While they're struggled so far this season, Richards insists the squad appreciates Glasner's system.
"You face a different opponent every week, facing different players, formations and environments, so it definitely helps when you’re able to play 90 (minutes),” Richards told the Palace website.
“The manager’s initial message to us was that we needed to play more aggressively. We have the players and the quality for it, but it was almost like we were scared of letting ourselves go. Especially after our trip to Marbella, everybody could see that we were flying.
“It’s testament to him: he didn’t change the players, he didn’t change this or that, he just changed our mentality. That went a long way.
“Sometimes last season pre-Glasner, we lost touch with our mentality. We were giving up late goals, and that was a lack of mentality and sometimes giving up our discipline. That is something he very much instilled coming in, as well as giving us that attacking mindset and that front foot mindset.”
Richards added,“It’s fun – nobody likes to defend in a low block for 90-plus minutes,” he explains. “Our role as defenders is to defend, but (also) to give the ball to the players that get paid to score goals.
“We’re able to play aggressively, we’re able to win the ball higher up the pitch. Like against Manchester United, being able to play in JP (Mateta) – they gave me the assist for it, but I played him a three-yard ball and he beat Jonny Evans one-on-one. He padded my stat book! It’s good to get those guys the ball higher up the pitch because then they have less work to do.”