Crystal Palace are on a high under Oliver Glasner.
The Eagles booked their ticket to Wembley for the FA Cup semi-final after beating Fulham 3-0 at Craven Cottage on Saturday, with Aston Villa awaiting in the final four.
In doing so, Crystal Palace also made English football history, becoming the first top-flight side ever to win six away games without conceding a single goal.
Oliver Glasner has a great chance to extend that remarkable record even further on Wednesday when the south Londoners take on Southampton at the St Mary’s Stadium – a game where we could see either Tyrick Mitchell or Ben Chilwell deployed in a brand new position.
Oliver Glasner has been testing Tyrick Mitchell and Ben Chilwell at centre-back
With Chris Richards injured for the trip to Southampton, Crystal Palace are short of centre-back options, after Chelsea recalled Trevoh Chalobah in January and Chadi Riad suffered a serious injury.
As a result, Glasner has been testing Mitchell and Chilwell, both of whom are natural left-backs, in the centre of defence.
The News Shopper quote the Austrian as saying: “This is one solution (to play Jefferson Lerma at centre-back). (Nathaniel) Clyne is another solution. The third solution you will be surprised by, but that is why sometimes we play (matches) internally.
“In this game, I tried Tyrick Mitchell inside for one half and Ben Chilwell for the second half.
“Lerma played in the back three so we used it to get information on what could work and how they can fit together. We got some responses, and all the responses you will see tomorrow.”
Mitchell, who Tottenham could sign, has never played in the centre of defence, whereas Chilwell is recorded to have made one appearance as a centre-back, which came for Leicester in a Carabao Cup clash against Aston Villa back in 2020.
Tyrick Mitchell may need to excel at centre-back in order to keep starting
As you may have heard at the time, Crystal Palace bid for El Hadji Malick Diouf during the winter transfer window, after the Senegal international impressed scouts in his left wing-back role.
“They are TEARING Manchester United apart” 😰
Tyrick Mitchell makes it 3-0 to Crystal Palace 🔥 pic.twitter.com/VyeZA29IaD
— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) May 6, 2024
However, the Slavia Prague No.12 opted to wait until the summer to make a decision, so Chilwell was signed on loan from Chelsea as temporary cover, although that saga strongly suggested Crystal Palace are keen to find a more attack-minded defender to play on the left ahead of Mitchell.
Therefore, the Crystal Palace No.3 could do with an impressive performance at centre-back if Glasner does deploy him there against Southampton, with his left wing-back spot at risk of being taken next season.
