Speaking in the embargoed section of his pre-match press conference for Tuesday’s game – for which tickets remain available – the manager explained that the celebrations at Craven Cottage after Daniel Muñoz scored Palace’s second summed up the spirit within his squad.
The manager said: “Of course, that [scoring] is the most important thing. Whoever scores, we don't care. What you and we all can see is that it's the same for the players.
“I watched Dani Muñoz [score for] 2-0. You know who was the first one celebrating with him? [JP] Mateta. He was so happy and rolling [around!] I saw a picture where he was smiling like a child. I enjoy it when I see this.
“We were really talking about it because we trained the day before. It was the school holidays and over there were kids playing. We went to our pitch and we could hear them laughing and having fun and joking. I said to myself: ‘that's why we all started playing football.’
“I love these emotions and I love this enjoyment. And JP, he was really tired, and then you see the 1m95 guy with 100kg rolling on the grass and smiling and having fun, even if he didn't score!
“For me, that's the response and showing the spirit, the commitment, the togetherness of the group. That's why I'm enjoying it.
“We don't care who scores. Of course, every manager, every group, every team, would prefer you have three players scoring double figures. But at the end, we don't care – if we have a lot of goals from our defenders, it's fine as well!”
