‘It’s about trying to maintain the mood’ – Palace boss epitomises calmness and reveals player who sets example

BY ANDREW MCSTEEN

Last week was a significant week for Crystal Palace with nearly the entire starting 11away on senior international duty – including Conor Gallagher, Tyrick Mitchell and Marc Guehi, who all played for England at Wembley.

And anyone who has been watching those players and Patrick Vieira’s team – and even the manager himself – will tell you that there are always smiles on their faces.

But for the Palace boss it is not about invoking a particular spirit into the squad, it is something quite simple.

“It’s always about trying to maintain the mood – not be too low when we don’t win and not be too high when we win,” said Vieira to the South London Press ahead of the derby against his former club Arsenal on Monday in SE25.

“It’s trying to be consistent and that is what we try to do. It’s about being sure about what we want to achieve.

“We went through a really difficult period but we didn’t change the way we want to work, we didn’t change the normal meetings that we are doing in the week. We didn’t do more or less than what we’ve been doing since the beginning of the season.

“I think that gave the players the confidence and the calmness as well to believe.”

That difficult period saw the Eagles win just five of their first 25 Premier League games this season but since their victory over Watford on February 23 they have been unbeaten in their last six.

They are in 12th place, two points off a top-10 spot and 12 points clear of relegation.

The unbeaten run has also seen the side reach a Wembley FA Cup semi-final after defeating Everton 4-0 last time out, with Vieira singling out one particular player’s performance and providing an example of the culture that the former France captain wants to create.

“We trust in the players that we have,” explained Vieira. “Ebs (Eberechi Eze) is a really good example.

“We had Jeff (Schlupp) suspended in the cup and Ebs was waiting for his time. I was really happy with what he’s been doing in training [so] the time came, he played and he had a good game.

“We (coaching team) and I try to create a fair competition, where we want everybody to believe that there is a chance for them to play.”