Ahead of Crystal Palace’s third Europa League game, Pierre Sage and September Player of the Month winner Tyrick Mitchell sat down to discuss the side’s thoughts heading into what will undoubtedly be a tough game against Turkish side Beşiktaş. 

Beşiktaş have won both of their opening Europa League games, with a 4-1 win over Marseille in their opening game followed by a 2-3 win away to Hoffenheim, who Palace welcome to Selhurst Park in November. 

Both Sage and Mitchell were keen to move the conversation on from Sunday’s defeat to rivals Brighton. Here’s everything you might have missed from the press conference. 

The pressure has mounted on Sage since Sunday, understandably so in terms of the recent results and more specifically performances, but he was adamant that his side have the ability to bounce back and move on. 

“Sometimes we have to switch quickly and it’s the case this time. It was a tough defeat in the context, we have to forget this quickly because now we have to show our real face in a big atmosphere especially here against a good team and that’s a good challenge for us.”

Palace suffered in the first ten minutes at the Amex, and Sage was clear that his side needed to take something away from the game in order to improve. 

“We just have to analyse how we took the goal and I think in our last game we took on the transition, we took in low block and we took in set pieces, so not to be focused on one problem, we have different problems, sometimes we solve one and create a new one and that’s why we have to be better in each side of the play, more consistent in what we do, what we believe, for that we don’t train too much in this period because we have games every three days and that’s why the games are really important to improve, we take the lessons and that’s why I wait for the game tomorrow because we have to change a lot of things from Sunday.”

There have been suggestions from many fans that the system could be in need of change in order to get the best out of the players. Sometimes, managers can be very stubborn, and tend to stick to their preferred methods, but Sage hinted that there is always room for change. 

“I have to accept all things which are positive for the team, it’s not about my ideas, it’s about efficiency and the performance of the team. A lot of people think that the coach wants to be the main actor, the main person in the decision but I prefer that the team is the star in the club.”

In the same vein, he was keen to express pride in the team’s attacking play so far this season, and repeated his points from after Brighton where he claimed that when you change things to fix problems, you can also create new issues, so the focus has to be on maintaining a steady performance throughout the game. 

“We have to but we have to keep what we did well too because we scored more than ten goals since the beginning of the season, that’s a good side of our play and we have to keep that.”

“The better way to defend or to defend less is to keep the ball, and when we don’t have the ball we have to be better defensively but we have to improve all the sides and not only be focused on one because the football is not something with phases, it’s something with continuity and we have to manage all the seconds of the minutes of the play.”

Beşiktaş are an experienced European side. Whilst they’ve never won a European trophy, they’ve competed in both the Europa and Champions League many times. 

Sage heaped praise on the opponent, praising the atmosphere and style of play. 

“We are aware of the quality of this team, especially how they attack because they score a lot of goals with a lot of energy and that's why it’s a big challenge for us, but it’s a good moment to have a big challenge.”

The Turkish side have scored 31 goals in their opening 16 games, after playing through numerous qualifying rounds to reach the Europa League. 

Whilst the threat that they possess going forward could hurt Palace, the thrust with which they attack could mean that Sage’s side are able to exploit them on the break. 

“We saw what they are able to do and we saw that they push a lot when they attack, that’s why we have some opportunities when we recover the ball and we have to take these kinds of opportunities to maybe change the way of playing for our opponent by scoring first.”

Mitchell, who recently made his 250th Palace appearance joined Sage for the presser, but was only asked a couple of questions. 

One was based on the defensive issues that Palace have faced this season and the overall implementation of Sage’s ideas from the squad. 

“I wouldn’t say there’s something not working, I’d say as players there’s a few basics that we have to get back to, like being more aggressive, being harder to beat. I think sometimes there might be a lack of focus from us and allowing noise from the fans and pressure from the opposing teams to get on top of us and concede early. The main thing for us as players is to get back to basics as we have all the ingredients we need going back into the game.”

Mitchell’s attacking output has improved season on season, but he feels that under Sage, the freedom that is given to him is only making him more effective. 

“The gaffer is giving me a bit more confidence going forward and I feel like when we’re attacking we’re more free flowing, so I’m able to get into positions that sometimes I might not have got in last season so I think it’s the license from the gaffer to express ourselves when attacking.”

For a player whose attacking output has been criticised in the past, especially in terms of his final ball and delivery, it’s been great to see how much he’s improved. 

“I wouldn't say I was the best attacker at certain stages in my career but it’s something I wanted to work on and have worked on and I’m glad that the gaffer has given me the opportunity to show it in game.”