Crystal Palace Manager Glasner Highlights Cost of Mistakes Against Elite Opponents

Crystal Palace manager Oliver Glasner shared his thoughts with Sky Sports following the team’s recent defeat, remarking on the unpredictable nature of football: “In football, sometimes it’s crazy.” He drew a comparison between the first-half performance and a previous match at the Emirates in the Carabao Cup, stating, “When I compare the performance in the first-half, to [how we played at] the Emirates [in the Carabao Cup], it was far better today.” Despite the improved display, his team was “3-1 down,” whereas they had held the lead in the earlier fixture, leading him to conclude it was “crazy because I thought we did many things well.” Glasner detailed the nature of the goals conceded: “The first goal was a cross, the second was a set-play and the third was a cross where we don’t mark the man.” He attributed the defensive lapses to poor execution, adding, “We defended the box terribly and the quality of their players they punished us.” He emphasized the high standards required against top-tier opposition, asserting, “If you want to beat a team like Arsenal, everything has to be almost perfect, it was not good enough today.” The manager expressed disappointment with the outcome despite creating opportunities. “We created chances but the result is disappointing. In the box, there were too many times where we watched the players.” Addressing the team’s inability to convert chances, Glasner acknowledged the difficulty of securing a positive result after conceding multiple goals: “When you concede five goals, it is unlikely you get a point!” He recalled significant missed opportunities, noting, “at 2-1 down we had a big chance and before they scored a third goal. We had big chances in the second-half, then they scored the fourth and the game was over.” Glasner admitted the team’s morale suffered after the fourth goal. “We lost the belief to come back again, but we gifted them the goals and it’s not easy to come back.” Despite the loss, he identified positive aspects from the initial period of the game: “From the first 60 minutes, we can take a lot of positives. We have to defend the box [better] but everything else was one of our best performances. The pressure we gave them, the balls we were winning in possession, how we move the ball and how many chances we created.” He concluded with a crucial lesson for his squad: “Of course we will learn from it. We have to learn that when you give the top teams a crumb, they take the whole cake!”