OLIVER Glasner highlighted Crystal Palace’s set-piece frailties after their 2-0 Premier League defeat to Newcastle United at St James’ Park stretched their winless run to seven games in all competitions.
Bruno Guimaraes and Malick Thiaw scored in the second half as the Magpies went above the fourteenth-place Eagles into ninth.
Outside the relegation zone, Palace have the third-worst record of goals scored from set-pieces minus goals conceded.
“A disappointing defeat, disappointing result,” Glasner said. “The most disappointing part for me is conceding another two goals from set-plays – five of our last six defeats, we just conceded goals from set-plays, and then you can’t win games. This is what we have to get sorted.
“It’s my responsibility, together with my staff, to give the players better solutions, that they feel more comfortable and can defend this in a better way.
“It’s always a second phase where we are not really structured and then conceding goals, because there’s many parts of the game I was really pleased today. I think we played really well. [Apart from] maybe the last five or six, seven minutes, when we went all in to get our goal – before that, we didn’t give them chances from open play. We defended really well.
“On the other side, we created a few good situations, with a big chance straight before half-time.
“With all the circumstances, you know, making a concussion sub in the first-half, making another substitution straight after half-time due to injury problems with [Nathaniel] Clyney, and then showing a performance where I think a point was possible…
“But we have to solve the problem of conceding goals from set-plays so often.”
“There are a few explainable reasons. Maybe with Chris Richards [injured], we don’t have one of our best headers in the box available. With Ismaïla Sarr [at AFCON], who plays a key role on the near post and is also quite tall.
“He’s not here, and [injured] Dani Muñoz was a good presence with his physicality… and then losing one of our best headers in the first-half with Jeff Lerma because, for example, when he got injured, it was the same ball where we conceded a goal in the second-half, and he just cleared it because he’s really great in these situations. We don’t have so many headers like this.
“On the other side, this won’t change until Wednesday. This won’t change until Macclesfield [next week], and it’s my job to find better solutions.”
Brennan Johnson made his Palace debut after his £35million move from Tottenham Hotspur.
“I was pleased with his debut. He showed what he would bring to the team,” Glasner said.
“Of course, I could see in a few situations that his understanding with his team-mates was not here after one day of training, when he’s trained with [just] half of the group, but he will definitely help us in the games.
“I was pleased with his debut and performance today.”
