It’s been a stop and go start to life at Crystal Palace for Sage. Domestically, an impressive 3-1 Premier League win over Nottingham Forest was quickly forgotten by a 5-0 defeat to Brighton.
It’s been a similar story in the Europa League with one win, one draw, and one defeat from their opening three games in the competition.
Palace went 2-1 up against Besiktas in Turkey after Jean-Philippe Mateta’s 55th minute goal but were unable to head back to South London with all three points, even after the Turkish side were reduced to ten men.
Speaking after the game, Sage insisted that his side deserved more and is hoping to carry the momentum into their game against Newcastle over the weekend.
"(I am happy) with the performance now, with the result we deserve better," he said.
"We have to remember the situation before the game, the performance was worse on Sunday, we made a good step and now to go forward and win against Newcastle on Sunday.
On Jean-Philippe Mateta's goal: "I am really happy for him. It’s a good moment for him, just before coming out, he was not really ready to play, you could then see he was tired but when you have this mindset and give your life on the pitch it is good for you.
"We have a lot of satisfaction in individual performances and I have to underline the team performance, too.
"At the end, we made a good game without the result we deserved."