Luke's Football blog

Crystal Palace have now gone their third game without a shot on target and are now getting dragged into the relegation zone after a poor run of games and still not a win in 2023 yet. How can Vieira change it and break the duck?

Vieira is a good head coach, but he lacks the planning and game management of a proper manager, which shows as his team usually doesn’t have a game plan as he usually plays to not lose, which is what you shouldn’t do, especially in a competitive league like this where anyone can beat anyone.

The game today he didn’t do much wrong as they were set up well defensively, but attacking wise there was no plan as Vieira played Zaha as a lone striker, which doesn’t work as he gets eaten up by the strong center backs. Zaha plays better on the left as he can cut inside there, but he rarely gets to play there as Vieira puts him upfront, which didn’t work against Villa and didn’t work today.

Another thing he got wrong today were the substitutes, as it’s another thing he falters on as he left it too late to bring on Eze and Edouard, which meant they didn’t get as much time to show off what they can do, and when they came on the pitch, Crystal Palace were a different side with Zaha moving to the left and Olise on the right, they were creating more in the final third.

It’s another loss and another shot on target, however, and it’s becoming a recurring pattern that needs fixing as soon as possible, as they are getting dragged into the relegation battle, and if things don’t get better they could face the prospect of relegation, which is not what the Palace fans want in the second year of the Vieira reign.

If Vieira doesn’t change it up on Wednesday against fierce rivals Brighton and they slump to another loss, questions could be asked of the Frenchmen, who still haven’t managed to get a win with Crystal Palace yet this year, and we are in mid-March. If things don’t change, he could be getting sacked soon, which would be a huge risk especially with a lot of games left to play, but something had to change for the south London club.