On the red card Ekitike received in midweek…
No, if disciplined means that I spoke to him then it’s disciplined – but I don’t think that is disciplined. Disciplined means a fine – and that he didn’t get. So, it wasn’t very smart what he did, what he recognised himself immediately straight away, so he said sorry straight away to his teammates. He’s young. Players of all ages do make mistakes and that’s what he did in this situation as well. But we all make mistakes and you’re allowed at this club to make a mistake without immediately getting fined or these kind of things.
He’s a fantastic human being. I think if you talk to all the staff members and you would ask them a top three of the warmest persons and the most polite persons, I think he’s in every staff member’s top three. So even if he wasn’t a person like this, he was able to make a mistake. But it wasn’t smart. It didn’t hurt us [on] Tuesday evening, it might hurt us a bit more tomorrow. The positive thing is that Federico Chiesa is showing himself at the moment, so it’s also a chance for him now to be on the bench and maybe get playing minutes with Hugo not being there.
On Palace’s biggest threat…
Discipline. They have an enormous discipline defensively, 10 outfield players plus a goalkeeper that work so hard to prevent the other team from scoring. We saw this also in the Community Shield – even in the moments when we were up, they could still be very disciplined and calm in their own half, in their mid-to-low block. We saw this during the week when we played Southampton, who were disciplined against us, how hard it is to play through them. Apart from that – but that’s for every team in the Premier League – they have some individual quality, some individual players who are a big threat offensively.
[Jean-Philippe] Mateta is one of them, [Ismaila] Sarr, who wasn’t available last week but might be available this week, again was really good against us in the Community Shield, two midfielders that know how to play and good centre-backs, good wing-backs. So, a good team but that is what, I would say, every Premier League team has. But what maybe stands out for me with them is their discipline and their defensive work.