Glasner on World Cup pair & team selection dilemmas before Brentford test
Delivering his pre-Brentford press conference ahead of Palace's final away fixture of the Premier League season, Oliver Glasner discussed team selection and two of his players who have been selected for the World Cup.
Read on for the all key quotes from Glasner's pre-Brentford press conference, below!
On call-ups for Lacroix and Mateta to France's World Cup squad...
I'm very pleased and delighted for Maxence [Lacroix] and JP [Mateta].
We'll have a number of players at the World Cup, but a lot of the others were always involved with their country.
But Maxence had his debut in March and JP was not included in the March one due to his injury.
So I think it's massive for both of them, and I'm really delighted because they worked so hard.
I talked to Maxence two years ago when we wanted to sign him from Wolfsburg. We talked about this... because that's his big dream, playing for France.
He deserves all the credit because he has worked so hard and it's the same for JP. He has already played more than 50 games this season.
Since I arrived and that's now more than two years [ago] JP is among the top five scorers in the league, in this period.
It just shows how consistently he's scoring goals, and this is when you call up a striker, you want to rely on them to score goals. So both deserve it, and I'm really delighted.
On Brentford and why they've impressed him...
I'm very impressed [with Keith Andrews]. They are doing so well.
They have kept their style. They sold [Bryan] Mbeumo and Yoane Wissa last summer.
But on the other side, they had some good signings, and they just followed their pathway.
Maybe the most important part of Brentford's success is that they are very consistent in their pathway, in the way they are signing players, in the way they are recruiting managers.
Consistency is very important for this, so he's [Andrews] doing an amazing job.
On Igor Thiago...
They already signed him over a year ago, and then he ruptured his ACL in pre-season. He already scored more than 30 goals in Belgium, so he's a player I know.
It took him one year [of recovery], and he's now on 22 goals, or something like this. To score more than 20 goals in the Premier League, you have to do a fantastic job and play a great season, and he's always a threat.
He's good in the air, makes good runs, is a great finisher with good feeling in the box and, of course, is a great penalty taker.
He deserves huge credit as well, like all the Brentford players, the whole organisation. They are still competing for European places, and that's why they deserve all the credit.
On rotation in the final two league games...
We have a lot of travelling, and it's good to play both games in London now, but I don't talk about the amount of games anymore and rotating.
The players are fit, and if somebody doesn't feel ready for a final ten days from now, they should be looking for another job! Now it's the most important part of the season, it's very exciting.
Every single game, we never want to risk an injury.
That's why we could survive this Premier League season, to be honest. We have 60 games to play [all competitions] and we have reduced the amount of muscle injuries to a minimum.
Now the players are fit. Of course, we want Evann Guessand getting a few minutes, to be a good option at Leipzig, but we won't rotate massively.
Match details
Brentford v Crystal Palace
- Sunday, 17th May
- 15:00 BST
- Gtech Community Stadium
- Premier League
- Live on Palace TV+