Oliver Glasner praises Crystal Palace team intensity as season nears end

BY ANDREW MCSTEEN

Crystal Palace boss Oliver Glasner admits he was not expecting the level of intensity shown by his players in their 2-0 win over Newcastle United on Wednesday and is looking for them to keep it up until the end of the season.

Just four games remain, starting with Fulham on Saturday, with the win at home against Newcastle the third in a row for the Eagles, ensuring mathematical safety.

And the Austrian boss was pleasantly surprised about the high pressing nature of his side last Wednesday.

“They like to do it, they feel on the pitch that it helps them, that it increases the chance to win the game, so you will never do something where you think it’s bad for you,” said Glasner about the intensity of his side shown earlier this week.

“Everybody who watched the game saw there’s a very intrinsically-motivated team playing to win. I was really surprised about the intensity we started the game. It was their passion. It was the players attitude, the players motivation to perform like this and this is the way we want to show again [against Fulham].

“It shows that we – maybe – have convinced them that this way of playing helps us in winning games. Everybody wants to win the game. Every sportsman, when he enters the pitch, the centre court, wants to win.”

The Glasner way of playing, with three centre-backs, two wing-backs pushing up high, one-touch passing and not allowing opposition players time on the ball, is now paying dividends with that trio of wins.

But the last two have come as part of three games in six days, starting with a 5-2 win at home against West Ham last Sunday, followed by that Newcastle win.

And with Fulham away on Saturday, you could be forgiven for Glasner being concerned that they intensity might drop off, but far from it, admitted the 49-year-old.

“It’s our (coaching staff) responsibility to get the players there so that they can play at this level for 100 minutes,” said Glasner, who moved to the South London outfit in February. “[In post-match analysis] we showed to them that it was a season-high in intense runs and sprinting distance – and this is three days after the West Ham game.

“So this was nothing to do with physicality. They were ready, they were mentally ready. They can do this otherwise, it would be impossible now, at the end of April, to have these season high [figures] in these parameters. We showed this to them and said, ‘guys you are ready, so do it’. 

“When they see this; when they work together, when they work so hard as a group – JP (Jean-Philippe Mateta) mentioned to me after the (Newcastle) game, he said ‘I had to run so much’, I said ‘yeah, but here’s the reward: scoring two goals’ – it gives me a very good feeling.”