OLIVER Glasner urged his side not to be so shot-shy after their 1-0 defeat to AFC Bournemouth at the Vitality Stadium on Tuesday night.
Substitute Justin Kluivert fired past Dean Henderson for the only goal of the game eleven minutes from time to earn the hosts a fourth win in five games.
Despite sharing the possession, the Eagles only managed three attempts at goal, two on target, compared to eleven and six, respectively, for Andoni Iraola’s side.
Eberechi Eze did have the ball in the net in the first half but the goal was ruled out for offside.
Palace are not out of relegation danger though have an eight-point buffer to the bottom three.
“If you don’t score a goal, you can’t win and then the maximum is a 0-0,” Glasner said. “One situation decided the game and it was not on our side.
“We maybe have to blame ourselves in that we didn’t have enough finishes. We had many good situations here – four against two in the first half, two against one – where we didn’t even have a finish.
“So you need to shoot, you need to have a finish to score a goal and this is maybe where we have to improve, to be more decisive in our offensive actions, in our situations that we have.
“But we have this every game, and it’s not just one, it is four, five or six times we have it, but at the end we didn’t score and then one situation for Bournemouth decided the game.
“I would worry about it if we don’t have the situations to score, but we have them. I think we played really well in the second half, and we controlled the game.
“Their goal was the first shot in the second half for them, so we controlled the game but controlling [isn’t enough]. We have to create more power in the opposition box, more directness to the goal, not passing again and again.
“Especially in this weather, with the wind and the rain, the pitch was very quick and wet, so take the shots! This is what we have to talk about and what we have to improve.”
Glasner hasn’t won in four games since defeating Burnley 3-0 in his first in charge. And it doesn’t get any easier as Palace host Manchester City in Saturday’s early kick-off.
Glasner said: “I will concentrate on our performance and on what we have to do. We know that on Saturday City come to Selhurst.
“It’s a game where we don’t have a lot of possession, but again I’m sure we will get situations. Maybe we don’t get eight, but we will get three or four, and then it’s important to be very efficient.
“This is important. If you are efficient you have the chance to win against Man City, but if you are not efficient like we were today you can lose everywhere.”
