Dan Cook has urged Patrick Vieira to fix Crystal Palace’s apparent ‘Achilles heel’ while speaking on the HLTCO podcast.
Since the arrival of Vieira at Palace, the club have seemingly been on an upward trajectory in terms of performances, with the Eagles managing to pick up victories against the likes of Manchester City, Arsenal and Manchester United last season.
However, one constant problem appears to have remained, as last season, the Eagles scored just eight times from set pieces – the fourth-lowest total in the league – while also managing to ship 15 goals from dead-ball situations, which was the fifth-highest.
This is why given the extended break now facing Palace, Cook wants to see Vieira address this issue.
He said: “Overall, I think Patrick Vieira, Osian Roberts and the rest of the coaching staff will really relish the opportunity to get into some solid work with the squad and enable them to try and work out the kinks.
Will Palace finish higher than 10th?
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“Because, for the most part across Vieira’s first season as Palace boss, there was an Achilles heel for us in terms of our defending from set pieces. We didn’t really score many from corners, but we conceded plenty, and I think it was a problem, because it was undoing a lot of the good work that we would do in transition with the ball in open play.”
TIF Thoughts on Palace’s dead-ball ability…
It will be a huge cause for concern that Palace are neither good at scoring nor defending set pieces, as they are such a crucial tool to be able to use during games, as showcased by the Premier League champions Man City, who scored the most set-piece goals last campaign.
Palace are one of a few teams that are currently in the midst of a rather unexpected lull when it comes to football, as along with their game being called off last weekend, their match against Brighton & Hove Albion this weekend had already been postponed.
This means that Palace won’t play again until 1st October which, while not ideal for fans, could offer Vieira a chance to get his players that aren’t called up for international duty to work on the basics when it comes to attacking the ball from set pieces in both boxes.