Crystal Palace boss Patrick Vieira focused on clarity

BY ANDREW MCSTEEN

Crystal Palace are on 13 points, their joint second-highest amount after 10 games in a Premier League season since the competition revamped and rebranded in 1992-1993.

Palace have had 14 seasons in the Premier League since then and they have only had a higher points total in 2015-16 and 2019-20 (15).

But their current campaign haul could have been bettered. They lost leads against Brentford, Manchester City and Liverpool, taking just two points, plus a last-minute goal conceded against Chelsea ended in a 2-1 loss.

Despite this frustration, Patrick Vieira’s side managed to come from behind to beat Wolves at home on Tuesday, an important moment for the team this season, following on from a disappointing 0-0 draw away at Leicester on Saturday.

“Against Leicester we had good periods, we had really difficult periods, but we managed to get a point and this is something positive,” said the 1998 World Cup winner to the South London Press.

“For Wolves, we had a good game. We conceded that first goal and we needed to show character and personality. We got back straightaway in the second half and that really helped us to get back and win the game.

“We are still learning. When you’re looking at our games so far, we’ve been playing well but we’ve been a bit disappointed at times.”

So with that disappointment and limited time in-between games to change anything physically has Vieira looked at the psychological element of helping his squad?

“We try to help them to perform on the day,” said Vieira. “Sometimes, we do everything that we have to do and we had to do [in preparation] and then on the day sometimes our plan doesn’t go the way that we plan it because of the opposition team playing better than we did.

“But on the other side, we manage periods of games much better, so we’re still improving, but we are not there yet.

“Of course, we need to be consistent and this is something that we don’t have at the moment.”

Consistency, along with clarity and efficiency have been the buzz words around the Eagles in recent weeks, hinting at the direction and focus of the team, something which Vieira admits has been discussed at length with his squad.

“It’s just a conversation, words we try to keep, to be consistent and to build a team who want to win games,” he said. “Those elements are important to win football matches. We always say that playing well or trying to play well, it’s not going to be enough.

“To all of them (the players), when you’re looking at the technical ability, it’s there but that kind of quality has to be for the team to win games.

“If we play as a team, they will enjoy themselves and that will allow us to win games but we still have a lot of work to be done on that side as well.”

PICTURE: KEITH GILLARD