'They can't change' - Oliver Glasner makes Liverpool blueprint claim and hints at two Crystal Palace starters

Crystal Palace are back in action on Wednesday night when they take on Liverpool in the Carabao Cup fourth round. The Eagles have already beaten Liverpool this season, defeating the Reds at Selhurst Park to spark a run of five defeats in six games for Arne Slot’s men.

Palace are four without a win themselves, though, and they head into this one hungry for a quarter-final spot after suffering a narrow defeat to Arsenal over the weekend despite a positive display.

It will be a different game at Anfield, but many fo the teams that have beaten Liverpool of late will have taken some learning points from the Palace blueprint that defeated Slot’s men recently. Asked what Palace themselves can take from that display a few weeks on, Glasner said ahead of this one: “Everything – especially the first-half.

“They [Liverpool] can't change their way of playing. It's not possible within one week. They have a tight schedule, just playing more or less, and I think Arne Slot will trust in the things he's doing with all his teams. They won the league last year. I think we know what their threat is. We know their attacking style. We know their wingers are great in one-on-one situations, and also in the second-half, we gave them too many chances.

"For example, in one situation, what everybody knows: they can score when Mo Salah dribbles in and crosses, and [Florian] Wirtz ran in and had a big chance. We know, we prepared the players, but everything goes so quick, and maybe you don't recognise it and you can be punished. That's the quality of Liverpool.

“On the other side, what encourages us and gives us confidence is that in the last three games, we always scored against them. We scored one at Anfield [in a 1-1 draw in May] and we scored two at Wembley [in the 2-2 Community Shield match in August], and we scored two at home – so that shows that we're able to create chances. This confidence, we have. We're playing at Anfield, a very traditional stadium with fantastic fans as well, away to the Premier League title holders, with huge respect. We know we've just a chance to win the game if we perform on our top level. Nothing else will be good enough to win there.”

Palace team news

Glasner all-but confirmed two of his starters for this game, with Yeremy Pino and Eddie Nketiah in line to play from the off at Anfield. “Yeremy [Pino] played both [our last two] games 60 minutes, so he's fresh,” Glasner continued. "He got a small knock, but it looks okay, and also we want to give him minutes and confidence.

“Of course, Eddie [Nketiah] is doing very well now, always having a good impact, so maybe it's time for him to start. Let’s see. I spoke, after the Liverpool game, when they played their high line and played for offside, about runs in behind. It's very important against them. This is how we created almost every single chance against them, and we don't have six attacking players with this profile, making runs in behind and then threaten them with pace.

“If we think we’ve found maybe a weakness where we can take advantage, then it would be ridiculous if we don't call up the players who have these strengths. Of course, it's still not decided how we will play, because we'll talk to the players tomorrow how they feel. Today, everybody raised their thumbs. And then, let's see.”

Your next Palace read, When is the Carabao Cup quarter-final draw?