Glasner hails ‘great work ethic’ after win at Crawley
Oliver Glasner says Crystal Palace’s players are putting in the hard yards in pre-season following their 3-0 win over Crawley Town on Friday night.
Following a commanding performance and victory, sealed in style with goals from Jean-Philippe Mateta, Ebere Eze and Daniel Muñoz, the manager told Palace TV: “Pre-season is going really well.
"The players are doing really well, very ambitious, with a great work ethic. Now it's important for us to get back into the rhythm, into the patterns and how we want to play, because all the players have been arriving on different days.
“The internationals had a few days more off. Chris Richards will join us for the Austrian camp because he played the [Gold Cup] final with the USA. Marc [Guéhi] had a very small injury, but he also will train with us on Sunday, Eddie Nketiah’s the same. We don't want to take any risks.
“But I’m really pleased with the performance today. The players did well, scored nice goals, created many chances, next clean sheet, so yes, I think we are on track.”
The Eagles now head to a training camp in Austria where they will play four more matches –against FSV Mainz 05 (2 x 60-minute games) on Tuesday, 29th July (13:00 and 14:20 BST) and FC Augsburg (2 x 90-minute games) on Friday, 1st August (15:00 and 17:00) – as we ramp up to the new campaign. All four games will be shown LIVE on Palace TV+.
We lost one friendly game: the last one we’d planned on 9th August, but now we play the Community Shield at Wembley!
—Oliver Glasner
“For us it's important, because fortunately we lost one friendly game: the last one we’d planned on 9th August, but now we play the Community Shield at Wembley!” Glasner explained.
“We always want that every single player has played once over 90 minutes in pre-season, to be ready for the start, and that's why we said ‘we'll play Mainz two times, each 60 minutes’, so also having a good physical load, and of course like we did today, today also we said we'll take it as a training session.
“As everybody could see, we pressed 15 minutes very high, then we went back in the midfield block, just as a training, and getting good answers, and this will be the same against Mainz.
“Then we play Augsburg, with two games so that everybody can have 90 minutes, so of course we have to take care in the training sessions, but I think it's important that every player has the confidence that he's able to play over the full time – and then we're looking forward to the Community Shield.”
Glasner is also looking forward to building up the camaraderie and connection between his players in Austria once more, having formed such a close unit when Palace lifted the FA Cup trophy – and set a club-record Premier League points tally – last season.
“It’s not that everybody goes on vacation, and then after six, seven weeks you come together, and you snap your fingers and everything is back again,” the manager explained.
“You have to invest, you have to work, you have to spend time together, and then this bond will be here again, and therefore it's good now having time together, spending time together, having good training sessions, having good video meetings with the players as a team individually, and also enjoying the time.
“Unfortunately, the weather in London will be better than the weather in Austria! But no problem. We're looking forward to having a very intense week, and then the final week before we start by playing Liverpool at Wembley.”