Sage: Palace players and hierarchy still support me

· Sky-PL

Pierre Sage insisted he believes his players and staff are still behind him despite a limp 2-0 home defeat to Newcastle extending Crystal Palace's winless run to four games.

Pierre Sage insisted he believes his players and staff are still behind him despite a limp 2-0 home defeat to Newcastle extending Crystal Palace's winless run to four games.

The Eagles were soundly beaten at Selhurst Park on Sunday as they failed to bounce back from last weekend's 5-0 hammering at Brighton, with an 11-minute double from the Magpies shortly after half-time sealing their fate.

The timing of the goals - the first coming barely a minute after the restart following Sage's half-time team talk - was particularly concerning with Palace again starting a half slowly. A fifth of Palace's goals conceded have come in the first 10 minutes of games this season, including three in the heavy defeat at the Amex Stadium last weekend.

But when asked whether he thought he retained the belief of his players and the club hierarchy, he said: "Yes. I think they do [believe in me].

> "It's normal [to be under pressure] because we don't have the results. The noise is a consequence of the team and we don't have [the points] we expect.

> "Inside, we just are really focused on the solutions, how to be better and how to create the conditions to compete. I don't have to convince people around the club, I just have to convince the players to do their best and continue their improvement.

> "After that, this kind of decision of what we are speaking about is to the chairman and owners. For me, the noise around the team and club is only noise.

> "I spoke with the chairman this week, but I didn't speak about this subject.

> "We spoke about the game, the condition of the team and how we build our game plan to compete today. We didn't speak about this subject. I share my strategy with him and the technical staff. It's normal."

Sage led Lens to their first ever French Cup last season in his one and only season in charge at the club, as well as a runners-up spot in Ligue 1, but has struggled to adapt as quickly to life in the Premier League with Palace only two points ahead of bottom side Sunderland with eight games gone.

The Frenchman admitted he had expected his start to be better but insisted things would improve given time.

> "I always expected to do better," he said. "Football is an imperfect game, there's a lot of mistakes - players and coaches. It's always a frustration if you don't achieve the perfect thing.

> "In my position, I just have to create the conditions to be close to perfection with the team in concentration, defending well, attacking well.

> "But for the moment, we missed our game in Brighton. But today we missed only 15 minutes, but that's enough for the opponent to win. "

Sage believes Palace will have to be better at keeping the ball to arrest their poor defensive record, which has seen them ship 19 goals in the Premier League so far - the most in the league.

But that may raise further questions about his squad's ability to adapt to his methods, given the club has the third-lowest average possession percentage across the division so far.

He said: "My way, my idea is that the best way to defend is about having the ball, because if you have it you can't concede. But there are other ways to concede fewer goals.

> "I just have to find the solution and I think today, it was not a tactical problem, it was a mental problem because when we came back from the dressing room we let our opponent do too many things.

> "When you don't master the ball, when you don't control the play, you give the initiative to the opponent. When you have it and concede in transition, the problem is different.

> "Today, and from the beginning [of the season], we have a lack of mastering the ball as a team and during the first half we created our chances in the transition, but didn't have possession.

> "In the second half it was different, when they scored the second they played lower and in this situation we didn't have too many situations where we could concede. That's why I think it's the best way."

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