Oliver Glasner says rediscovering the basics of Crystal Palace's desired playing style as a team has been key to their recent resurgence in results.
Following three games unbeaten in the space of last week, including wins over in-form sides Tottenham Hotspur and Aston Villa and a hard-fought draw at Wolverhampton Wanderers with an injury-hit squad, the manager is pleased with the characteristics his team are displaying.
Read on below to hear what Glasner had to say about Saturday's opponents, Fulham; facing off against the returning Joachim Andersen; and the opportunities Palace's recent injury troubles present to the wider squad...
We’ve got better results, especially with the win against Tottenham. But also we have to be honest to ourselves. I think we could have won games before which we didn't win.
And we also could have maybe had a draw against Tottenham because there was two big chances where Dean Henderson had two great saves.
The Wolves game maybe was similar to the Nottingham [Forest] game. Both teams had chances. At Nottingham we didn't score from our chances and conceded one. At Wolves we scored two after set-plays. I think we were always close to getting better results and in the last games we got better results.
I think I mentioned we could increase our intensity in the game, and this is crucial for how we want to play. It was difficult for the players without the pre-season and starting immediately and finding this high intensity.
Maybe we needed this time to get the players fit or get them into this shape so that they can play this style. We did it really better in the last games, but I also think that in the games before we were always close to getting better results, so we never were nervous about getting our results.
I think [on Monday, when Fulham scored twice in injury time to win 2-1] they had so many situations in the Brentford box that it was a question of time. And when there is eight minutes extra time added, it increases their chance to score a goal, because also they had many situations before where Brentford blocked the shots. I think at the end Fulham had more than 20 shots, so they were very dominant in this game.
They’ve played a really good season and had an excellent start. Then they also didn't have maybe the results they wanted, but overall it's a very good team, clear structure, great manager, having a lot of pace. Both full-back with [Antonee] Robinson and Tete, a lot of pace.
[Alex] Iwobi, [Reiss] Nelson, [Adama] Traoré, whoever plays on the wing, a lot of pace. Two clear No. 9s with [Raul] Jimenez or [Rodrigo] Muniz. [Emile] Smith-Rowe at 10, [Andreas] Pereira is also a very good midfielder…
They invested a lot in the summer and this is a really good team, but at the end, since we play at home at Selhurst, we feel in a good shape. We have confidence now back, and that means it will be a typical Premier League game, I would say, like it's in this season.
I don't expect being a team up 3 or 4-0 up at half-time. It will be a tough game for both teams until the end of the game and of course we hope that we have the better end.
It's just derbies – for me, it's a stranger when we have to travel!
There are seven Premier League teams in London, so we have 12 derbies in a season, and I don't feel a special excitement that we play Fulham.
I'm really looking forward to meeting Joachim Andersen again. Great guy. He had a very good time at Palace and he was also a great player for me and for our staff since we arrived – but there will be no friendship during the 90 or during the 100 minutes!
I think there are no secrets anymore about any player. If you get so many videos, you can get so many stats about every single player, so you know the strengths of every single player. You also know their weaknesses.
It's not about one player. I think, again, we have to show a great team performance to get the win that we are playing for, AND we have to control their strengths.
They’re the team with the most crosses, always trying to create overloads on the wing and then having a good number of players in the box. But on the other side also, I think we analyse pretty well where we can get our chances, and then it's do we use it? How can we transform it on the pitch?
And then being efficient, I'm really pretty sure, because this happens in every single game, we will create chances, and then if we have the right efficiency, I think we have good chances to win the game.
As always, you can see the glass half-empty or half-full. Yes, every manager, everyone in the club, in any club, wants all his players fit and available, and I think it's the same: everybody wants to be healthy and not to be sick.
But it's also a chance for other players to step up and to show that we can work as a team. I think our team did it excellently during the last week. We had a very tight schedule, three games within six days. Having two subs in the first-half at [Aston] Villa in the Carabao Cup and also getting the win there, and then going to Wolves.
I mentioned before the Wolves press conference: it's time to step up. And then all of a sudden we scored two goals after set-plays with two defenders. This is what we should have done or could have done better in the first games, scoring from set-plays. Now we did it.
It’s about the team performance. So yes, I would like to have everybody available, but I think especially in this phase of the year – it's November and when I look forward to the schedule in December and January, I think it's a challenge for every club – but that's why we don't start with 11 players.
We have a squad of 20 on-field players. We have good youngsters from the academy, so we will have a very competitive squad tomorrow against Fulham and we’ll go for the win.
Like always, you need the results and you need the momentum, and also the players could see. We showed them that they really found their intensity, and they are now at the fitness level you need.
It would be easy because then we don't need a pre-season – we don't need to train if everybody could do it straight from the beach – but it's not possible. I think it was a question of time to play how we want to play. We had a win and a draw, but we are still 17th in the league.
We have still many aspects that we can improve. I think we create a lot of chances. We were very stable in defending in the last games. At Wolves, we gave them too many clear opportunities, so that's also what we analysed and why and how we can avoid this or how we can do it better, and it's always about improving, improving.
But I'm really delighted that we have the basics back. We have the fitness level back because you need the basics.
Everybody in the staff, I think we are tactically really good, but we couldn't play a Premier League game because our legs won't do it again. The players, they have their legs now, they have their mind now because they got the results, and then it's to show it again.
I mentioned before he's a great manager. He has a clear structure in the game and also very variable, switching from a 4-2-3-1 to a 4-3-3, building up with a back three.
I like this and I think it also shows that the Premier League has not just the best players of the world, but maybe also the best managers, because every team has a clear structure and for me it's always nice to see.
That doesn't mean one structure is better than the other one, but it's just that every manager can implement his ideas and transform it and transport it to the players' minds, and so Marco Silva does an excellent job there.
