Zaha discusses new approach to penalties and goalscoring
When Conor Gallagher earned Crystal Palace’s penalty against Tottenham Hotspur, Wilfried Zaha had no doubt about who would take it.
Stepping up from 12 yards, the Ivorian struck home coolly to secure the Eagles’ first in a 3-0 victory.
“I just told myself that I feel like I hold myself back a lot,” he said. “It’s not even I tell myself I can’t do stuff, I just don’t do it. One day I just thought: ‘Why am I not taking penalties?’ You’ll be seeing me take corners, free-kicks soon enough! Why am I limiting myself? So today I see a penalty came and, yeah, it’s me taking it… As long as I keep scoring them you’ll see more of me, don’t worry.
“I know, everyone in the team knows, what I do for the team. But at the end of the day I just want to get my name on the scoresheet; I feel like that’s what really matters… because goals win games.”
Zaha also shared his view on the wider team’s performance, saying the way they have been set up to play gave him confidence the south Londoners would win:
“Obviously we’ve worked hard and I’m just glad everyone can see what we’ve been working on from today’s display.
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“The way we’re playing, we’re bound to get a chance. I feel like it’s not just counter-attacks and hoofing the ball around, when it’s properly planned the way we’re playing the goals are going to come eventually.”
When Zaha found the net with his penalty, he bagged the club’s 500th Premier League goal; scoring 48 of them himself.
“I’m always happy scoring goals for the club so hearing it’s the 500th for the club is massive,” he said. “I’m glad my goal today could help towards a comfortable 3-0 win.
“It just shows we’re not just a counter-attacking team, we can actually play out the back and play through teams. Obviously today we showed we’re definitely improving.”