Yahoo News What really 'hurt' Oliver Glasner about Crystal Palace defeat after Everton boos
Crystal Palace manager Oliver Glasner admitted throwing away a 1-0 advantage hurt more because his team dealt with the initial set-pieces from Everton. The 2-1 win was the first time the Blues have come from behind to pick up three points under Sean Dyche.
More importantly it was also their first win of the 2024-25 Premier League campaign. But after taking the lead for the first time this season, Palace are left waiting for their maiden victory of the term.
Glasner was appointed manager of the south London outfit on the day of their previous trip to Goodison Park - a 1-1 draw on February 19 this year in which he watched from the Main Stand.
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But having replaced Roy Hodgson, who stepped down earlier on the same day, he did not take control of the Eagles until they defeated Burnley 3-0 at Selhurst Park in their next fixture.
That result was the first of seven victories for Palace under the Austrian, who triumphed in six of their last seven matches, but he has been unable to replicate that form so far this season.
The 50-year-old said: “We’re not pleased by having this start (to the season). I think everybody forgot because of the last seven games of last season, we’ve been in the same situation seven rounds before the end of the season.
“We don’t want to be there, we’re not happy to be there and we’re not happy that we don’t have a win. You can also see the players investing a lot to score a goal, to create situations and even after it was 2-1 we tried everything but at the moment it’s not going so easy.
“Their goals were two second balls after set-plays. I thought we didn’t give them many chances from open play, and we didn’t give them many chances in transition.
“They were dangerous on set-plays, we knew this and twice we defended it which makes it hurt much more because we defended the set-plays and conceded the goals after clearances hurts even more than when they score a goal in an area they are really good in.”
Glasner, whose team took the lead through captain Marc Guehi on 10 minutes, was left to rue Everton’s quickfire turnaround early in the second half as Dwight McNeil netted twice on 47 and 54 minutes.
He said: “I think we controlled most of the first half and then we had a bad 15 minutes straight after the kick-off for the second half. We lost the game in these 15 minutes and we lost the momentum.
“At the end of the first half I could hear the crowd booing a little bit and they were not really pleased with the performance of the home team and we gave the momentum to Everton straight after half-time.
“It was an easy goal and our mistake, with a long ball from Pickford, and the same after kick-off, a long ball and a stupid foul in the corner, we cleared the free-kick but then lose the ball again and a great finish.
“They got the belief back and they got the momentum. The second goal is again a second phase after a set play with a free-kick and we clear it and we’re not ready for the second ball.
“We lost the game. We tried everything and the players did everything until the end of the game but you could see we got a little bit nervous at the end and wanted to get the equaliser, but we didn’t find the right spaces and they defended with everything they had and celebrated every clearance in their own box, so yeah, in 15 minutes we lost the game, it was really disappointing.”
The former Wolfsburg and Eintracht Frankfurt head coach added: “I don’t know if we really had the ball in the second half. We said, ‘let’s continue playing like this, be ready for the long balls, be ready for the set-plays, everything is very good’.
“Everton is very good with this. They have scored many goals already this season but have conceded too much.
“If you conceded too many goals and we conceded two, it’s not too easy to take a point. There were many parts of this game where it looked like we wouldn’t lose which makes it more disappointing.”
