Oliver Glasner says Crystal Palace will not make major changes for the closing stretch of the Premier League season, even with Arsenal, Brentford and a European final packed into one of the busiest runs of the campaign. Palace host Brentford on Sunday and then Arsenal on the final day, before facing Rayo Vallecano in the UEFA Conference League final three days later.
Glasner said the club have already played 58 games with three more to come, and that he does not want to unsettle the group now. “So we won’t rotate a lot,” he said. “I will tell the players today — I felt it, we need to stop it.” He added: “This is what we have now. Brentford, then we have Arsenal — the last home game at Selhurst is amazing, celebrating this fantastic season again with our fans.”
The manager’s comments came after Palace lost 3-0 to Manchester City on Wednesday, a game in which he made four changes from the side that drew 2-2 with Everton last weekend. That defeat was a reminder of how thin the margin is for a team trying to finish the league and keep energy for Europe. Palace will play Brentford as the fourth match within 10 days, with the Arsenal fixture and the final in Leipzig still to come.
Glasner said he has preferred to work with a core of around 18 senior players this season, but the schedule has forced him to adapt at points. He said Palace had to rotate more when City were the third game within six days, and that he may now lean on earlier substitutions rather than sweeping changes, possibly around the 60-minute or 70-minute mark or with one or two at half-time. Palace have also been using five substitutions to manage the load across a squad that has already gone deep into the season.
The pressure has been building for some time. Palace’s European run has repeatedly squeezed the calendar, and Glasner said the coming week brings two games in 10 days before the final in Leipzig, then the final itself just three days after the Arsenal match. He also said Palace won the FA Cup because they never treated it as something to protect or prioritise above everything else, a mindset he appears ready to carry into the last stretch. For Palace, the task now is simple to say and hard to do: stay competitive in the league, keep enough legs in reserve and arrive in Leipzig with a team still intact enough to finish the season properly.
