Watford Roy Hodgson has spoken warmly about Crystal Palace boss Patrick Vieira with the two teams set to meet in the Premier League this weekend.
Roy Hodgson said: “He’s done excellently well, I think I’ve been saying that from the offset. Everyone obviously recognises that it wasn’t easy. It’s not easy to come into a club, which has, you know, had a degree of stability, but of course, needed an injection of new players, and then to get that injection, to get the new players, to have the opportunity really to build on what Ray [Lewington] and I were trying to do there. It sounds easy. It sounds like a comfortable task, but it isn’t. It has to be done. And I think he’s done it exceptionally well. And Crystal Palace, I always thought, during my four years, they were a good team. And I think now they’re possibly even better with the quality of players they’ve bought in. And as a result, they’ve got the success which I think they are due. And Patrick has been a big, big part of that success. And I congratulate him wholeheartedly. I shall look forward to seeing him tomorrow.”
The 74-year-old was then asked about what he expected from the game and went into some detail about how his former club would pose plenty of threat to his current side. In particular, he noted the club’s attacking talents as he spoke of what Watford would need to be wary of.
Roy Hodgson said: “I’m expecting to see a Crystal Palace full of that energy that they’ve shown all season you know, full of the running. Dangerous in attack these days with the wingers in Wilf [Zaha], Jordan [Ayew], [Jean-Philippe] Mateta going through the middle, making lots of runs. They’re going to ask an awful lot of questions of our back four. They’re going to be good at pressurising the ball like so many teams are these days. And what we’ll have to do is to make certain that our shape and our setup is right. And most importantly of all particular, try and make sure our minds are right. You know, it’s a sad, sad moment when you get relegated from any division, let alone the Premier League. One of the things you have to do, unfortunately, is to get your mind straight in some way, so that you can prepare for the match that you know you’ve still got to play, albeit that the result is not going to have any bearing on your fate.”
