**Q: What was your message to the players when you first arrived at Palace?**
A: It was not to rush in and say ‘from here we change everything.’
There were many good and positive things already here. And also adjust the things we want to improve, but step by step. We also had many injured players, so it was also not to overload them.
And then we decided, okay let’s give them a maximum of one message per week, in terms of what we want to change, it's not too much. If we give too many messages, then we are in a situation where the players start to think, what should I do? What do I have to do? This makes you slow – and we can't afford to be slow in a game.
I have a few, I would describe them as non-negotiables. And this is, that the team is number one.
I like and love all the egos we have in the team. And we need all the egos, but we all need the egos for the team. The first message from me was to say that, I accept every mistake. It's no problem. We are human beings. We make so many mistakes. It's no problem. But if somebody does something against the team, he's out.
This is the only non-negotiable thing we have. We have great characters. We have great egos, but they use their egos for the good of the wider team.
We want to see their strengths because I believe if somebody always tells you that you must do something you can't do, you lose a lot of confidence.
For example, if you told me, ‘Oliver, sing’ I lose a lot of confidence because I can't sing! And it's the same with the players.
So, we try to make it possible for the players play in positions where they can show their strengths, where they can express themselves, and have confidence in what they're doing.
We are always accepting that they can make some mistakes, that they can make wrong decisions, because this is also part of the game.