As a decision about his future draws nearer, Oliver Glasner is sinking deeper and deeper into crisis with Crystal Palace. After the FA Cup embarrassment at sixth-tier Macclesfield, he is putting his players in the pillory.
Not only the DFB Cup, but also the FA Cup has its own rules. There is no other explanation for Crystal Palace’s sensational victory last year—and now their even more sensational defeat.
Saturday’s 2-1 defeat to sixth-tier Macclesfield FC makes the Eagles the first defending champions in 117 years to be knocked out by a team below the professional leagues. The two clubs are currently separated by 117 places in the English league system, and Macclesfield only gained promotion to the sixth-tier National League North in the summer.
“I have no words for this,” Palace coach Oliver Glasner said after the historic embarrassment, but then found a few that hardly had a good word to say about his professionals. “It was very difficult to watch. There was no physical presence, no quality in attack. That’s what makes it so disappointing.”
Glasner apologizes for “embarrassing” performance
As expected, Glasner had included several youngsters in his starting lineup, but there were still enough established top players, such as the sought-after captain Marc Guehi and England international Adam Wharton. “With all due respect, you don’t need tactics for a game like this, and you don’t need a coach to tell you what to do,” said the Austrian, who was stunned and apologized to the fans for the ‘embarrassing’ performance. “We need to score five or six goals against an amateur team, but we lacked any quality today.”
The fact that Macclesfield did not win easily only made the situation worse for Palace. “They were the better team. They wanted it more. They were more aggressive,” said Guehi, and each of these sentences felt like a punch in the stomach. The captain congratulated Macclesfield on what he called an “incredible story.” “I wish them all the best for the rest of the competition.”
Palace, who have been stressed by almost continuous midweek fixtures since the start of the season, now have one less burden to bear, but one more crisis to deal with. The Londoners have gone nine competitive games without a win and have slipped to 13th place in the league. Glasner urgently needs to use the next four weeks without multiple commitments to realign his team—and clarify his future. Palace is keen to keep him, but the former Bundesliga coach has so far hesitated to extend his expiring contract. Manchester United is not the only club that could offer him the next step in his career this summer.
