Oliver Glasner refused to admit subbing Jean-Phillipe Mateta at half-time in Crystal Palace's 5-2 loss away at Manchester City was a mistake.
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Mateta pulled for 'tactical reasons'Glasner admitted switch to 3-5-2 was a mistakePalace threw away two-goal leadFollow GOAL on WhatsApp! 🟢📱AFPWHAT HAPPENED?
Palace's star striker was taken off at the break, despite playing a key role in Chris Richards' goal, an effort gave Palace a 2-0 advantage over the champions. Goals from Kevin De Bruyne and Omar Marmoush squared the game up at half-time, when the Frenchman was pulled from the action.
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Glasner confirmed Mateta wasn't injured, and he was subbed to facilitate a change in formation. The Austrian manager admitted the tactical rejig to 3-5-2 was an error on his part, but said he was disappointed in his star striker's performance in the first 45 minutes. City ran rampant in the second half, and eventually ran out 5-2 winners after goals from Mateo Kovacic, James McAtee and Nico O'Reilly.
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Asked why he replaced Mateta with Will Hughes, Glasner said: said: "It was a tactical decision. Now, I have to say it was the wrong decision. Not taking him off, but changing the formation to a 3-5-2. We wanted to control the midfield more, but it didn’t work.
"Subbing him wasn’t a mistake, he can do better than he did in the first half. He lost too many duels and balls. That’s why we decided to change something. The mistake I made was to change the system, not subbing JP."
DID YOU KNOW?
Mateta has been in fine form for the Eagles over the past couple of seasons. Before Saturday, the 25-year-old had scored nine goals in his past 10 Premier League games.