A year of Oliver Glasner at Crystal Palace: Impatience, NIPSILD and Danish pastries

Oliver Glasner is a creature of habit.

Every week, at the end of his pre-match press conference, the Crystal Palace manager strides past the exit to the rear of the room, picks up a Danish pastry from the spread provided for the media, and expresses gratitude to his audience that one has been saved for him.

Then he departs, preserved patisserie in hand, back out into the training complex with work to be done.

Finding time for those snacks, made in-house by the club chef, has become part of his routine. The press briefings tend to last around 40 minutes, with the Austrian speaking with conviction and knowledge. Eye contact is rarely broken with those posing the various questions. Answers are delivered honestly and, considering English is his second language, with an impressive level of detail.

It is now a year since Glasner’s appointment at Palace. He has softened over the 12 months, his personality and natural charisma emerging over time. His passion, too, is there for all to see — especially when discussing tactics. But amid the detailed analysis and off-the-record thoughts, he is not afraid to crack the odd joke.

Any preconceived idea that the 50-year-old might be a cold, straight-down-the-line manager who plays it safe has been dispelled.

Glasner is intense, emotional, and has a thirst for knowledge and self-improvement which he extends to his assistants and players. He demands high standards.

Even the most casual glance to the Palace bench during matches shows as much. He is forever turning to his staff and throwing his arms in the air, either exasperated or calling for more urgency. He looks to the sky or, in the event Daniel Munoz scores a late equaliser, races to the corner flag to celebrate with his team.

He has settled well in Palace’s corner of south London.

It is not home, he says — that will always be Austria, where his family remain. An avid skier, he often returns to his homeland when the squad are given time off and he maintains the link with SV Riedau, the club at which he began playing and coaching, by watching them play whenever he can. But Palace are his home from home, and he is making the place his own.

His eagerness for improvement does not lean too far into micromanagement. Glasner does not, he stressed last week, “cut up (the players’) meat” or set strict instructions for them to have lunch at the training ground. Even so, letting things happen in their own time is not his forte.

“I’m not really a patient guy,” Glasner said on the eve of Palace’s 2-1 defeat by Everton on Saturday. “I had to get really patient here with the 20 miles (per hour — 32kph — speed limit on some British roads). I paid (a speeding fine) I think four times at the beginning but now, for six months (no more tickets). So I got patient in driving. If I had continued like I was at the beginning, I would be banned.

“There will be moments where I overreact because of my impatience. When I’m at home in the evening and I think about it, I come in the next day and apologise. I’m driven by this impatience. It also helps others to push. Maybe also the club. Sometimes maybe it’s a little bit too much. It’s not so easy for my staff. But they know me and they also know that they don’t need to (take it to heart).”

If patience is not for him, he has had to ask it of others since replacing Roy Hodgson at Selhurst. A 3-0 win over Burnley in his first game in charge was followed by five games without a victory. The manner of a disappointing 1-0 defeat at Bournemouth in particular caused concern.

Glasner, flanked by chairman Steve Parish and director of football Dougie Freedman, watches Palace draw at Everton (Chris Brunskill/Fantasista/Getty Images)

There was an acceptance among Palace’s hierarchy that asking a manager who had never coached in the Premier League to take over a floundering team in the middle of a season — they were 15th at the time, after 10 defeats in 17 matches — was always going to be difficult. He would need time.

But his position was under increased scrutiny after that meek defeat at the Vitality Stadium, when doubts still lingered over whether he could compel the squad he’d inherited to play the kind of football he wanted.

As it transpired, Palace revived once key personnel returned from injury and went on to end the season with six wins in an unbeaten seven-game sequence. That secured a top-half finish and had the fans dreaming of qualifying for Europe in 2024-25.

But then came a painfully slow start to the current campaign — the worst Palace have endured as a Premier League club — through which the manager repeatedly pointed to the disruption of the summer and insisted things would come together. Glasner’s teams have historically started slowly and he had a point over the off-field issues during pre-season. There was a squad overhaul to endure, with Bayern Munich triggering Michael Olise’s release clause, and a host of Palace’s internationals returning late after summer tournaments with their countries. Four new players arrived on deadline day in September, two weeks after the season had begun.

From the outside looking in, that opening eight-game winless streak felt alarming. Internally, though, no one had any doubts that results would turn.

The run-in last term had demonstrated his capabilities, and the players were at ease learning from Glasner and his coaching staff, confident things would click and eager to put things right. That first victory over Tottenham Hotspur on October 27 was restorative. Palace have accrued 27 points from the past 17 games to thrust the team well clear of trouble.

Everton’s visit marked Glasner’s 38th game in charge, the equivalent of a full top-flight season. Palace have accumulated 54 points in that time, which would put them 10th in the table for that stretch, excluding promoted and relegated sides.

The highest tally they have ever managed in a Premier League campaign is 49 — a total they have reached three times (1992-93, 2018-19 and 2023-24).

Glasner arrived wedded to a 3-4-2-1 formation, and a philosophy set on pressing and counter-attacking. If it has taken time for his players to become accustomed to his favoured way of playing, he has still found solutions to problems.

His whole outlook is based around the German acronym NIPSILD — Nicht In Problemen, Sondern In Losungen Denken (‘Think not in problems, but in solutions’). He is loathe to criticise his players. Almost everything is about what he and his coaches can do better. He will be wrestling with the issue of Palace’s poor home form at present, but his record suggests he will find a solution.

He craves efficiency from his team and, in some areas, Palace are already showing a marked improvement in their approach under his stewardship.

They are counter-attacking more frequently (1.97 counters per 100 touches vs 1.83 last season) but are also far more effective in these situations. Their expected goals (xG) per 100 counter-attacks has increased from 0.9 to 1.3.

But the team’s style now has had to change since that rampant run-in last season.

The decision not to replace the outstanding Olise like-for-like — Palace instead bolstered their forward options with Eddie Nketiah and Ismaila Sarr — has seen the team favour a more compact setup with two No 10s rather than out-and-out wingers. They muster fewer dribbles now than in previous seasons, with their take-ons per 100 touches falling from 3.4 to 2.3. This is a different Palace.

Glasner has frequently bemoaned how they have struggled to move the ball quickly enough in the build-up to their attacks; likely, in part, a result of midfielder Adam Wharton’s absence for a chunk of the season through injury.

His Palace play a higher line and demands high physical standards from his players. Those returning from injuries will not start games until he is convinced they can contribute close to their full ability. The intensity has dropped off marginally this season compared to 2023-24, but remains a core part of his philosophy.

The players have bought into his methods.

They have warmed to his positivity and his motivational skills. It helped that the team embarked on that winning run last term, but also that the likes of Maxence Lacroix, a player with whom Glasner previously worked at Germany’s Wolfsburg and whose signing he championed, has thrived since arriving in England. The Frenchman’s pace and calmness on the ball at centre-half have helped the team click and increased belief in the system as a whole.

Others have benefited from Glasner’s attention to detail on the training ground.

Jean-Philippe Mateta had started to show glimpses of his quality when Hodgson was manager, but he has scaled new heights under his successor. His goal at the weekend was his 35th in the Premier League, with 24 of them coming over Glasner’s 12 months in charge. In midfield, Will Hughes has been afforded game time and the support of his manager and is possibly second only to Mateta in terms of self-improvement. Wharton, a progressive passer of real class, has been carefully managed and become an integral part of the side.

Sarr, after a quiet start, has thrived as a No 10, albeit — as with the team as a whole — he has found it difficult against opponents who sit deep and stifle Palace’s counter-attacking play. But, having never played that position before, he has been taught by Glasner how to be effective there.

Mateta has been prolific under Glasner (Sebastian Frej/MB Media/Getty Images)

Not everything has been perfect.

There is work still to do to justify the summer pursuit of Daichi Kamada, who had excelled under Glasner at Eintracht Frankfurt in Germany but still looks lost at times with Palace. He has flattered to deceive. Eberechi Eze, too, has been far from his consistent best this season. Even if the England forward’s underlying numbers are not awful, he has struggled to contribute meaningfully on a consistent basis. The manager needs to find a way of drawing more from a player who was outstanding alongside Olise.

Striker Nketiah, the most expensive summer arrival at £25million ($31.5m) from Arsenal, has also struggled.

Efforts to wring more from that trio are ongoing and no stone will be left unturned. Glasner is extremely demanding of his players, sometimes setting them targets from clusters of games. If his expectations are met then he rewards them, often with time off. “We always want to create an environment where you want to work, because this is crucial for reaching your personal top level,” he added. “We want everybody to like coming here in the morning.

“But it’s also hard work. At the moment, we have found this balance. If a player wants to leave early, they can. If somebody is lazy and wants to use this to their advantage, then I am the boss and I will talk to them.”

That carried a hint of menace.

Glasner applauds the travelling support after the recent win at West Ham United (Ben Whitley/PA Images via Getty Images)

Palace have endured false dawns with managers before.

Expectations are inevitably high under Glasner, just as they were with Patrick Vieira after his first season in charge, and Hodgson after a flurry of positive results following his return for a second stint as manager, succeeding successor Vieira towards the end of the 2022-23 season. But, this time, things seem to be built on more solid foundations.

Vieira took over a team rejuvenated by the summer overhaul of an ageing squad, but his second year in charge exposed his flaws as a coach. He never found an adequate way to replace Chelsea loanee Conor Gallagher, and also failed to bring the best out of Eze. Hodgson could not push his team on from that initial burst of excitement and everything, very quickly, became stale.

Glasner, in contrast, has adapted, channelling his inner NIPSILD.

Palace are in a better place as a result. So impressive was his impact last season that then-managerless Bayern came calling, with the club forthright in their refusal to entertain any approach. The Austrian would surely have been intrigued to speak to the German giants, but, equally, he will have recognised that was not the time to leave south London. His work had only just started. And it takes time for him to make a proper impression.

He values familiarity and continuity, pointing to what he considers the best spell of his managerial career with LASK back in his homeland.

“I still think that, when I left, it was the best team I ever managed from the tactical side; 80 per cent of the team stayed together for four years,” he said before Palace’s recent 2-0 win over Manchester United. “It’s always about improving.

“You can imagine how difficult it is (to get) 20 players in the squad to have the same thoughts. This is what we’re working on. It’s just not possible within one, two or three months to get all your ideas into the players’ minds.”

Glasner directs his players from the touchline (Sebastian Frej/MB Media/Getty Images)

To that end, he knows there is more to come at Palace: from his team and from himself.

“I try to improve,” Glasner said last week. “What I demand from the players, I demand from myself. Sometimes, it’s tough but I have some strengths and some weaknesses. I will never be the perfect one.”

There will always be challenges and restrictions for a Palace manager, but the hope is Glasner can push the club beyond their familiar mid-table finish and find a way to eclipse past achievements. That will require compromise and understanding from everyone. It will need time and patience.

His current contract expires after next season and the club will move to extend his stay. But Glasner is ambitious and will need to see evidence that he is a) valued and b) will be given the tools to succeed.

His has been an encouraging first year.

There would surely be few dissenting voices at Palace if there were several more of them to come.

(Top photo: Zac Goodwin/PA Images via Getty Images)