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Oliver Glasner says he has trialled Crystal Palace duo in new positions in training

Crystal Palace are on a high under Oliver Glasner.

The Eagles booked their ticket to Wembley foꦕr♈ 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 ꦬever 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 c🎀entre-back options, after Chelsea reꦗcalled 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 o💟f defence.

The quote the 🧸Austrian as saying: “This is one solution (to play Jefferson Lerma at centre-back). (Nathaniel) Clyne is another solution. Th𝓰e 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 infꦬormation on wha⛎t could work and how they can fit together. We got some responses, and all the responses you will see tomorrow.”

Photo by Jacques Feeney/Offside/Offside via Getty Images
Photo by Jacques Feeney/Offside/Offside via Getty Images

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🦩, ౠafter the Senegal international impressed scouts in his left wing-back role.

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 defen🔯der 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 Sou𝔍thampton, with his left wing-backꦗ spot at risk of being taken next season.