The Oliver Glasner era feels like it truly arrived against Manchester City for Crystal Palace in a really solid performance.
With a scoreline of 4-2, Crystal Palace were defeated by Pep Guardiola’s treble winners, although it wasn’t that simple.
Despite losing, the performance itself – at times – was probably the best we’ve seen under Oliver Glasner.
For large periods of the game, Palace gave Manchester City a run for their money and even a few frights after Jean-Philippe Mateta scored the opening goal.
In the game, there was a clear plan and emphasis on pressing high, which even saw Adam Wharton force a near-costly mistake out of Rodri.
After this performance, Marc Guehi‘s verdict on the biggest improvement under Glasner makes all the more sense.
Here’s what he said…
Marc Guehi explains how Oliver Glasner has changed Crystal Palace
Before the game on TNT Sports, Guehi was asked what he thinks has changed the most under Glasner.
To this, he had a simple response which Palace showed in-game for large periods of the match.
“A lot of running. Intensity, and we needed that drive in our game.”
The high-intensity game is a vast contrast to the football which Palace played under Roy Hodgson and Palace is finally beginning to see the rewards.
The first goal was exactly how Glasner will be dreaming up his goals coming, with the ball being won back and quickly counter-attacked.
Palace was also a Wharton pass away from potentially making it 2-0 in similarly intense circumstances.
But this isn’t the only improvement Glasner has made.
Glasner has elevated the mentality
After the game, Glasner wasn’t exactly thrilled but rather was pleased with how competitive his side were.
But he also explained what his side needed to do in order to win a game like that.
“We are competitive against any team and this gives me confidence again.
“Also, in every single game since we are here, we’ve had three, four, five great opportunities to score.
“We scored two today, but at the end, we have to be more compact to win such a game.”
This kind of mentality is so refreshing compared to the Hodgson mentality which saw fans labelled as ‘spoilt’.
The future is starting to look very bright.
