Christian Benteke Crystal Palace
Just starting with an injury update, how are the team going into the weekend’s game?
Well, strangely enough, at this late stage of the season we seem to be recovering a lot of players. At the moment, those who are injured or unavailable are: Mamadou Sakho, Connor Wickham and Nathan Ferguson, who has made good progress in actual fact and is going to be training with the team from the beginning of next week. So even he, at the end of the season, has managed to get himself declared fit which is very positive because for him… it’s been such a miserable 18 months for the young lad.
You’ve had to balance the squad a lot this year, is it encouraging to get some reinforcements back in, especially defensively?
Yeah, it’s very important, in particular with so many games being played in a short space of time. This is the start of a two-week spell where we’ll play five matches, so we’re going to need everybody available. It’s going to give me the opportunity, I hope, to give one or two a rest and prevent that situation that we had at the end, particularly, of Project Restart where we were finding it very, very difficult to fulfil those fixtures with the players we had because playing two games in three games time after time was a bit much for them.
Sheffield United are already down. Your team are all but safe, so how do you approach this type of game?
Well I think the important thing for us really is that we’ve had a spell of very, very difficult fixtures where certainly our defending has been put to the test and we’ve had to work very hard to defend as a team. It’s impacted of course upon our attacking ability. I think this now, particularly starting with this game and the games we have coming up, is going to be a be a time for our midfielders and forwards and even our full-backs to show how good they are in an attacking sense. We need to be bold – much bolder than we’ve been in an attacking sense. We’ve asked so much of all the outfield players to try and keep our compact shape. But we have to accept now that maybe that compact shape won’t always be quite as good as it’s possibly been in certain games. We’re going to take a few more risks going forward and encourage the players to take more risks going forward. But I think we have the luxury of doing that. Of course we don’t want to concede goals, we want to keep clean sheets like everybody else does. But we’re aware that that is a delicate balance and I am hoping tomorrow that we will take the game to Sheffield United, just as I expect, quite frankly, them to take the game to us. Because I’ve watched their last couple of performances and they’ve certainly been no shirkers when it comes to their own attacking football.
Tyrick Mitchell is leading the Premier League for tackling efficiency, and there are comparisons there with Aaron Wan-Bissaka. You’ve seen his development this year, how special is he?
Well obviously the comparisons with Aaron are obvious ones to make. They both came through our ranks and they are somewhat similar in style. They’re both certainly very good defenders for their age, given the fact that they haven’t had the chance yet to build up the level of experience. We’ve been very pleased with Tyrick when he’s played. In particular I thought his performance at the weekend was exceptionally good in such a difficult game. But he’s one that’s not really been blessed with with being able to stay fit for long periods of time. He’s had several occasions where he’s actually probably almost broken into the team, then to be taken out because he picked up an injury. I think the big thing for him going forward will be to make sure he stays fit, that he’s available to play week on week and it’s not going to be a case that’s possibly happened over the last couple of seasons where we get quite excited by watching him play but then only to lose him again and he has to sort of rehabilitate.
Over the last few seasons, Palace have promoted academy prospects. With the last few games are there any opportunities for someone to push through? Anyone you have your eye on?
Well I think that’s going to be difficult because it’s such a big squad. I think for that to have happened it would have had to have been like it was at the end of the Project Restart when we were obviously calling on Under-23s players just to make up the numbers on the bench. It’s not going to be easy for me to turn aside from players who’ve been working hard all year and are probably a bit disappointed with chances they’ve not already had, to promote someone above them who’s hardly even trained with us. I think in particular the Under-23 team have done well this year. They’re in with a chance of making the play-offs, which is good. But the team which has done particularly well is the Under-18s team. And I’ve worked with three or four of those players on an occasional basis when they come up and join the first team. I definitely believe there are some players in that group of players who, if they continue to develop, and if they are able to make a step up and perhaps train a bit more with the first team as they have been doing, I definitely think there’s some players there who could quite happily join Aaron [Wan-Bissaka] and Tyrick [Mitchell] as players that the club have brought through. Every club wants to bring through players. It’s not easy because the the step into the first team has been hard for as long as I can remember, and the quality of the Premier League these days definitely doesn’t make it any easier, that’s for sure.
In terms of the first team players, have there been any developments? There have been rumours about Christian Benteke potentially leaving. You said you and Doug would speak to players about developments – have there been any?
No. I think Doug in particular is the one who has a lot of conversations with these players’ agents. Because it’s not just a question when a player’s contract runs down and gets so close to the end, it’s not just a case of what we want, it’s what the player wants. Because being allowed to leave a Premier League club, if you’ve been a good player at that club, on a free transfer, it puts you in a strong position. So I know that Doug has made pretty much contact, I think with all of the agents with regards to the players whose contracts are running out and sort of sounded them out really you know, what is the situation? You know, is your player anxious to stay with us? Will he sign a new contract or is he actually planning to leave because he’s got other throughts in his head? That’s an ongoing process. But I’m pleased to say that in terms of the training, I’ve been very, very impressed by the seriousness, by the diligence really that the players are showing in every training session. And the interest they have in finishing the season well so that we can get some points from these last five games so that we can get that little bit higher up the table, or at least maintain our position. I’ve got to say it’s obviously a matter for concern and it’s obviously a matter for speculation, I understand that. But fortunately for me as a manager and coach, it hasn’t affected me that deeply.
Any update with you?
No. I mean, basically speaking, I have also had conversations with the club but I would much prefer to leave any decision regarding my future until a little bit later on because as I’ve said all along these last matches are very, very important. I want to make certain we get through those in the way we should and then there is plenty of time to let people know what my next step will be.
Just to clarify – is it just the three players you mentioned who are out? Sakho, Wickham and Ferguson?
Yes, that’s right. Both James Tomkins and Nathaniel Clyne played for the Under-23s last Monday after a period of training with us, a shortish period after their injuries, but still a period of training with the first team. They were fit enough to take part in the Under-23s game for 60 minutes and of course back to training with us, so they rejoin the group. Ferguson actually rejoined the group at the beginning of the week in the initial stage of the training session but was taken out again to really complete his full rehabilitation programme and get cleared by the sport science department, and now he is 100%. So he’ll be back on Monday. Which just leaves Connor who picked up a slight strain; Mamadou Sakho has not really recovered from the initial injury he suffered. So just Wickham and Sakho.
Really good to have players back, especially the likes of James Tomkins after his injury?
Yeah, absolutely. That was a major concern for us because muscle injuries you’re used to; even severe muscle injuries and cruciate ligament injuries, one has experienced those, but you don’t experience eye injuries very often. It was the first time really in my career that I’ve had a player suffer a serious eye injury. It was a major problem for us because we weren’t certain how that was going to pan out. So it’s delightful to see him recovered from it and able to play, and luckily also able to compete for a place in the last few weeks of the season.
Bit of a change going from Champions elect to bottom of the table. Is the onus on you to take the game to Sheffield United?
Oh, absolutely. They’re in the bottom half of the table as we are ourselves, and there is no doubt that the gap between that bottom half of the table and the very top teams in the league if anything gets bigger every year, it definitely doesn’t decrease in any way. So it will be nice to go into a game not feeling that we have to get our tin hats on and try to survive the sort of pressure that you know Man Citys, Chelseas and to some extent Leicester, although I thought to some extent we handled the Leicester game quite well.
Do you buy into the theory that when you play an already-relegated team they play a bit more relaxed because the pressure’s off?
Yep. Yeah, there’s no doubt about that. Because this league is a great league for applying pressure to everybody. Managers, coaches and players. It’s not a league for those people who don’t feel they can handle the pressure or stress. Players and managers are under the spotlight to such an extent, everybody is intent on seeing their team win that you never really move away from pressure in any Premier League game. But there’s no doubt that when you get to a stage where either you’re safe or unfortunately you’re not safe because you’re relegated then that could relieve that pressure, it could give people a chance to shine and bring out all of their skills. And anyway, I watched Sheffield United against Brighton and Tottenham and there was no doubt, in those two games you weren’t watching two teams playing where there’s a gulf in terms of quality and class, they were relatively close games for long periods anyway, so that’s what we’re getting ready for. But we also do know that hopefully there will be more opportunity to showcase our attacking skills, which we weren’t able to do in particular against Chelsea and Manchester City, who really pinned us in.
Realistically you’re safe, but a win on Saturday will make that mathematically certain. How nice will that be?
It will be very nice to seal the deal. It has been a long season, this one, and I don’t think I am alone in saying that because it followed on from that Project Restart where we played a lot of games in a short period of time and then a relatively short break and got going again. So it seems almost like the season has been going on more than a normal season. So it will be nice to make certain we achieve our primary goal, which of course is to make certain we’re in the league, and to hopefully embellish that with one or two good performances at the end which will at least keep us nearer the middle of the table than the bottom of it.
Do you think you get enough credit for the job you’ve done at Palace? For keeping the club in the Premier League year after year?
I think so. I mean I would say that I don’t follow everything that’s being said or written, but I feel within the club itself that the credit is the right sort of credit we’re being given for the for the work we’re trying to do. I don’t have any concerns in that respect. It’s been a very good time in these four years, even though it’s never been an easy ride, it’s never been an easy passage of reaching our goal every year of keeping the team in the league. It’s never actually been a cakewalk of any description. But at the same time I feel we get our share of credit for it. I don’t have any qualms about any credit coming my way, I’m more than satisfied.
Three English teams in the European finals. Does that show the strength of the opposition you have to come up against every week?
It does. I’m disappointed it’s not four. I watched the game with Arsenal last night. I thought that they dominated large spells of the game and were a little bit unlucky not to get the goal which would have put them through as well, that would have been a fantastic season, I think if we’d have got all four teams in. But three and a semi-finalist is pretty good going. I think we who in the league play against these teams week-to-week can take some sort of heart from the fact that we can’t be that bad ourselves because at least we’re in the same league and in the same ball park trying to compete with them, and occasionally we compete with them OK.
Fans back at Selhurst Park for Arsenal at the end of the season. How nice will that be to have some atmosphere back before the season ends?
Yeah, very good. I think people have been very patient. The fans have been patient, the league has been very, very cautious, perhaps rightly so. We’ve got through a restart period of nine games, then another 38 games without really any major crises in terms of the Covid pandemic, which of course has caused so much havoc all over the world. So they deserve a great deal of credit, I think, the FA, the Premier League and the government for getting these games played. But of course they had to be played behind closed doors. Luckily the broadcasters have stepped forward and broadcast the games so people who follow their teams can follow their teams, but it’s not the same as being at the stadium, just as it’s not the same as playing behind closed doors without your fans. I think it’s been well-documented now and nobody is saying anything other than it will be great to get the fans back. I hope that with this first step here of the last two games of the season being played in front of fans, and every team getting the opportunity to get a home game in front of its own fans, that will be the start of when the next season begins we will see football back as we’ve always known it with very many fans in the stadium and very many fans cheering on their team.
