Oliver Glasner revealed his decision to bring Jean-Philippe Mateta off at half-time of Crystal Palace’s defeat to Manchester City was not down to injury.
The Eagles made a flying start at the Etihad Stadium and were two goals up after 20 minutes, as Eberechi Eze opened the scoring and Chris Richards then headed in from a corner.
Mateta played his part in that second goal, blocking Ederson from coming off his line and creating the space for Richards, but the Palace striker did not appear after half-time.
The 27-year-old has been in superb form, with nine goals in his last ten Premier League matches heading into this game, however that did not make him immune from Glasner’s criticism.
Asked why he brought Mateta off and replaced him with Will Hughes at the break, the Palace boss 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.”
