By John Kelly
OLIVER Glasner felt a lack of patience was the problem as Crystal Palace failed to break down a ten-man Leeds United side that missed a penalty in their 0-0 draw at Selhurst Park.
Leeds forward Dominic Calvert-Lewin failed to test Premier League debutant goalkeeper Walter Benítez as he dragged his spot-kick wide after Will Hughes was penalised for handling from a corner.
Daniel Farke’s side then had left wing-back Gabriel Gudmundsson sent off five minutes into first-half added-time for a second booking for a foul on Ismaila Sarr.
Palace striker Jean-Philippe Mateta came on an hour in and had the hosts’ best chance when his deflected effort forced Leeds stopper Karl Darlow to parry the ball away.
The Eagles had a goal disallowed with twelve minutes left when Jefferson Lerma finished from close range, but Brennan Johnson was offside in the build-up.
“We’re not 100 per cent happy or pleased with the result, and also not with the performance, to be fair,” Glasner said.
“But we have to accept it. I think it was a very physical and intense first half, and then after the red card, second half, we had a lot of possession, but we moved the ball too slow, that’s a topic we have. We know are talking about it, we are trying to improve in training.
“For me, it looks like when we are in this situation we get a little bit nervous, we know we want to score, we need to score, we want to score, and then we just make wrong decisions.
“We are in a rush where we don’t have to be in a rush, and then giving the ball away, we should stay calmer and prepare the situation, and wait for our situation, especially in the final third, getting in the structure that we are also well-organised behind the ball, because today we delivered the cross, they cleared it, we were not in the right positions, we made a foul, they had the next long ball.
“Then we win the header, but they got the next long throw-in, and this is just to control it better, you need to stay in your structure and be patient.
“This is what it seems to be, that we are losing our patience in these situations, and then we are not that dominant, and of course on the other side it’s to move the ball quicker and getting more players in the dangerous areas, and this is what we missed today.”
Darlow’s save from Mateta’s effort was the only one he had to make as Palace struggled to break down the ten men.
Glasner added: “We had it in two or three games where we didn’t do well. At Nottingham [Forest], we played one half with a player more, we didn’t score, it was today, and I think it was against Wolves.
“On the other side we did very well against Tottenham, and I think it’s just a kind of progress we need to do to show this more consistently, staying patient and relying that we will create our situations, because sometimes it’s not so easy to play against ten men.
“We won the game here against Brighton last season with nine players, and then when you defend it very deep, with good box defending, it’s sometimes not so easy. Then we need to be patient and wait for the situation, which we did very well against Wolves. Then we scored the decisive goal.
“Today we were close after this great set play, but yes, we know this is a part of our game we have to improve, this is what we will work on, but at the end, next clean sheet, getting a point, we wanted three, but today I think we have to accept the point.”
Palace are in Conference League action away to AEK Larnaca on Thursday (March 19). The tie is poised at 0-0 following the first leg.
