We take on the Eagles this Saturday, with a 12:30 kick-off – just over two days after our demanding 4-1 victory over Aston Villa.
While tactics will clearly come into the manager’s thinking as he picks his side for the Selhurst Park encounter, he will also assess the conditioning of his team, including Erling Haaland and Kevin De Bruyne who sat out Wednesday’s win over the Villans.
“It’s about the fact we play less than two days and a half after the game,” the boss said when quizzed about why he hadn’t set upon his preferred XI yet for the weekend.
“We need to see the faces of the players, who recovers quicker than the other ones, some take more time.
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“A long week is completely different but a short week there are many aspects.
“We have to talk with the doctors, physios and my staff and decide tonight or tomorrow early morning.”
Despite the quick turnaround for his players during this gruelling schedule, the manager backed them to shine – because they’re used to the demands expected of them at this stage of the season.
“We are used to playing every three days each month. We are not new to this.
“The players know this. They handle it, not all the time, but most of the time exactly they have to do.
“We play 12:30, it’s perfect, it’s more time until the next game in Madrid to recover.
“We play Chelsea on Saturday, okay it’s not fair, but we will do it. Adapt quick and try to do our job.”
Watch the manager’s press conference in the video player above...
