The manager also discussed Villans boss Unai Emery, and how he expects the opposition to play; his side's performances so far this season; and areas Palace are targeting for improvement...
The key quotes from Glasner's pre-Aston Villa press conference
Crystal Palace travel to Aston Villa on Saturday afternoon hoping to repeat their victory there in the Carabao Cup last month – with manager Oliver Glasner discussing the challenges posed by the upcoming winter fixture schedule in his pre-match press conference...
“I have a lot of appreciation for Unai Emery”
Glasner could become the first manager to win three games in a row against Unai Emery since Zinedine Zidane in 2018.
To be compared with Zinedine Zidane… I thought you compared me when I was a player and he was a player, but there's nothing in common with us!
I have a lot of appreciation for Unai Emery. In every club he managed, you can see how he wants to play, you can see what he wants to do, and everywhere he was successful.
It's the same with Aston Villa. When you analyse the game, the style of playing is always the same, because it's how the manager wants to play, so this is very positive for Unai Emery. On the other side, it makes it sometimes a little bit easier in preparing the game and creating a plan, but to be honest, when we create a plan we always [aim to] win the game.
But on the other side, we were not that successful this season, in winning any game, so it's the same. The one thing is the plan we have, analysing is the second thing, and the most important and decisive part is the transformation on the pitch.
I think Aston Villa want to compete for the Champions League places in the league, and I don't know which position they are at the moment, but for them it's clear they're playing for three points at home against Crystal Palace, and we're playing for three points for Crystal Palace.
“Pep is maybe the best”
Pep Guardiola has signed a new contract with Manchester City.
You could see when Jurgen Klopp left [Liverpool] and a new manager came in, it was not a big difference. They're again playing for winning the Premier League, before and also now.
Pep is maybe the best, maybe the most successful manager in the Premier League in the last decade, or almost decade. But on the other side, we don't have to worry about Pep that he doesn't find a job. If he wants, he can do everything in the world that he wants to do, and he decided to stay in the rainy Manchester, so it's a good decision for him!
“It’s always challenging to manage the games”
Of course, we want all our players to be available and be fit. But we didn't expect it in that way that we started without injuries, and all of a sudden we had [lots] in a staccato.
Yes, now we want them back, but on the other side, we have now the Villa game, then we have one full week, but then we have Newcastle, Ipswich and [Manchester] City, and we also know when players are coming back.
You asked me about Eberechi [Eze] before – we know he can't play all three games for 90 minutes. And this will be the same with Jeff Lerma, it will be the same with Cheick Doucouré, it will be the same with Chris Richards, it will be the same with Eddie Nketiah, whom we hope he will be available in this [upcoming] week.
It's positive that they are back, they are available, but on the other side, it's always challenging to manage the games, because when you know he's a starter, but he can play a maximum of 60 minutes, or if he's on the bench, but he shouldn't be longer than 30, because you want to make subs to have an influence in the game, and not just to be aware of no more injuries.
This is the tricky situation, but this is how it is, and we try to deal the best with it.
“You have no influence on their mindset”
Aston Villa go into Saturday’s game off the back of four defeats in a row in all competitions.
We could say the opposite: ‘they have won the four in a row, they are in the flow, they have so much confidence.’ Is it any easier to go to Villa Park and win there? I don't think so.
But we don't think about it, you have no influence on their mindset, but it's clear, again, whatever the games before, how the results were, when Aston Villa plays at home against Crystal Palace, the plan is three points, that's clear. This is the only thing that we know, they will play for winning the game, they will play in their style, because they always play in their style.
This is what I really admire with Unai Emery: his fantastic job he's doing with his staff. Set-plays, I admire what they are doing, so creative, it's great. But we had a good game to analyse: our cup game there, we know that maybe they had a lot of rotation, but the style of playing was the same, and I think also they have some doubts, some injured players.
This is now the end of November, it's the same for any club, and that's why I don't think that it changes the way Villa enters the game, and it doesn't change the way we enter the game.
We looked a lot at [our Carabao Cup win at Villa Park three weeks ago], again because what they are doing is always the same, the style, with their going from a back four and their build-up to a back three, pushing the left full-back high.
It was Ian [Maatsen] against us, we expect [Lucas] Digne tomorrow; playing with the left winger more in the pocket, it was [Jaden] Philogene again in the Carabao, we expect [John] McGinn tomorrow; and always trying to find the players in the pocket, having a lot of runs in behind, with Ollie Watkins we expect tomorrow, it was John Duran, also not a very bad player. That's how they always play.
We prepared our players as good as possible, and then if we play in a compact shape, they always attack in a 4-4-2, it's also the same, when you play with a high five, one of the wingers has to drop, so this is how they played against [Club] Brugge, this is how they played against Tottenham, this is how they played against us.
The numbers of the players are different, but the patterns are the same, so again, in the preparation, you get a lot of things you already know, but we need the quality of our players, we need the belief of our players, we need the confidence of our players, and I'm sure we will get our situations there, and then it's again about efficiency.
We didn't have the best game against Fulham, but we had enough opportunities to get at least a draw, but we didn't take them in this game, so that's why we lost with mistakes, and this is how, at the end, football is working.
“This is creativity”
That's why we gave [the players a week] off [during the November international break] – for all of us, also for the staff. I said to the doctor, ‘come on, you need it’, because he's here, it looks like 24 hours, seven days a week, so when we are off, he's with the injured players, and everybody needs this.
You need time to think about it, you need influence. If you always have just this corridor you are looking at, how can you have creativity? Because this is your truth, this corridor is your truth, but you don't see what's right or next from you, you don't see what's behind you, sometimes you have to turn around, look at it, think about it, or don't think about it.
You can't tell a musician, tomorrow from 7 to 9 you write a song, but maybe he wakes up at 3 in the morning, and he writes it from 3 to 5. This is the same with an author.
The players, when you see them playing, sometimes they are like artists. It's unbelievable what they are doing, the finishing and some movements, and this is not where you say: ‘you make two twists and then somersault backwards, and you score a goal.’
When I see the goal against Tottenham, how Ebbs prepared with his heel behind his back, after the cross, this is creativity. You can't tell him to do this. He decides in the moment, and it was a great decision, and the execution was unbelievable – and then JP gets the ball in an area where I think nine of 10 times he scores a goal. This is what I mean.
When it's always structure, you lose your creativity, and I think this is something in development, and I think it's important in school, with the children, it's important in sports with children, that when you always tell them what they have to do, they lose their creativity.
Yes, it is [necessary] to find the right balance, because you need some borders, but within these borders, you should move freely, and this is what I meant.
“We are competitive in any single game”
Yesterday we were sitting several hours, and getting all the data from our first 11 games.
If we had performed in the same way we did the last seven games [of last season], we would win the Premier League, and so I think nobody expected that we will win the Premier League this season.
But the interesting thing is, that many of our possession data are very similar to our, not just the last six or seven games, but the last 13 games when we arrived.
What is clear when you see is we are dramatically underperforming in xG in scoring goals. We have better pressing numbers. In conceding goals, [in] not just the last seven games, or the last 13, we concede less than we conceded on average over the whole of last season. But we have fewer points, and that's the fact, and that means we can't ignore this.
In the end, we are really thinking a lot, and analysing, and trying to turn the right wheels, but it's not that we want and will change everything. Again we are competitive in any single game, and sometimes football is like this.
[Against Fulham] in the 45th minute, Joachim Andersen makes a clearance off the line, and one minute later, we make a terrible mistake, and we are 1-0 down at half-time, and also we know, if you have a lead in the Premier League, I think more than 60% of [the time], you don't lose the game, so many situations we don't take for us at the moment, when we have them. I could explain many more: at Wolves, after the 1-0, the crowd was booing, with two unbelievable chances for deciding the game with the second goal, we didn't, and we conceded a goal, and then the game changes.
And so we have to get more consistent in reducing our mistakes, in the defence. We have to get more efficient in our attacking, and then we will get more confidence back, and then I think the game will be more fluid, if this is the right word.
We are always changing. Every game, we are changing our starting line-up, we have to change the starting line-up, and then new players here, new players there, and that’s a little bit about the issues we have at the moment.
Match Details
- Aston Villa v Palace
- Premier League
- Saturday, 23rd November, 15:00 GMT
- Villa Park
- Live audio commentary on Palace TV+