that we can win the game, and this is the same what we are doing tomorrow. We know the defending champion is coming.
Especially in football, everything goes so quick. When you win twice, you are the upcoming champion, and when you lose twice, the era is gone. I have so much respect for Pep [Guardiola] and what he did for Man City and for football, and how they're playing.
Their style is always the same, and also when they didn't get the results, many games they could have won, they missed chances where they scored from the games before, they made some mistakes where they conceded goals, and then they're all human beings.
At the start of the season, I think it was 11 wins and three draws, and they're the same players. They were struggling with injuries, but all of a sudden when you lose once or twice, then some mechanism in our mind starts, and then you… Before, and everybody knows this, you feel sometimes you are not vulnerable, but all of a sudden, then, ‘I got the knock, and then, oh, we can also lose’, and I think this is what happened.
But they're great players. I watched the Nottingham [Forest] game [a 3-0 win for City], their structure is clear, and their passing is so quick, their possession, their rotations, their runs, the great dribbles on their wing.
Whoever is playing, we don't know, and I think they're suffering with two new injuries in the back four, but it will be a great Manchester City squad we are facing at Selhurst, but again, to come back to the start, we believe that we have a chance to win the game.
I think it's a mix [of tactics needed to beat City]. You can't press them 90 minutes on the edge of their box, because with their quick passing they will get too many situations, but yes, in some parts you can press them high, but also I think they conceded more goals from teams who defend in a deeper block, because then you have a lot of space.
And when they play, they build up sometimes with a 3-1-6, and then when you win the ball, it's just three and one behind the ball, and this gives you space, but you need the space, so I think it's a mix, and the team have to decide, because when you press very high, you need a lot of power, and I can tell them whatever I want, if they don't have the power in this moment, it doesn't work, because then you are late, late, late, and with their quick passing, you open all the space, so the players can decide.
They know how we want to do it, in their situations, but they have to decide, if they feel in this physical shape, to run and press them high, then we will press them high, and there will be moments when they suffer, to defend in a deep block, and always double their wingers, and have their runs in behind, especially with [Kevin] De Bruyne, with Bernardo Silva, playing [Ilkay] Gundogan from the sixth, playing these quick passes, [Erling] Haaland makes runs, the wingers are there, so it will be a lot to defend, but again, we believe that we can do it.
[Compared to Tuesday's win at Ipswich] I think we had games where we played better, and maybe we lost or had a draw.
At Ipswich it wasn't about having the best performance, it was about getting this win, and waiting for your chances, and then scoring a goal, and defending as a unit, so this was the clear goal when we went to Ipswich.
‘Job done’, I think this would be the headline. It was not a brilliant performance, but everything that we needed to do, we did, and yes, every win, every good performance gives us confidence.
It's easy to coach him, a great guy who is always laughing and smiling when he arrives. He’s one of the first here, working very hard.
I think he suffered at the beginning of the season with the Olympics tournament, with all these games, with all the emotions he had there, and losing the final, playing so many minutes there, coming back four days before the Premier League start, he wasn't fresh, mentally especially.
But yes, he scored so many goals, and he played and played, and I also had him twice on the bench, not to punish him, not just to give him the break that he maybe needed, and I explained it, and showed his character, he was always positive, and said: ‘gaffer, as long as you need me, I'm here for the team’, and then he gets the reward, and this is what he gets now.
He's very dangerous with his runs, with his pace, with his desire to score goals in the box, great movements, and usually then he drops off the back of the defender on the far post, always being on the offside line for making runs in behind, and then usually he doesn't need many chances.
I think he was the top scorer last season in the Premier League. He's still fighting for this trophy [the Golden Boot this season], so: great striker, with a lot of desire to score, so we have to control him, but also we have to control the passing lines, that he doesn't get the ball, we have to avoid the crossings to him, so yeah, a lot to do!
