Michael Olise's former teammate explains why he did not celebrate after scoring brilliant late free-kick against Manchester United 

Crystal Palace star Michael Olise confused fans by not celebrating against Manchester United.
Crystal Palace star Michael Olise confused fans by not celebrating against Manchester United.

Michael Olise's former Reading teammate Tom McIntyre has tried to give an explanation for the Crystal Palace midfielder's muted goal celebration against Manchester United on 18 January.

The Englishman scored a stoppage-time free-kick to ensure his team drew 1-1 against Manchester United in their Premier League clash at Selhurst Park. However, his celebrations made it feel like it was a consolation goal.

He has no major affiliations with Manchester United for him to not celebrate. McIntyre, who shared the pitch 34 times with Olise as teammates at Reading, told the Athletic about the latter's celebrations (h/t Daily Mail):

"We'd say he's a bit weird sometimes because when he scored goals, he sometimes wouldn't celebrate. We'd be like, 'Mike, you've just scored an important goal and you're just walking back? What's he doing?
"Then he'd play two-touch with the manager (Paunovic) in the gym, he'd win a point in that, and he'd be shouting and celebrating, but on a Saturday, he'd score a goal in front of the home end and just stand there."

McIntyre believes it could be because Olise wants to set himself apart from the crowd and be cool. He added:

" Midway through last season, he unfollowed all of us on Instagram and only followed about 15 people. There was no one from Reading except maybe one or two of his closest mates on there, which we all found pretty amusing."
"I know what it is, he loves the rapper Lil Uzi Vert and there's another few of those rappers he likes. They unfollow everyone on their Instagram and I think he wants to be like them. That's strange to me and some of the lads but to him, that's different and cool."

It was Olise's first-ever goal against the Red Devils in the three games played against them in his career. He has lost two and drawn one against the Premier League giants.


Patrick Vieira wants to see Michael Olise improve further after Manchester United heroics

Patrick Vieira signed Michael Olise from Reading for a fee of £8.37 million in the summer of 2021. Since then, Crystal Palace's #7 has registered six goals and 12 assists in 52 games across competitions.

Vieira wants the 21-year-old to improve on different facets of his game. Speaking after the draw against Manchester United, the former Arsenal midfielder said (h/t Metro):

"He needs to score more goals, he needs to make more assists. I want him more involved in our open play. I want him to be better defensively, to help us out of possession, so there is still a lot of elements he needs to work on, but the quality is there."

Olise's strengths lie in his pace off the blocks and his dribbling abilities. The set-piece specialist, however, can be lax when it comes to the defensive side of things and could do with working on his end product.

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Edited by Sankalp Srivastava
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