Pathetic Palace Throw Two Goal Lead In Defeat To Burnley

Relegation threatened Burnley sprung a surprise at Selhurst Park after fighting back from two goals down to take all three points, leaving Palace shell shocked in another disappointing home defeat. 

MATCH INFORMATION

PLAYER RATINGS

UNUSED SUBSTITUTES – 17 Nathaniel CLYNE, 24 Borna SOSA, 44 Walter BENITEZ, 55 Justin DEVENNY

UNUSED SUBSTITUTES – 13 Max WEISS, 17 Loum TCHAOUNA, 18 Hjalmar EKDAL, 23 Lucas PIRES, 35 Ashley BARNES

POST GAME QUOTES

OLIVER GLASNER

“I can’t explain it. We gave the game away too easy. Maybe it was too easy. There was a lack of intensity and we didn’t defend well. We can’t show a consistent performance over 95 minutes very often. Once it’s this, once it’s that – and you get punished.

The start was good, scoring very nice goals. We controlled everything. I’ve watched all the goals back and it’s just not acceptable how we defended as a team – just jogging around, not in the duels, not in the second balls. In the second half we tried everything, but we don’t deserve to win.

I praise the boys very often for their effort. We had a great effort three days ago at Brighton, so it’s not about the character. I don’t know the reason, the players usually work hard.

When you throw the game away like we did, you don’t deserve to win.

Right now, we don’t have someone on the pitch who leads the team in these moments, who makes the players calm and decides about the meaning of the game – that’s why we lost.”

JORGEN STRAND LARSEN

“I thought it was going to be a special day – but I will always remember my first two goals here. It was a great feeling and the two assists were amazing. It shows what quality we have in the team.

Obviously for myself, getting the two first goals here was important. It’s been a long time now and I feel positive, I feel really at home here, and we must keep on working.

I felt like I could have scored last game, so that was a shame. I’ve been really pleased to come in here. I’m just going to keep on working hard and believe in myself, and that’s the most important thing. I think this team has the possibility to do great things and we’re not going to dig ourselves down under the ground because of a defeat.”

MATCH STATISTICS

TEB VERDICT

After the victory at the weekend, it felt to us all that the Eagles had turned a corner after a horrific run of form but following it up with this home defeat has left us shell shocked.

The result against Brighton was a much needed lift for all concerned which was extinguished in a matter of minutes by a team that are staring relegation square in the face with little hope of survival.

It all started so well with new signing Jorgen Strand Larsen bagging his first goals for the club with everything ticking over nicely. Then came the sucker punch, a mad five minutes of awful defending saw the visitors score three times in the final five minutes of the first half.

Palace never recovered from that with recruits from the bench introduced only manging to provide a disjointed formation that was huffing and puffing but only really finding a way to test the goalkeeper later when an Ismaila Sarr was tipped over.

The defeat leaves a lot of questions as the Eagles head into a break this weekend leading into the Conference League play off in Bosnia next Thursday.

It was the manner of this defeat that was a concern particularly as it was mainly down to defensive frailties that have been evident even before skipper Marc Guehi was sold to Manchester City last month. On top of that, Glasner has been found wanting tactically several times this season, particularly when coming up against a low block.

The Austrian has pointed towards a lack of leadership in those moments, and while Palace can feel rightly aggrieved about a handball not given in the build up to one of the goals, all players on the pitch need to take responsibility. The reaction to conceding the first goal seemed to really get into their heads and they never recovered which the visitors sensed.

You could question the captaincy being handed to Dean Henderson, which does not question his leadership on and off the pitch, but is a goalkeeper a sensible choice instead of an outfield player? Many would prefer the latter, but that is no excuse for the defeat. As Glasner rightly said, it was unacceptable but you do wonder whether his decision to leave the club in the summer is having a bigger effect than many think.

LEAGUE POSITION

UPCOMING FIXTURES