Glasner to expect the unexpected against Juric and Southampton

Oliver Glasner is unsure what to expect from new Southampton boss Ivan Juric when Crystal Palace host the Premier League’s bottom club on Sunday.

Palace sit 16th in the league, three points clear of the relegation zone, following a goalless draw at Bournemouth on Boxing Day.

Southampton, meanwhile, are rock bottom with six points, having lost 1-0 at home to West Ham in Juric’s first match at the helm on Thursday.

Should they lose in South London, they will have made the joint-second worst start to a season in Premier League history, through 19 games. Sunderland only had six points at that stage of 2005-06, while Sheffield United took just five in 2020-21.

Glasner, however, is wary of the threat posed by a side under new management, having followed Juric’s time in Italy closely.

“I know him from Italy, and he did very well there,” Glasner said. “I think he was always playing with a back three, and Southampton also played with the back three.

“But also, to be honest, I don’t know at the moment his style of play, and I also think it’s not possible to implement your style of play when you’ve started two or three days before.

“Two days is just recovery, not really a lot of impact on the players. Of course we will watch the Southampton game from today, but I didn’t see it before now!

“Of course, my staff have already watched many games from Southampton, and I’m pretty sure they will also have watched today’s game. Now I have a three-hour trip home, and it can easily be that one of the analysts is sitting next to me and showing me some clips.”

Southampton drew 0-0 at Fulham prior to Juric taking the reins, then produced an impressive performance against West Ham, only to lose to a Jarrod Bowen goal.

Speaking after that game, Juric said: “I think the guys did lots of good things today. They’ve worked hard in these few days, and I think they’re getting better, they are improving.

“From watching the Fulham game and today, I think our team can compete.

“There are lots of things to improve, lots of details we can do better, but in these two games I have seen that my team can compete; we are not too far off other teams.”

PLAYERS TO WATCH

Crystal Palace – Eberechi Eze

Eze has only registered one goal and two assists in the Premier League this season, while his underlying creative metrics are also down on last campaign.

He averaged 2.35 chances created, 1.53 open-play chances created and 0.24 expected assists (xA) in league play in 2023-24. In 2024-25, those figures are down to 2.08, 1.38 and 0.15, respectively.

Southampton – Paul Onuachu

No team has failed to score in more different Premier League games than Southampton this season (nine), while they have also scored fewer goals (11) and had fewer shots on target (54) than any other side.

Onuachu had a game-high eight shots worth 0.84 expected goals (xG) against West Ham last time out, but only hit the target twice. If Southampton are to have any chance of survival, he may have to find his shooting boots.

MATCH PREDICTION – CRYSTAL PALACE WIN

Palace have only lost two of their last 18 Premier League home games against promoted clubs (10 wins, six draws) going down 1-0 against Sheffield United in February 2020, and 3-0 against Fulham in December 2022.

They will be confident of maintaining that fine record here. Southampton are winless in their last 16 Premier League away games (four draws, 12 losses), scoring just one goal in their last five on the road.

They have, however, earned as many points from their last three top-flight away games as they had in their previous 13 (two).

When playing in the top flight, Southampton have not won their final league game of a calendar year since 2002 (2-1 versus Sunderland), drawing six and losing seven since then.

Palace, meanwhile, won their final league game in each of 2021, 2022 and 2023 – they last did so in four consecutive calendar years between 1960 and 1963.

OPTA WIN PROBABILITY

Crystal Palace – 57.5%

Southampton – 20.4%

Draw – 22.1%