Oliver Glasner has just told Arne Slot exactly how Liverpool can beat Crystal Palace today - opinion
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A trip to face Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park has arguably never looked harder for Liverpool than it does on Saturday.
The south London ground has often been seen as one of the most awkward to travel to in the Premier League.
However, for all of that bluster, Liverpool are unbeaten in their last 10 visits to Selhurst.
Remarkably, they have won nine of those matches.
This Palace team are a slightly different beast under Oliver Glasner, though.
Unbeaten in 17 matches across two seasons, they are arguably the best version of the Eagles in their history.
Arne Slot also does not have an amazing record against Crystal Palace.
In three games against them under his stewardship, Liverpool have won just one, and that was narrow.
Slot will be desperate to add another win to his tally, and ahead of the game Palace boss Oliver Glasner has told him exactly how to do it.
Photo by Jose Breton/Pics Action/NurPhoto via Getty Images
You can often gauge how good a team is viewed to be within the football industry by how opposition managers talk about them.
Slot, for example, hailed Palace’s discipline and hard work when looking ahead to Saturday’s game during his pre-match press conference.
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While Liverpool are regularly afforded similar praises by those they are due to come up against, Glasner made some very interesting comments on Friday which Slot may not like to hear.
The Austrian praised the Liverpool head coach, but also claimed that the Reds are ‘easy’ to prepare for given they tend to play a set way.
“On the other side, this is what I like: Arne Slot, just a great manager with a clear structure, so it makes it sometimes easier to analyse when there’s a clear idea how they play,” Glasner said.
I think all of that helps.”
With these comments ringing in his ears, Slot knows he must mix things up to surprise Glasner and make Liverpool’s life easier against Palace.
While no team wants to be predictable, it is one thing planning to stop Liverpool and another entirely putting that into practice.
Nevertheless, Glasner and Palace have been quite good at stifling the Reds, so Slot must look to try something different on Saturday.
Perhaps the most obvious way of doing this would be to play with the double false nine system he employed on a couple of occasions last season.
With Hugo Ekitike suspended and Alexander Isak not yet fully fit, Slot could play Florian Wirtz and Dominik Szoboszlai as his two most advanced players.
With Glasner expecting the same Reds he has faced under Slot previously, this might be the way to get some joy at Selhurst Park.