BY MAX HALL
With Premier League concussion protocols and the need to rest some Wembley heroes prompting changes to Crystal Palace’s line-up against Wolves last night, manager Oliver Glasner felt his side’s 4-2 victory showed they have a strong squad.
The FA Cup-winning Eagles will need strength in depth when they play in next season’s Europa League as a reward for lifting the FA Cup – the first major trophy in the club’s history – at Wembley on Saturday.
Defender Marc Guehi and midfielder Adam Wharton were rested for Palace’s last Selhurst Park outing of a historic season while Wembley starters Eberechi Eze, Jean-Philippe Mateta, Daichi Kamada and Tyrick Mitchell were benched.
That meant first starts for January recruits Ben Chilwell and Romain Esse, a full run-out for Eddie Nketiah and a final Palace start for club captain Joel Ward, who had played only 12 minutes of the season up to that point.
With Nketiah scoring a first-half double to wipe out Emmanuel Agbadou’s opener for Wolves, and Chilwell adding the third via a deflected free-kick, Glasner told the BBC: “We trust every single player.
‘Everybody contributed to the success – now having the best, highest points [for Palace] in the [Premier] League and winning the cup. It’s not possible with 11 players, you need everybody and you can see that for everybody it is possible to score a goal in our attacks.
“The squad attitude today is really great to see and the only thing to be critical is conceding two set-piece goals but, everything else, I was really pleased with what I could see today on the pitch.”
The Austrian said the continual demand to raise standards has helped Palace to their record Premier League points tally as well as proving critical to their trademark counter-attacking style.
On the points haul, the manager said: “This is the consequence, and the result of what we are always talking about. We’re always talking about our standards and to keep them high and beating them. Not to be satisfied and laid back. So, always making the next step, and this is what this group is always trying.
“It doesn’t mean that everything is perfect, I could see many things that were not perfect today but what we demand from each other. The effort, all the patterns… we scored three goals again after winning the ball.
“Everybody does his job, otherwise it wouldn’t work like this. It’s great to see that we could raise our personal standard, over the year, and this is what makes me proud.”
Goalkeeper Dean Henderson had revealed, in the aftermath of his penalty-saving cup-final heroics, that Glasner had challenged the squad to stay focused for the final two games of the season, at Selhurst Park last night and away to Liverpool on Sunday, in pursuit of the record points total.
Nevertheless, said Glasner, he could not be certain how his players would respond.
“We spoke about it before and, honestly, I didn’t know what you will see today and what you will get,” said the Austrian. “Huge credit to the players. From the beginning, we had a great energy on the pitch and it is not so easy, you know, after this huge achievement, without even having training, and so it’s really an outstanding and incredible group.”
And the former Wolfsburg and Eintracht Frankfurt manager revealed he has another secret weapon for next season’s European campaign – a wardrobe of lucky black sweaters.
“Stick to the colour,” he said. “That was my motto, and it worked!”
PICTURE: ALAMY
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