Crystal Palace manager Patrick Vieira said he wasn’t pleased with how his side played when they were in possession against Manchester United on Sunday. The Eagles fell to a 1-0 defeat at Old Trafford courtesy of a second-half strike from Fred but defended admirably for long periods of the game. When they did manage to break out with the ball there was a lack of clinginess from Palace’s forwards however, with Jordan Ayew missing a golden chance to put them ahead just before Fred broke the deadlock at the other end.
Patrick Viera said: “It wasn’t our best performance. We defended well as a team but in possession, we weren’t brave enough. I strongly believe there was space for us to play better. I thought the game would end as a draw; both teams didn’t create many chances. When we had the opportunity to score through Jordan, we didn’t take it and we got punished straight away. This is the higher level, we need to learn, we need to learn fast. When you look at the number of chances they created, I think a draw would have been a fair result.”
Defeat at Old Trafford means Palace have now lost their last three Premier League games in a row and will hope to put that right when they take on struggling Everton at Selhurst Park on Sunday. Vieira said in his post-match press conference that he expected nothing but a victory from that match, with Palace now needing a result to arrest their recent slide in form.
Patrick Viera added: “I think it’s important to win the next match. We have to analyse the parts of the game that we need to improve. I always say that during the season there will be a period where we go through a difficult period. And this is a period where we will have to stick together and work even harder.”
