Pierre Sage finally registered his first home Premier League win as Crystal Palace manager on Sunday, beating former Eagles boss Oliver Glasner’s Nottingham Forest 3-1.
The result was a welcome boost for Pierre Sage, who had a difficult start to the new season, but he knows his side still have work to do before Thursday’s trip to Lyon.
Crystal Palace have started to find their feet under Pierre Sage, yet questions about the manager’s future continue to surface.
Palace got the result, but Sage wants more
Palace’s 3-1 victory over Nottingham Forest was another step forward, even if the performance itself wasn’t always convincing. They fell behind early on with a goal from Ndoye before fighting back to take all three points on Glasner’s return.
With victory against Nottingham, Crystal Palace have now lost just once in their last six matches across all competitions since beating Fulham for their first win of the season.
Sage was honest when talking about Sunday’s performance. Palace had periods where they struggled, and Walter Benitez’s save proved important in keeping them in the contest.
“We started well without the mistake. We had twenty minutes where we were bad, and Walter made a save with a lot of bravery, he kept us in the game and it was really important in this moment.”
That is something Crystal Palace can’t afford against Lyon. If they allow the French outlet any encouragement to operate freely, the results would be different compared to a misfiring Forest side.
Pierre Sage also explained how Palace changed their approach after conceding the goal in the early moments. Rather than sticking to their initial build-up, they played more directly and looked to win second balls. It helped them get back into the game, but Sage knows that approach needs to be backed up by better overall play.
“We changed what we did at the beginning with our build up and we played more direct, played the second ball.”
Ndoye problem shows where Palace must improve
Dan Ndoye caused Palace plenty of problems throughout the afternoon. Sage admitted his side struggled to contain the Forest threat in that area, and he was clear that the number of chances conceded was not good enough.
“It’s not normal to concede as many chances as we did today. We had lots of problems in the area of Ndoye, it was really difficult to deal with that.”
Crystal Palace have a major test against Lyon in the Europa League. They will need to take lessons from the weekend game and be clinical. They can’t afford similar defensive problems against a better opposition like Lyon, which could eventually cost them points.
Sage knows that too. He wants his players to take confidence from the result but can’t let them ignore what went wrong against Forest.
“Sometimes we win like this and I think it shows everybody that we could have played better and lost, but this prepares us better. I want the best, a good performance, good result, but for the moment it’s not stable and we have to work on that.”
The Lyon fixture offers Palace an immediate chance to build on the win. Sage also stressed that the team must prepare properly, with the victory allowing them to approach the next game in a calmer frame of mind.
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