Oliver Glasner has insisted he’s not going to rotate his team for Crystal Palace’s upcoming game against Arsenal, despite having a European final just a few days later.
Crystal Palace have a quick turnaround for their Europa Conference League final, playing Arsenal on Sunday, May 24th, before facing Rayo Vallecano on Wednesday, May 27th.
With the potential for the Arsenal game to be a title-decider, there’s obviously been some speculation around whether Palace boss Oliver Glasner will pick his best team, or whether he might rotate with the final in mind.
But Glasner has now confirmed that he doesn’t plan to rotate the team, and the most they’ll do will be to make earlier substitutions if possible.
“I was travelling a lot because I watched Vallecano in Valencia on Thursday, so I had many hours on a plane and in a hotel, and I thought about it,” Glasner began. “I want to stop this talking.
“So we won’t rotate a lot. Yes, we will maybe make more and earlier substitutions, maybe after 60, 70 minutes latest, maybe one or two at half-time if that’s possible, but everything else we won’t do.”
This is likely what Arsenal would have expected anyway. It’s not necessarily ideal for a team to have a 10-day gap between matches, and that’s what would happen if Glasner played his best team against Brentford and then rotated them out against Arsenal.
That doesn’t change the fact that the players will have one eye on their European final and Europa League football next season. We may see one or two players pull out of risky challenges, knowing they could jeopardise their start in the final.
But Palace will want a win in their final home game of the season, and Glasner will pick their best side to achieve it. It’s up to Arsenal to win anyway.
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