Michael Olise needs to keep developing to nail down starting spot at Crystal Palace

Crystal Palace manager Patrick Vieira has praised Michael Olise’s impact – but added that the 19-year-old knows he needs to keep developing for a place in the starting 11.

Olise has made an impression from the bench in the club’s last two fixtures.

The attacker, who won the EFL Young Player of the Season last year at Reading, came on in the 53rd minute against Leicester City to score his first Premier League goal, becoming the first teenager to score for the Eagles in the top-flight since Clinton Morrison in May 1998. He set up Odsonne Edouard to give Palace the lead at Arsenal on Monday.

Asked how he has kept Olise ready to change games from the bench, when he may be eager to start straight from kick-off, Vieira said: “Michael is still a young player who needs training and is learning the game and quality of the Premier League.

“He has been doing it really well because of the way he came from the bench and brought energy and quality to the team.

“He is working hard. He knows that he needs to keep developing himself to be a first team Premier League player. He is a really exciting young player.”

With Olise settling into the top-flight, Wilfried Zaha assuming the role of team leader and talisman, and Eberechi Eze returning to training following his serious Achilles injury, there is plenty of attacking talent for Vieira to choose from as the season progresses.

“The individual talent is really exciting, but we are playing a game where the collective will always make you win and go far,” said Vieira. “It’s important for those players (Zaha, Olise and Eze) to understand that the team play is more important than the individual talent.

“But it is my responsibility as well to make them play well together – to make them understand that the number one priority is the team. If we manage to do that well, those players will express their quality through the collective.

“It’s really exciting, of course, for the manager to have different talents – different quality upfront. But obviously, it’s to find the team balance, because at the end of the day, what is important is to win games, and we will do it if we play well as a team.”

PICTURE: KEITH GILLARD