Roy Hodgson was surprised to learn that he could become the first-ever visiting manager to go unbeaten for five consecutive Premier League matches at Old Trafford.
Questioned on the feat at his pre-match press conference, ahead of the Eagles' second trip to Old Trafford in five days, the manager reiterated that he has no qualms his side will travel to Manchester United with the right mentality after defeat there earlier this week.
Read on to find out what he had to say...
Click here to read Hodgson's team news updates ahead of the match.
“I try not to reflect on it too much really, because it wasn’t a game that went the way we’d like. It went very much the way United wanted it to go and they won deservedly.
“This is a new game and it’s a different team. We will make changes to our team to the one that played on Tuesday night.
“As far as I’m concerned, we will go up there with the same high hopes when one always has when they go to Old Trafford and I look forward to the game.
“It’s a fantastic football arena and we’re playing against one of the best clubs in the world. That’s something you should embrace and look forward to, rather than have doubts or fears about.
“The work we always do in terms of preparing our team has been done, and I’m more than satisfied the players are looking forward to the game and have the same attitude towards what the game as I have and the rest of the coaching staff.”
“I don’t think they’ll make many changes. They left three important attacking players in their team out of the game on Tuesday night and replaced them with very good players I might add.
“Players like [Marcus] Rashford, [Rasmus] Hojlund and [Bruno] Fernandes, who did not take part in the game, will perhaps be expecting to play in this one ,but I don’t know if there’ll be wholesale changes because the team Erik [ten Hag] put out on Tuesday was a strong one.”
“Is that so? That’s cheered me up a little bit I suppose!
“I don’t know if it makes it easier to make it five in the row, but it’s nice to know that whatever happens tomorrow I’ll have been unbeaten in four of the last five, and if I’m very lucky, I might be unbeaten in five.
“Funnily enough, as much as I, like all other coaches, have enormous respect for it as a stadium and the support Manchester United get, I have enormous respect that Manchester United deserve both as a club and a football team.
“It’s nice to know we’ve been able to burst their bubble on one or two occasions and we’ll certainly be trying to do that again.
“We don’t go there with any inferiority complex. We go there thinking the team that will start is capable of getting a result at Manchester United, just like we’ve believed in the past.
“Words are words and actions are actions and we’ll have to play very, very well if we are to get anything from the game.”
“The bigger the club, in terms of the support and the money the club generates and the amount of people who follow it, the pressure gets ramped up, but in fact – certainly Erik would agree with me – that whether you’re at Manchester United or a lower league club in England or Holland, to a certain extent the conundrum remains the same.
“You have to work very hard to prepare your team, you have to try and then live with what the team is doing on the field, and make the improvements that you can. In the meantime you have to accept from the outside there’ll be scrutiny and people telling you that you aren’t doing it the right way.
“The actual equation doesn’t change, it’s the volume and noise which changes, so if you get good at blocking out noise, I suppose it’s just a question of how strong your eardrums are!
“The noise has got greater because the number of television and radio channels has proliferated, but most importantly what used to be a written press is now a lot more than that: it’s written press, it’s social media, and loads of people who make a living by becoming podcasters and therefore experts on the particular club they follow.
“If you watch Sky Sports News, as I sometimes do, there’s always an expert on there who’s a podcaster on Man United, Crystal Palace, Chelsea, Fulham, et cetera, and that increases the noise because people listen to it and people have a tendency to often take on board what they’ve heard, not necessarily doing the amount of questioning which perhaps someone like myself would do from the outside.
“It’s part and parcel of life and is probably something which has generated more interest in the game. I remember when matches started to be televised, years ago, and one of the major fears was it would take away public support and attendances would drop. How wrong was that theory? You don’t see a game now in the Premier League, or top leagues abroad, which aren’t absolutely full to the rafters.
“This is all part and parcel of something which is pushing the game forward. Does it make life easier for the participants? Perhaps it doesn’t, but on the other hand we shouldn’t complain because we’ve got the benefit of playing in a good league, so well supported and with so many people interested, and being much better remunerated for our work now than those guys 30 or 40 years ago when all this was just kicking off.”
“Absolutely [I’ve been following it]! I’m just catching up on it now.
“I’ve not really had the chance to watch it as I would like to watch it, but I’ve been very pleased to see the Europeans starting so well.”
