Oliver Glasner sat down to conduct his post-match media duties in the wake of Crystal Palace’s 2-2 away draw with Aston Villa and a wry smile appeared on his face. Fleeting though it was, his reaction gave away more than his words.
He speaks passionately, with genuine interest and tactical awareness. There is a reason why Palace were convinced to appoint him back in February after Roy Hodgson’s departure. There’s also a reason why they won six of their final seven games last season — and it’s not just Michael Olise being very good at football.
Glasner has not yet found the same rhythm or achieved the same success with his tactics in the early stages of this season as he did in those games and he acknowledges he must produce solutions to Palace’s current predicament — in the relegation zone with a single win from their first 12 league matches.
Those who knew Glasner at SV Ried, his first crack at management a decade ago after a long playing career for that Austrian side, never doubted his acumen. He outgrew the club quickly with his focus on analytics and innovative tactical approach. The “best German-speaking manager after Jurgen Klopp” is how he was described by his former coach and mentor Klaus Roitinger.
Whatever the accuracy of that, Glasner must show he can adapt and that he can find a way to get the best out of a difficult situation with so many Palace players unavailable to him. His complaint before Saturday’s match at Villa Park was that his side are too slow in their build-up play.
It was a reasonable cross to bear and is the primary reason for their failings this season — at least when considering things that are within their control. Ponderous and cumbersome in their attacking movements, failing to carry the ball forward quickly, to play sufficiently incisive passes or to make their way in behind defences enough.
That, however, changed against Villa. It was as if Glasner had become the American magician David Copperfield, who he mentioned in his first press conference as Palace manager, and flicked the switch on his players at the right time in optimal circumstances.
“In the build-up, we played too slowly, we took too many touches, we didn’t move the ball quickly enough,” he had said of previous Palace games in his pre-Villa press conference. “The distances were too long, especially between the back three because we always had a 25-yard pass (to make). This gives the other team time to shift.
“We had three, four or five touches, and all the spaces were closed. We need (shorter) distances, giving more opportunities for a pass then it’s all about making runs in behind. It’s not just the speed of attacking, but the speed of passing, with fewer touches, having better distances, staying connected. We were too often isolated in possession, this is what we showed (the players).”
Perhaps now there is a better way to utilise Ismaila Sarr. His goal and assist against Villa were warranted by an industrious, threatening individual performance in which his darting runs behind perfectly exploited the space and played on Palace’s swift movement of the ball. Even in the final third, there were signs of progress in offloading possession at the right time to draw defenders out of position.
“In some moments today we did it better, in some moments I wish we had done it more,” Glasner said. “Switching the side, because we always had this overload. We didn’t find it as often as I would like.”
Daichi Kamada was suspended after his red card against Fulham and his ban also covers the next two games at home against Newcastle United and away to Ipswich Town. That presents an opportunity for Palace to do things differently. Summer signing Kamada has failed to make an impact as a No 10, and is part of their problem in terms of the build-up play being too slow. It is the movement of the front players that has also caused issues — not creating those spaces for team-mates to hit passes to them earlier.
Villa play a high line under manager Unai Emery, and that can be exploited. Palace did it expertly on Saturday, even if Glasner felt it was not perfect. Whether that is possible against many other teams in the division is less certain.
Glasner speaks frequently of a need to find solutions to problems. That is what Palace achieved against Villa, but if they are to solve their attacking woes on a consistent basis then this must only be part of the answer. The goals by Sarr and Justin Devenny at least moved them into double figures in the league this season, level with Everton (who have not scored in their past three games) and with only last-placed Southampton (nine) producing fewer.
His post-match grin reflected a sense of positivity. Despite twice leading the game yet leaving Birmingham with only a point, the changes in how his side played were successful. After the disappointment of the defeat by Fulham in the previous match before the November international break, there is now almost a sense that Palace might be edging closer to rediscovering some of the things that made them so potent in attack late last season.
Confidence is still fragile but at least for now they finally have a reason to smile again, to feel like progress is being made where it is most desperately needed.
Maybe this is where they turn the corner.
(Top photo: Eddie Keogh/Getty Images)
