Vieira reveals approach to Liverpool and praises Benteke’s performances

First-team

1 Aug 2021

Patrick Vieira was keen to emphasise Christian Benteke’s role in Crystal Palace’s 3-0 win over Tottenham Hotspur, praising the striker’s work rate and the wider team performance.

It might be easy for the manager to have simply focused on Odsonne Edouard’s brace-earning debut, but instead he returned to Benteke’s significance in the victory after the striker spent 80 minutes pressing and pressuring the Spurs backline.

“It was a really good start for [Edouard]. Coming on and scoring two goals is really good for confidence. There’s nothing better than scoring two on your debut. But it’s a process, a team, and I’m really happy with forwards we have. I don’t want to take away the hard work from Christian in the first 80 minutes.

“I believe both players can play together and they both love the No.9 position. Edourd can play as a winger and between the lines, this is what he used to do and did it a couple of times when younger in France.

“I was really happy with the way Christian performed during the 80 minutes. There’s still time to make a decision [about who plays v Liverpool] and I will make the final one tomorrow [Saturday] morning.”

Palace face another challenge this weekend when they travel to Anfield to face Liverpool, the fifth consecutive top-three side they’ve faced.

Vieira was asked about the fear travelling to a stadium like that can cause, and how the squad feels before doing so.

He replied: “Going to Anfield is going to be really challenging but there is no fear, there is excitement of playing one of the best sides in Europe. It’s going to be challenging, difficult, but we’re really looking forward to game because we want to challenge ourselves against those teams.

“I think you are talking about one of the greatest teams in Europe, not just in the Premier League. If you look at their record in the last couple of years it’s up there with the best. We know their strength, what their front players are capable of doing. We know them well. We can’t be surprised by the way they’re performing week in, week out.

“We just have to go on the field with perform and give them problems, because there are also sides we can exploit. To exploit it we must be brave, and go there thinking we can get something from the game. If we go there thinking about defending for 90 minutes, they will score goals because they have the ability to do that.

“We need 100% belief and confidence. If not, there is not point going there, because we know it will be tough and challenging but these are the kind of games you want to be involved in.”

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Finally, the Palace manager offered further insight into the mood at the training ground, revealing how the Spurs win has affected the team:

“The positive side about that game is we were better than the game before. There’s still a need to improve but I always say with the squad we have we can perform in the Premier League. I think we have a team that allows us to compete in every single game.

“It’s always good to win games because that will give you more confidence and belief about what we try to do and the game we want to play… we had a good game, yes, but can we repeat this kind of performance? This is our challenge.”

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First-team

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