Talking Tactics: Vieira must get his Eagles soaring again

Crystal Palace were soaring after victory at Manchester City just five weeks ago — but the Eagles have recently had their wings clipped in back-to-back defeats.

Although it is far from a crisis in South London, Patrick Vieira's men will need to start picking up results again as the congested festive period approaches.

Ahead of this afternoon’s trip to Manchester United — the first of seven games in a hectic 28 days — we take a look at Palace’s drop-off in form and what the Frenchman can do to stop the rot.

A lack of backbone

The spine of Palace’s team has taken a hit due to hamstring injuries sustained by Joachim Andersen and James McArthur. 

Defensive enforcer Andersen, 25, has missed the last two matches and midfield lynchpin McArthur, 34, the past three. 

So it feels like little coincidence that the Eagles have struggled without two of their key men, drawing 3-3 at Burnley before losing 2-1 at home to Aston Villa and 1-0 at Leeds. 

Andersen’s injury is not believed to be serious and Vieira will hope this is the case for both players so he can restore some solidity to the side as soon as possible.

Under heavy fire

Palace have only faced 166 shots this season, the sixth-fewest in the division going into this weekend, but 40 of those came in their previous three matches. 

For context, Vieira’s outfit only allowed 24 efforts on goal in the trio of games preceding that run, which included their clash with City. 

Injury-enforced absences have not helped but the Eagles have sprung a leak and it needs plugging fast — especially with Cristiano Ronaldo and his team-mates lying in wait.

Falling to set-pieces

Half of the goals Palace have conceded this season have come from dead-ball situations — a league-high of 10, which was three more than the division’s next worst sides ahead of Matchday 15. 

And with his team looking more porous than ever, it will have become even more of an area of concern for Vieira. 

Leeds’ stoppage-time winner last Tuesday may have been a penalty but they won it from a corner when Marc Guehi carelessly blocked Liam Cooper’s goal-bound header with his hand. 

The Eagles can ill afford to shoot themselves in the foot like that again.

Patrick left pondering

Vieira was vexed following that defeat at Elland Road, ruing his team’s lack of cutting edge at the sharp end of the pitch. 

He said: "When you don’t put away your chances, you know you can get punished. 

"I don’t want to focus on the penalty. We had a couple of good chances, especially in the second half. 

"We didn’t have the technical ability to play the right ball at the right time in the right space. I thought we were really unlucky."

Eze does it?

Having spent six months on the sidelines after rupturing his Achilles in May, Eberechi Eze returned against Aston Villa on Matchday 13 — much to the delight of the Selhurst Park faithful. 

The 23-year-old attacker lit up the Premier League with some stunning individual performances last term, scoring four goals in his first top-flight campaign. 

Eze also provided six assists at a rate of 0.21 per 90, which was the highest frequency of any Palace player. 

Given Vieira’s aforementioned final-third frustrations, a first start of the season could be on the cards for the midfield creator at Old Trafford and perhaps he will be the spark that gets the Eagles firing.