A special month in Crystal Palace’s recent history – and that’s saying something – received special recognition last week, with Oliver Glasner not only picking up the Premier League Manager of the Month award, but also the Austria Coach of the Year title at the 2025 NIKI awards in Vienna.
Following his side’s two wins – including a memorable victory against reigning champions Liverpool at Selhurst Park – and a draw in September, Glasner’s Eagles briefly rose as high as second in English football’s top-flight, as well as temporarily becoming the last unbeaten side in this season’s Premier League.
After collecting the Manager of the Month award from the Premier League, Glasner sat down to reflect on an extraordinary chapter in Palace’s recent history – and his belief that every element is there for the Eagles to build on their recent success…
Oliver, congratulations on winning the Premier League Manager of the Month award. What does this mean to you?
Thank you very much. It’s a big honour for me. Like always in life, when it’s the first time, it’s always something special. It’s the first time I’m rewarded with this special honour.
But on the other side, and it’s important for me: I know I’m the Manager, I’m very often the one at the front, but I have fantastic staff next to me, great assistant coaches who support me, who support the team, and the most important ones are the players.
As a coach, as a Manager, I always say you are nothing without your players, because they have to perform on the pitch, and they performed so well in September. I’m the one who gets the reward, but I see it, I get it on behalf of the entire team.
You won Austrian Coach of the Year as well last week, another award that you picked up, as well as now Premier League Manager of the Month. Looking back at the month as a whole, how good was it? And what did it do for the confidence in the group?
It’s too many awards for me, I don’t feel that important!
The most important ones are the players, because again, they have to perform on the pitch, they have to do all the stuff, and we are supporting them.
For me it’s not just September. We were unbeaten in August, and it was a little bit trickier after the international break, players arriving very late. But then, just continuing how we started this season, it was great to see.
And, of course, every game unbeaten, every win, increases the confidence, the self-confidence, and this is what you need, because you can’t achieve anything in life – not in football, in sports, in life – if you don’t believe that you are able to do it.
That’s the foundation of everything: that you trust yourself, you have the confidence to win, to achieve things in life, if you have this. And, of course, you need some successes on this route, you need some positive results, whatever it is.
It’s not so difficult, it’s always the same: you need to trust yourself, you need confidence, and this helps to achieve your goals.
The last time a Palace Manager won Premier League Manager of the Month was Tony Pulis back in 2014…
It’s always nice to get an award! Last year I got the negative award of the worst start into the Premier League season, worst start in Crystal Palace history, so it was not a nice award, but it ended with winning the FA Cup and with a point record, so it was a good reward, because sometimes you need also to fail, to lose, to get a defeat, to learn from it, and it’s just how you deal with these situations.
That’s why I’m always staying humble, because I know how quickly it goes in both directions, and that we always stay with us, that we always keep working, we always keep improving, and that we always live our values.
That’s the most important thing, that we’re not saying because we won or we were unbeaten or I won a trophy, so now I don’t need the respect and ‘I’m the best one in the world’ or whatever – it’s always important to stay yourself, to stay humble and stick to our values.
Can you describe your management style in three words? And what do you value the most in a group?
Respect, trust and togetherness.
They are all important. We try to create an environment with these values, so that we trust each other, what we do on and off the pitch, so that we can rely on each other on and off the pitch.
Having respect, accepting everybody’s personality, how he is – you don’t have to change, I always tell the players, so when they enter the training ground and they go past the door, they should be themselves, they should express themselves, who they are and how they are, and then we want to integrate everybody into the team.
Togetherness: we want everybody’s ego, but for the team, not the ego for himself, but the ego for the team. And when we all stick together, we know that we can achieve big things, and this is what we proved last season.
What is one tactical element you learnt from the Community Shield that you then applied into the league win against Liverpool? And why do you think Crystal Palace have been so successful against Liverpool under you when other teams have struggled?
I don’t talk about other teams. We could see, I think in the last game of the season, when we drew 1-1 at Anfield, and then in the Community Shield, that they are playing sometimes with a very high line and playing for offside, and we knew when we made the runs in behind, like it was the second goal [in the Community Shield]…
Even the penalty happened in the same situation, when JP ran one-on-one on the ‘keeper and then we got the second ball and Ismaïla was fouled, and the goal was Ismaïla made the run in behind. So this is what we learnt from the Community Shield, and also then in the league, we could see we had many chances created in this way. When we do it, when we find the right timing, when we do it in the right moments, we will create chances and we are able to score goals.
This gives us confidence. If you never have a chance, it’s difficult to score, and then of course you can’t win a game. On the other side, it was of course that we had to control their attack, which we did very well in the first-half.
We struggled in the second-half, they created a few chances, but that’s also the quality of their players and of their manager. I think all these small puzzle pieces helped us to get the win against Liverpool.
If you had to pick one goal that you were most proud of from September, which one is it and why?
Of course, it’s the striking back after Liverpool got the equaliser. That was in the 87th minute, and then the momentum can turn, and Liverpool wanted the win, and we were not satisfied with getting a draw. This is what I love, not saying ‘fingers crossed now and hopefully we get the draw’. Still believing in us and saying: ‘OK, we can get the win, so let’s go for the win.’
This is what I’m most proud of, that we had this mentality not to defend the draw, but to go for the win. This is completely the opposite. ‘Instead of defending something, try to win something.’
I think this mindset of the whole team now helps us to win games.
The atmosphere at Selhurst Park, like you’ve mentioned many times, is considered one of the best in England. What is it that’s so special to you, and how has it played a part in making that place a fortress for these players?
I think it’s the connection between the fans and the players.
It’s the same as when we spoke about the team. I think we have the same connection: the fans are part of our team.
We can rely on them, they can rely on the team, to always give 100 per cent. We can count on them, they can count on us. We trust them, they trust us. We respect them, they respect us, and we are one big together.
The values we have inside the team, we have with our fans, so that’s why we are one big Crystal Palace group, and I think that’s why we are that successful.
How do you keep this run going for the rest of the season?
Sometimes I remind the players, maybe it’s a little bit selfish, but life is just better when you’re winning in sport!
Everybody enjoyed the last months much more than the beginning of the season. It’s just life quality, and everybody wants to have a good life. If somebody needs a motivation, then I think the best motivation is to have a good life, and therefore you need to be successful, you need to feel well in the environment where you are, you need to enjoy going to your work, you need to enjoy meeting your teammates, you need to enjoy playing football.
Sometimes I’m reminding the players: never forget we’re all living our childhood dream, so that we always have respect and appreciation for the things we are doing and for the things we can do.
Everybody enjoys winning. The players are getting more and more hungry and are not satisfied or saying ‘now the belly is full’.
No, there’s still enough space to win more trophies, to win more games, and especially… to improve.
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