Michael Olise earns praise for impact off the bench in Crystal Palace derby defeat
Crystal Palace boss Patrick Vieira praised Michael Olise’s impact off the bench in the 3-2 loss to West Ham United.
Olise joined Palace in the summer from Championship side Reading for a fee of £8million but has only started twice in the Premier League under the French World Cup winner.
The 20-year-old replaced Luka Milivojevic in the 68th minute and changed Crystal Palace’s evening to spark a comeback.
Olise set up Odsonne Edouard with a pinpoint cross and doubled Palace’s tally with a smart free-kick that evaded everyone and flew past Lukasz Fabianski.
Olise, who has been capped by France at U18 level, has been directly involved in a goal every 63 minutes in the Premier League this season.
“Michael is a top young player with a lot of talent,” said Vieira. “He didn’t do any training with the team in the last 10 days, and he just came on and was straight into the squad.
“It was a gamble for us, as we didn’t know how he was physically.
“I was really pleased with the way he came into the game because he created chances, he created situations, and he scored a goal. He showed in the space of 20 minutes his quality, and that’s really good for the football club.”
When asked if he believed the Eagles could have done any more to stop West Ham’s three first-half goals, Vieira added: “Yeah, it’s the quality of West Ham. We knew that their front line was really dangerous and could score goals by creating something themselves.
“But to concede the first goal and then to concede the second one straight away after is really difficult.
“I was more frustrated by the way we conceded that second goal because we put a lot of emphasis on how important it was for us to be compact – not to give them space to run with the ball because they’re quite strong and physical.
“We came back in the second half with more determination, and we gave a really good answer back. In the end, we were really close to getting the point. Overall, I am really pleased because we gave them a good game.”
PICTURES: KEITH GILLARD
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