patrick vieira manager
Was the win against Manchester City your best day in management?
It was a good day for the football club. I think the team performed quite well at City, but it is all about maintaining those performances and that’s the main focus.
Gallagher is not in England squad but is he still a future name for World Cup?
It’s always good when your name is out there, and his name and other names [Marc Guehi] have been mentioned which is a step forward. It’s important for them to perform well for us and that will allow them to go to the national team. As a football club, as a manager with the staff, we are there to support them every day about the details that they will need to improve their game.
Where does Wilfried Zaha stand with recent Ivory Coast news?
Wilfried still wants and still hopes to go to international. He made it clear to myself, talking to him, about how much he loves playing for the Ivory Coast national team, how proud it will be for him to be the World Cup with Ivory Coast. He still wants to go to the international stage, so I was quite surprised to see all these comments coming out in the last couple of days. What I know is that he still wants to go to international, so we will support and I will support him. It’s up to the manager to make the decision about who he will call.
What do you tell Conor Gallagher before games?
I think it’s just for him to keep doing what he’s been doing since he came with us. I think he’s bringing that energy that is really important to us regarding the way we want to play. He’s getting in the box at the right time, he can finish, he can score goals. So I want him to keep doing what he’s been doing. When you want to be an international player it is about repeating your performance week after week.
Young squad – how do you maintain excitement?
It’s about as a football club, how we keep them grounded. Because they still have the potential, but we know that the potential will not be good enough to perform in the Premier League or to make a career. We have the support that they need to to be a Premier League player and they will have to go through a good period but also a bad period. And when they’re going to go into those difficult periods, we will have to give them the support they need. But I believe that we have the support in the football club to help those young players to keep developing themselves.
How much fun are you having? What do you put your success so far down to?
I don’t call it a success. I’m in a club that has some young players who want to keep developing themselves. I work in a club that I have really good support. The staff around me have the experience and have the enthusiasm to spend time on the field and they love doing what they’re doing. So I’m just at the right place to enjoy what I’m doing.
Eberechi Eze update?
Yes, he is doing well. He played 60 minutes with the Under-23s and is feeling really good. So he is progressing.
Rest of the squad?
Yes, everybody is feeling well and everybody is fit. Nathan [Ferguson] will start next week to take part in some of the exercises with the first team so this is really good news as well.
10 games into the PL season, how have you assessed what you’ve done so far?
I think it is too early to talk about how I’ve been doing so far. I think we will wait half of the season before making this kind of diagnostics about the first couple of games. It’s always good to look at the number of points that we have and we don’t have enough points.
Conor Gallagher and Marc Guehi getting lots of praise, do you have to keep an eye on them to keep their expectations and to keep them level headed?
Yeah, to be honest with those two players that you mentioned, we are not worried at all and I’m not worried at all because they are not just good football professionals, they are good human beings as well. They know that they didn’t achieve what they want to there’s still a long way to go. And even that praise from the England manager will not worry me at all because they’re still working hard. They’re still working well. They still challenging themselves. And this is why I believe that they will make it one day in the national team.
Too early for Eze tomorrow?
Still a bit too early. He just played 60 minutes. I think he needs to play more games, he needs to complete a 90 minutes game before we will take him into consideration.
Similarities between Palace and Wolves growing into the season?
Yeah, but I think they are a couple of years in front of us when you look at the team they have and how strong they are. Tomorrow will be different challenges, but it’s going to be very difficult for us. Of we want to win, we will have to perform well, we have to be really smart, because they have players who are quite really good in the one vs one and strong going forward. This is a team that are well organised, so it will be challenging for us, but we are in a really good period and hopefully, we can perform at the level that I know we can do to win the game.
What type of performance do you think is required?
We’re going to face a team that are well organised so to find space to play in between the lines will be really difficult for us. They are quite really strong physically, we will have to move the ball well, we’ll have to be well organised to defend the counter-attack. That’s why this game will be as difficult as any other game in the league.
Wilfried Zaha said it was a massive achievement to reach 50 Premier League goals, what would be the next target you’d set for him?
I think it is to fulfil his potential. Wilfried is such a good player. He can score goals he’s really good in the one vs one situation I will want him to maximize his potential, I will want him to do even more than what he’s been doing because he’s got the ability to do that. He is an important player for us and we will keep challenging him to perform every week.
Marc Guehi and Conor Gallagher referenced by Gareth Southgate – pleased there is patience with them?
Gareth knows how to deal with those kinds of situations with young players and when you are a young player and an international manager mentions your name it gives you some excitement. Now it is about keeping working and keeping doing what they’ve been doing and keep progressing and if the door is open it’s about taking the chance. It’s up to them about how much they want it and how hard they’re prepared to work to take that opportunity. I think they are in a good place and now they just need to wait for the right time for them to be selected. But before they are selected, they need to perform well for us.
