Crystal Palace centre-back Maxence Lacroix suffered an adductor injury in Thursday’s UEFA Conference League clash with Zrinjski. and it sounds like he’ll miss out on Sunday.
Chadi Riad also came off with cramp in that match, but Oliver Glasner said “all others look fine”.
“No [update on Lacroix]. It looked like yesterday, yes [he will miss out this weekend], but again, we will assess him further with training in the afternoon after the press conference. Then, we will see. He had to be subbed because he had problems with his adductor. He mentioned it at half-time already, so it doesn’t look good.” – Oliver Glasner on Maxence Lacroix
“It looks like we’ll have to change the back three again. It’s every single game. This was the foundation of everything we had, our backline, our togetherness. Right at the moment, we’re not that consistent in our defence.
“We are struggling to get clean sheets because we are making too many mistakes. This is what we have to improve, definitely, and the next chance is on Sunday but again, there will be three new players in the back three.” – Oliver Glasner
Elsewhere on the injury front, Jean-Philippe Mateta (knee) won’t be involved for another two-to-three weeks, while Jefferson Lerma (hamstring) has joined the injury list.
Meanwhile, Eddie Nketiah (hamstring) has had a setback and will be out for a “few more weeks”.
Cheick Doucoure (knee) was involved in training on Wednesday, although it’s not clear how close he is to a comeback. Sidelined for 12 months, he wasn’t involved on Thursday evening.
As for Glasner himself, reports suggest his tenure could be ended early. Asked about those rumours, the Palace boss didn’t exactly put them to bed.
“Right now, I’m just not good enough to replace the players we sold. I’m just not good enough to integrate the new players in a way that we can play the same way like we did. I’m not good enough that we can cope with the schedule we had.
“On the other side, I think I was good enough to play the best season ever, to win two trophies and also to look back on 32 points after 26 games. I looked back because I like to look back sometimes, in the last 10 years, Crystal Palace has been better twice. Once was our season last year, and the other one was in 2021. Never before, it was more or less between 25 and 29 points all the time.
“Let’s see [if I can be good enough to lead the club till the end of the season]. I always said – and this wasn’t the first press conference where I could just repeat myself – as a manager, you always depend on your players. They will get all the support like always, and then we will see.”
“Let’s see what the future brings. You never know.” – Oliver Glasner on if he still wants to be manager until the end of the season
“Yes, I feel so, yeah.” – Oliver Glasner on if he still has the “drive” to be manager until the end of the season
