Vieira commends Zaha's 'different side' and explains Olise role

Asked to elaborate on comments made at the Best of Africa evening, in which Zaha presented Vieira with an award, Vieira said: "People have the wrong perception of Wilfried. When you spend time with him he’s not what people think he is. He has a good heart, is caring, he wants to do well and wants the football club to do well. He’s passionate about the game and loves football. I don’t think people have the right perception of him.

"He may not help himself, at the same time, but... when you sit down with him and spend time with him you see a different side of him.

"He’s important not just for my plans but for the football club. He’s a strong figure here and he’s been performing as well... he’s performed for the football club for the last couple of years."

Vieira was then asked to turn his attention to other players, namely those who have been involved particularly successfully in recent matches. The manager has fielded attack-minded players Eberechi Eze and Michael Olise in his last two games, so elaborated on the pair's instructions:

"It’s always the question mark about if those two players, regarding their quality, can do the job out of possession. They’ve been doing it really well and that gives me an option of course because Michael feels really comfortable inside or outside and that’s really good for me as a man. Knowing he can play inside, I still believe his best position today is as a right-winger."

With such talented frontmen on the pitch Vieira does also have to consider his defensive cover, with Cheick Doucouré in central midfield earning plaudits lately.

The manager said: "We still have I believe the right balance with Cheick because we have Tyrick [Mitchell] who can be more defensive and [Joel] Wardy on the other side. We have the right balance and discipline on the field to allow us to compete. Cheick still has a lot more to come from his game. I still want to see more from his position.

"I think you always hope for players, especially new players who come from abroad, to set up really quickly and the organisation we have in our football club allows those players to settle straight away.

"That allows them to perform – we have a really good team around the players to find themselves and concentrate on what we want."

"He may not help himself, at the same time, but... when you sit down with him and spend time with him you see a different side of him.

With such talented frontmen on the pitch Vieira does also have to consider his defensive cover, with Cheick Doucouré in central midfield earning plaudits lately.

"That allows them to perform – we have a really good team around the players to find themselves and concentrate on what we want."

Vieira commends Zaha's 'different side' and explains Olise role

First-team

Vieira commends Zaha's 'different side' and explains Olise role

First-team

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