Crystal Palace boss explains defender switch in Bournemouth defeat – with USA international sidelined for upcoming Manchester City game

Oliver Glasner has confirmed that Chris Richards will be out for the next 2-3 weeks with an injury the Crystal Palace defender picked up in 1-1 draw at Nottingham Forest.

Richards, 24, missed Tuesday night’s 1-0 defeat at Bournemouth, with Jefferson Lerma switching to the back three alongside Joachim Andersen and Joel Ward.

Will Hughes started his first game under Glasner next to January signing Adam Wharton.

Academy midfielder David Ozoh came on at centre-back, having played during the mid-season break in that role in wins over Bodo/Glimt and Millwall.

Ozoh lost the battle against Antoine Semenyo for Bournemouth’s winner, who beat the 18-year-old and crossed for Justin Kluivert to score.

“We had to prepare the last weeks knowing we missed several players in defence,” said Glaner, who is also without Marc Guehi, Rob Holding, Jairo Riedewald and Nathan Ferguson.

“Chris Richards is injured. He will be out for the next two to three weeks. We didn’t want to change the formation because the players did it well – we were compact and created our chances.

“Jefferson has played that role several times at Bournemouth, so it’s not new. Will had a very good game but he was a little bit tired. 

“We decided to get Jefferson back into his usual position and put David back there. He played that position in friendlies against Bodo/Glimt and Millwall.

“It would be too easy to blame him for the goal. This situation cost us one point because we didn’t score.”