Wilfried Zaha Crystal Palace
Patrick Vieira insists there is “no reason” that Crystal Palace should change their penalty taker after Wilfried Zaha missed his spot-kick against Norwich on Wednesday night.
Patrick Viera said: “I think people always remember the last penalty. But when you look at his record on penalties been really good. So there’s no reason why we should change.”
Vieira said earlier this week he wanted to see more consistency from Zaha in a Palace shirt, and after scoring his sixth goal of the season against Norwich his manager says he needs to back that performance up with more showings like it. Zaha had his best Premier League goal return last season with 11 strikes in Roy Hodgson’s final season at the club, where he was often deployed as a central striker. Under Vieira, he has largely remained out wide, but still has 15 games with which to potentially match and surpass last year’s tally.
Patrick Viera said: “That was obviously a fantastic goal, a wonderful goal. This is Wilfried Zaha at his best, this is what we need. This is what we want from him. We know that he’s capable of delivering for the team and we want him to do it more often. He has the personality and the ability to do it. And now we want him to do it more often with the support of the players around him.”
Vieira added that he thought the current Crystal Palace squad was helping to alleviate some of the attacking burden on Zaha’s shoulders, which in previous seasons has seemed to weigh him down at times. The goals are currently spread evenly across the team, with Odsonne Edouard and Zaha both on six for the season while midfielder Conor Gallagher leads the way with seven. Michael Olise and Christian Benteke then have four apiece, while centre-back Marc Guehi has chipped in with three goals.
Patrick Viera added: “I think what we what is good for him is to have players around [Zaha] who take responsibility. And that’s taking enough some of the pressure off his shoulders. We have players who can score goals and we have players who can deliver. The positives are that we having a team performance, and of course that allows him to express himself and that’s good for him. And that’s good for the team.”
