Glasner highlights crucial difference in Palace performance
Oliver Glasner says Crystal Palace’s patience against Ipswich Town was the key factor in them winning the game, having lost by narrow scorelines themselves earlier this season.
The Palace manager highlighted his players’ learnings from home defeats against the likes of Everton and Aston Villa as crucial to that improvement, with Ismaïla Sarr’s 82nd-minute chip securing a fourth consecutive win in all competitions on Saturday.
Speaking to Palace TV, Glasner explained: “It was a tough game – a game how we expected it. Ipswich made it difficult for us, and they make it difficult for any opposition in the league. I think they haven’t got the results maybe they’ve deserved in the last weeks.
“We knew, especially when we missed a few clear chances, that makes it just even harder. We can't always expect that the players will perform at their top level, like they did against Villa, being very efficient, because we're all not always on our top level.
“But we could see a big effort from the beginning, I could see that we created many chances and we missed them. Of course, they also had two or three – we needed Dean Henderson in two or three situations to help us.
“And then it was important to stay patient, because in the last similar games against Everton and Brentford, we made the decisive mistake and lost the game – whereas today, we waited for this situation and then we were ruthless with Ismaila Sarr’s finish, and took the win.
“I’m really pleased now, four wins in a row, three Premier League wins in a row. It's tough for every team in the Premier League to get three wins, and this group did it, so I think we all can be very pleased with the results and with the performances in the last weeks.
“Every team in the Premier League can score a goal. And when Ismaila cleared off the goal line [from an Ipswich corner], it was after a set play – they did it well, tthey scored a similar goal against Nottingham [Forest] in the FA Cup [on Monday]. We were prepared, but they were blocking well.
“It's the same with how we score goals. It's the Premier League, it's the best league in the world, and therefore we need to be at our top [level] in defending, because what we know is that we always can create chances and score goals.
“Even today, I think our xG was 3.5, so this is outstanding. But we missed the chances. And then we stayed patient, waited for the next situation – and again, an amazing finish.
“Now it's also a moment you don't have very often during a season to breathe, because we have three weeks, no competitive game, and we will breathe and prepare in the best way to be ready for the end of the season.”
Glasner also praised Palace’s in-game learnings, having seen Eddie Nketiah and Daniel Muñoz presented with similar opportunities to Sarr’s earlier in the game, only to be denied by Ipswich goalkeeper Alex Palmer.
“With the first similar situation, Eddie tried to pass next to the keeper – the keeper saved it really well,” Glasner recalled. “Second with Dani Muñoz, the same situation, he tried to pass. The keeper was very quick on the grass and saved the ball.
“Ismaila was the third guy, third time, one against one against the keeper. And then he took the right decision and chipped the ball, because the keeper was, again, very quick on the grass. It just shows his confidence. He did well.
“I think Daichi [Kamada] assisted and it will help Daichi as well to get back into his best shape. We're always talking about how we can just be successful as a team. This is what we did.”
As for the rest of March, a week-long training camp in Marbella – during which Palace will play a mid-season friendly against Norwegian side HamKam, LIVE on Palace TV+ – will be followed by the first international window of 2025, and then an FA Cup quarter-final away at Fulham.
Explaining the plan for the month, Glasner said: “We have to wait for the final call-ups for the national teams because we have to manage these players.
“For example, Dani Muñoz, I expect him playing two games for Colombia and he plays almost every single minute with us. Marc Guéhi will play maybe both games for England. He played almost every minute with us, and so we have to be a bit careful.
“But of course, we're working on our game. We're working on creating chances. We're working on our finishing. We're working on our rest defence. We're working on our defensive shape. And then we have a friendly game there and of course we want everybody to get some minutes.
“But of course, those players who played many minutes, they will play maybe 30 minutes and some other 60, so that everybody, again, is in the best shape when we face Fulham in the quarter-finals of the FA Cup.”