Palace ´need more players who show up and score goals´, says Glasner after Strasbourg loss

Oliver Glasner lamented Crystal Palace’s wastefulness in the final third and said he needs “more players who show up and score goals” after they let a lead slip in a 2-1 loss to Strasbourg in the Conference League.

Palace were on a five-match unbeaten streak in all competitions heading into this game and opened the scoring in the 35th minute through Tyrick Mitchell’s drilled finish across goal.

They had chances to double their tally before the break, though, with Ismaila Sarr striking the post of an empty net from long range after being gifted the ball following a mistake from Mike Penders.

Emanuel Emegha equalised in the 53rd minute, turning in a low cross, but Palace again missed a chance to regain the lead as Adam Wharton hit the crossbar after Penders was caught out of position.

The goalkeeper atoned for that mistake with a fine save to keep out Yeremy Pino, and Samir El Mourabet then won the game after he tapped in the rebound after Julio Enciso’s free-kick had hit the bar.

Palace are now 18th in the Conference League table on six points after four games, but could have moved into the automatic qualification spots with a win, and Glasner was left to rue their poor finishing.

“When you twice have an empty goal in front of you, and you miss the goal twice, hitting the post, you should be 3-1 up,” he told TNT Sport.

“Then we have the big chance against the keeper, and then in the next action we are 2-1 down.

“It has happened too many times this season when we did not decide the game when we could. And of course, even after the free-kick, we were not sharp enough.

“In the end, I think that we lacked one or two per cent, and that is why we lost against a good Strasbourg team.”

Palace had 16 shots overall, generating 2.1 expected goals (xG), while Strasbourg accumulated 2.4 xG from 13 attempts.

Glasner noted Palace had a similar problem in their 1-0 defeat to Larnaca last month, as well as a 2-0 win over Brentford, where they could have sealed the result sooner.

“Again, it could be straight after we got 1-0 that we could have scored the second,” he added.

“We had the same situation against Brentford in the Premier League. There we missed, but we could keep the clean sheet, so we won the game.

“I think that is why we deserved to lose. It was the second defeat, missing too many chances. Against Larnaca, missing too many chances too. It is a little bit the story.

“We need more players who show up and score goals. On the other side, nobody does it on purpose, and at the moment, it happens too often. You can’t always rely on keeping the clean sheet because the opponent is also doing well.”